Premium Beauty and Personal Care in Italy

PRE-COVID-19 PERFORMANCE

Demand for innovative, high-performing and natural products boosts premium sales in 2019

Beauty and personal care in Italy continued to witness polarised demand, with consumers looking to economy or premium brands to the detriment of medium-priced or standard options. Increased economic uncertainty and lower consumer confidence in 2019 did not curb the performance of premium beauty and personal care, which was sustained by a strong demand for innovative, high-performance and naturally-positioned products.

E-commerce lures consumers with convenience, wide selections and competitive prices

Beauty specialist retailers (with the exception of mass monobrand perfumeries, which sell a portion of mass brands) remained the leading channel for premium beauty and personal care in Italy in 2019. In this fragmented channel, independent multibrand outlets accounted for a high share of retail value sales.

L’Oréal leverages wide portfolio of high-quality brands to gain value share in 2019

L’Oréal Italiana Saipo increased its retail value share slightly to remain the leading player in premium beauty and personal care in 2019. While its leading brand was ranked only seventh in retail value share terms, the company derived sales from a wide portfolio of popular prestige brands like Lancôme, Helena Rubinstein, Yves Saint Laurent and Giorgio Armani, and premium dermocosmetics brands like Vichy and La Roche-Posay.

2020 AND BEYOND

COVID-19 impact

Sales of premium beauty and personal care are expected to decline by 3% in 2020 in 2019 constant value terms in light of the impact of COVID-19.

Affected products within premium beauty and personal care

While most premium beauty and personal care categories are expected to see sales declines over 2020, there are some exceptions. For example, premium baby and child-specific products is predicted to benefit from the reluctance of Italian parents to do without or economise on personal care for their children.

Recovery and opportunities

While premium beauty and personal care’s retail value CAGR at constant 2019 prices is projected to be slower than the review period performance, a gradual return to positive growth is anticipated from 2021. The increasingly difficult economic situation, which is likely to see higher unemployment/underemployment rates and lower purchasing power in the wake of COVID-19, is predicted to see consumers reduce their use of premium products or move to mass beauty and personal care products in the short to medium term.

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