Strong growth potential
While the French prestige beauty market declined in 2016, partly due to a sharp drop in tourist visits following terror attacks in the country, online sales have steadily increased since 2014.
"The strong growth of online beauty sales alone brought 1 point of growth to the whole sector. In a context of market downturn, this trend is particularly important since it is durable and robust enough to lean against the general tendency observed in 2016," commented Mathilde Lion, European Beauty Expert at The NPD Group.
According to The NPD Group, online sales account for 5% of total prestige beauty sales in France, much lower than other markets, such as sports goods or toys. It is also far from the UK, a much more connected market where online beauty sales represent 11.5% of total sales. This fact suggests there still a huge room for growth in France, even though the country is far ahead of Spain (1.4%) and Italy (1.5%).
Online makeup sales surge
Skincare is the segment that generates the largest share of online sales, before perfumes and makeup. According to The NPD Group, the most purchased product online (in units) is a skincare, while in physical stores the first skincare product only arrives in 25th position. However, when we look at growth rates, makeup products show the strongest momentum with sales growing by more than 30% in 2016.
The Christmas season is the biggest driving force for online prestige beauty sales since 43% of the turnover of the internet channel is concentrated in the last quarter of the year while the Christmas season sales just account for a third in physical stores.
The future of selective beauty?
Today, all major prestige beauty retailers run their own online shops. Prestige brands have also launched their own e-shops. According to The NPD Group, e-commerce allows for more aggressive marketing strategies. Far from competing with brick-and-mortar shops, "flash" and other online exclusive offers allow to better capture consumers in an omni-channel strategy.
"Brick-and-mortar retailers remain key points of sale for products such as fragrances or foundations. E-commerce helps maintain and improve the customer’s experience with a new, more comfortable, more flexible and often richer point of sale offering a wider choice and more promotions," concluded Mathilde Lion.
