How Beauty Brands Are Turning Buzz Into Real Commerce

At Beauty Connect LA 2025, Melissa Burdick and Riku Laitasalo from Pacvue, and Calvin Lammers from Nécessaire explored how cultural trends are evolving into measurable sales performance and how the future of discovery commerce depends on context, visibility, and constant content renewal.

The Reality of Live Shopping

When asked about live shopping as a growth driver, the panel agreed it is promising but still demanding. Lammers noted that while engagement is strong, scaling those activations can be difficult. “It is pretty resource intensive,” he said. “We’ve done a few lives and been happy with the overall engagement performance, but we’ve been limited in exposure due to the resources needed to really scale those efforts.”

He added that live shopping only delivers when it connects to broader retail strategy. “It needs to be paired with retail media or promotional activations,” he said. “When you pair that with a technical event, that’s where the results come from.”

For now, live commerce works best as part of a multi-layered approach.

The Context Challenge

Riku Laitasalo highlighted how consumer search behaviour has changed, particularly with AI-powered discovery. “On Google, people type about six keywords,” he said. “On ChatGPT, they’re typing 24 words. They’re asking questions that are contextual.”

That difference, he explained, signals a deeper need for brands to create richer, more nuanced content. “You have to four times the content, not just talk about what the product does, but the use case and the context you need to build out.”

In practice, that means the most successful beauty brands aren’t telling stories that help algorithms understand why the product matters.

The Algorithm’s Appetite for Freshness

Burdick added that algorithms now reward recency and relevance. “On platforms like Amazon, they actually prioritize fresh content,” she said. “They want to make sure you’re not just setting and forgetting your content from five years ago.”

That emphasis on “freshness” creates both opportunity and pressure. Brands must balance scale with creativity, constantly refreshing assets while maintaining consistent messaging.

Laitasalo pointed out that AI tools like ChatGPT are drawing on unexpected sources. “When people go to ChatGPT, it’s pulling from places like Reddit,” he said. “It goes out to the ecosystem to generate responses that feel relevant.”

That means Reddit threads, reviews, and user-generated content are now part of a brand’s search visibility. “If you go to Reddit and search your brand and you’re not there, that’s a problem,” he said. “You’re probably not going to be found.”

Feeding the Right Signals

The insight was clear: algorithms are now the interpreters of cultural value. To influence them, brands must become active participants in their ecosystems.

That reality is forcing marketing teams to think beyond owned channels. Discovery commerce doesn’t stop at TikTok or Instagram; it extends into forums, comment sections, and conversations that signal authenticity to search engines.

For beauty brands, the challenge is to be seen, and to be referenced.

Performance Meets Culture

Throughout the discussion, Burdick and Laitasalo reinforced a shared message: discovery commerce isn’t just about media buying. It’s about understanding the cultural and technical forces that shape demand.

Burdick said that retail platforms are evolving faster than most marketers realize. “Algorithms are changing constantly,” she noted. “You can’t rely on old performance patterns. You have to keep testing and building contextual content that speaks to where the consumer is.”

That continuous motion – testing, learning, refreshing – is what distinguishes reactive campaigns from strategic discovery.

The Future of Discovery Commerce

As beauty brands navigate social-driven commerce, one principle stands out: visibility now depends on participation. To be discovered, brands must keep creating, contextualizing, and refreshing content across multiple touchpoints.

Laitasalo’s closing insight captured the shift perfectly. “You train the algorithm by teaching it who you are,” he said. “If you don’t, someone else will.”

In an age where discovery and commerce blur together, the future belongs to brands that build presence with intention, and treat every piece of content as a signal worth sending.