“Clinic-only” skincare: Our research into how many brands are selling direct to patients

What our analysis of 50 medical aesthetics skincare brands tell us about who really owns the patient relationship

For years, medical aesthetics professionals have told us the same story: they recommend a professional skincare brand, build trust in it with their patients and then discover that the brand is developing a direct relationship with those same patients.

Recently, yet another high-profile “clinic-only” brand started selling directly to patients. With professionals increasingly expressing their frustration, we decided to stop debating the issue and quantify it. We asked medical aesthetics and skincare professionals to tell us which brands they had personally experienced doing this, narrowed those responses down to 50 “CLINIC-ONLY” BRANDS, (more than 200 brands were nominated!) then verified each one and investigated how patients can access them online.

THE RESULTS

66% OF CLINIC-ONLY BRANDS ARE SELLING DIRECT TO PATIENTS NOW - WITH NO BARRIERS

33 of the 50 brands - 66% - are already selling directly to patients. Not through a clinic, not through a practitioner and not behind a professional account. A patient can find the product online and purchase it for themselves.

This is particularly significant because these are brands that have historically positioned themselves within professional, clinical or medical aesthetics skincare. Their credibility has been built, at least in part, through professional recommendation and practitioner trust. Yet two-thirds of the brands we investigated now provide a route that allows the patient to bypass that professional relationship completely.

This isn't a future possibility. It is already happening.

100% OF "CLINIC-ONLY" BRANDS ARE BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS DIRECTLY WITH PATIENTS ONLINE

The 100% figure needs some explanation. We are not saying that every brand currently allows every patient to buy every product directly online. However, our research found that all 50 brands have some form of consumer-facing online access, while our wider assessment looked at how each brand is using its digital presence to communicate with, educate, engage and build relationships with consumers.

That distinction matters because selling directly doesn't begin at the checkout. A patient can discover a brand online, follow it on social media, read its content, learn about its products, sign up for communications and become familiar with its messaging long before they ever have the option to buy directly. Many brands that eventually develop successful direct sales channels begin by building the audience and relationship first.

The result is that loyalty can increasingly be built around the brand itself, rather than around the clinic or practitioner who originally introduced it.

THEN THERE'S THE DATA

This is where the commercial implications become even more significant. In the professional skincare model, clinics often provide brands with the information needed to service their patients, including contact details and information about the products those patients are purchasing.

That means a brand doesn't necessarily start from zero when it decides to sell directly. It may already have an established customer base, contact information and purchasing history built through the professional channel. The clinic has helped establish the relationship and, in most cases, provided the customer information needed to support it.

Subject to the permissions and legal requirements governing how that information can be used, the brand may then be able to communicate with those customers through its own channels, understand their purchasing behaviour and encourage future engagement and purchases. When the brand also fulfils the order and ships the product directly to the patient's home, another part of the customer relationship moves away from the clinic.

There is nothing inherently wrong with making skincare more convenient for patients. But convenience has a commercial consequence: the more of the customer journey that moves from the clinic to the brand, the more customer knowledge and relationship value sits with the brand.

WHO ACTUALLY OWNS THE RELATIONSHIP?

We've had clients tell us that when they decided to stop stocking certain brands, the response from the brand was essentially: “Don't worry. We can sell directly to your patients.”

That response illustrates the issue perfectly. The clinic introduced the brand, recommended it, built the patient's confidence in it and created the initial demand. In the normal course of servicing that relationship, the brand may also have received the patient's contact information and purchasing history. 

If that brand subsequently develops a direct sales channel, it may already have the foundations of a direct customer relationship in place. The patient knows the brand, has bought its products and may already be receiving communications from it. The clinic that originally introduced the brand can therefore find itself competing with a relationship it helped create.

The value isn't just in the bottle. It is in the patient relationship, the loyalty, the purchasing history and the customer information surrounding it.

WHY ARE "CLINIC-ONLY" BRANDS DOING IT?

The commercial logic is straightforward. A professional channel gives a skincare brand something extremely valuable: credibility, expert recommendation and access to highly relevant customers. The practitioner does much of the work required to turn a product into a trusted brand - educating the patient, recommending the product, answering questions, building confidence and creating the first purchase.

But once that trust and recognition have been established, selling directly to the patient can simply be more profitable. There is no professional margin to share, so the brand can potentially make far more from each transaction. And online, it is no longer limited by clinic footfall, opening hours or the number of clinics selling its products. It can market to and sell to consumers at scale, wherever they are.

The brand can communicate directly, sell directly, fulfil directly and encourage repeat purchases directly. It also has the opportunity to build a much larger consumer audience than it could through the professional channel alone. Put bluntly, if a brand has already been built and trusted through professionals, taking the customer relationship direct makes commercial sense.

And the ownership of these brands matters. Many professional skincare brands are now owned by much larger businesses, where commercial performance, growth and the bottom line are inevitably major considerations. For those businesses, the professional channel may be an excellent way to build credibility and acquire customers - but direct sales can offer greater margin, greater scale and greater control.

That is the uncomfortable part for clinics and skincare professionals: the very relationship you helped create can become the route for the brand to sell around you.

The professional helps build the brand. The brand can then take over the customer relationship - and the value that comes with it.

WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH TELL US?

Our 50-brand sample isn't intended to suggest that every professional skincare brand operates in exactly the same way. They don't, and we are not suggesting that every brand currently selling through professionals will inevitably move entirely to selling direct.

But the numbers are difficult to ignore. 33 of the 50 brands - 66% - are already selling directly to patients, while 100% have some form of consumer-facing online access.

The important point is that this isn't simply about whether a patient can buy a particular product online today. 100% of the brands in our assessment are participating in building an online relationship with consumers, whether through direct purchasing, education, content, communication or other forms of consumer engagement.

So, while we cannot say that every remaining brand will ultimately start selling direct, the direction is clear: 66% are already doing it, and the others are already developing the consumer relationships that can make it possible.

The professional and consumer worlds are no longer separate channels. They are increasingly overlapping.

THE CONCLUSION

This research isn't an argument that professional skincare brands shouldn't sell online, nor is it suggesting that every brand will inevitably abandon the professional channel. Many continue to work extensively with medical aesthetics professionals, and professional recommendation remains extremely valuable.

But the commercial reality is changing. Two-thirds of the brands we investigated are already selling directly to patients, without requiring a clinic, practitioner or professional account. Every brand in our assessment is building some form of relationship with consumers online.

For medical aesthetics professionals, that makes ownership of the patient relationship increasingly important. You provide the expertise, recommendation and trust that turns a product into something a patient believes in. If the resulting customer relationship, loyalty and purchasing history ultimately sit with someone else's brand, you may be creating long-term commercial value that you don't own.

Launching your own brand isn't the only answer, and it won't be right for every clinic. But if your objective is to protect your margins, retain control of your patient relationships and build an asset that grows alongside your business, owning the brand your patients become loyal to puts you in a far stronger commercial position.

The research shows what is happening. The question is what you do about it.

Methodology

This research was based on a survey of more than 500 skincare specialists, primarily from UK-based medical aesthetics clinics. Many were existing 5 Squirrels clients, while others were medical aesthetics and skincare professionals who had personally experienced professional skincare brands selling directly to their patients and had considered launching their own brand.

We asked participants to identify brands they had experienced. We narrowed the responses to the 50 brands mentioned most frequently and then independently investigated each one through its official online presence.

For each brand, we recorded its primary market and head-office country, and assessed its professional heritage, including medical/clinical, dermatology-led, physician-dispensed, aesthetic/practitioner-led, professional and clinic-led heritage. We also assessed its route to market, including direct official website checkout, direct-to-consumer purchasing, clinic-linked ordering, professional purchasing, hybrid models and professional-linked consumer access.

The research therefore provides a snapshot of the brands most frequently identified by professionals, combined with our own assessment of how those brands currently operate online.