UK and France lead the way
Now retailers are fully in the Christmas sales season, leading market research company The NPD Group reports that consumers are spending more on prestige beauty in 2010 in the United Kingdom and in France while Spain and Italy are lagging behind.
The UK prestige beauty market (+8,8% in value) [1] is performing better in January-September 2010 than France, which has the next highest growth rate at 3.6%, and Spain [2], which is still facing decline, and Italy. All categories are growing but the British prestige market continues to be boosted by skincare (+12.4%), which accounts for 32% of the market. Fragrance remains the largest sector of the UK market with a 37% share.
In France, all categories are growing but the prestige beauty market continues to be boosted by fragrances (+3,1%), accounting for more than 60% of the market in value. Make-up (+7,3%) showed the strongest growth at the end of September, whereas skincare (+2,2%) is growing albeit slowly as it struggles to recover from a particularly tough year in 2009.
Most anticipated time
December is once again eagerly anticipated as it represents 20% of the prestige beauty market revenue in France and 28% in the United Kingdom.
This figure is even higher for fragrances: more than 25% of 2009 revenue was achieved in December. Christmas is also the most important time of the year for sales of fragrance gift sets that accounted for 23% of the fragrances’ revenue in December last year in France and for 32% in the United Kingdom. There is a particular emphasis on sales of gift sets this Christmas in France as sales were disappointing not only this time last year, but also during traditionally strong sales periods of Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day this year.
Fragrance best sellers in 2010
During the first six months of the year the top sellers for women in France were the trusted classic fragrances ranges including Chanel No.5, Dior and Kenzo, whilst the top selling men’s lines included more recent products from Paco Rabanne and Hermès.
In the UK, the first semester top sellers for women were a mix of classis and new fragrances, whilst the top selling men’s lines included leaned more heavily towards recently launched products.
