New opportunities for the sector
As in other areas, the online channel has emerged as the big winner from this health and economic crisis. It now has 50% more shoppers than in 2019 and 6.3 million people in Spain have made an online purchase from at least one personal care category so far this year. The closing of brick-and-mortar shops has contributed to this, and the online share of the personal care sector has reached 10% of the market.
However, the channel structure for this sector has been shaken up. Perfume shops have not regained their pre-pandemic slice of the market. Supermarkets only had three points more share than perfumeries prior to the lockdown while now they outstrip them by 18 points.
Key months are on the horizon for the beauty sector, and especially the luxury category, as 44% of the year's sales revenue is at play. Annual shopping events such as Black Friday and the Christmas season will be of maximum importance: around a quarter of luxury shoppers only buy at this time of year.
At these times the main category, which is perfume, typically secures more than 40% of its sales revenue. Seven out of 10 units are purchased as gifts, and last year, 14% of purchases were made via the online channel. That means it all comes downs to gift-giving and ecommerce playing a very significant role in salvaging the year.
