They are just next door, but they buy and consume cosmetics differently. Their market and distribution systems follow their own rules, and even a few regulatory points can be specific. For a French brand, selling cosmetic products to our German cousins is not that simple. Business France provided all the keys for it at the Cosmetic Workshop focused on Germany last December 1st, 2017.
Guillaume Lemaire is the Cosmetics Export Advisor of the Business France office based in Düsseldorf. He advises and helps French companies prepare their journey to the German market, which he studies on a daily basis and described very accurately for us.
Germany is a federal State composed of 16 Länder. It counts 82.8 million inhabitants, a figure that rose by 0.6% in 2016, in particular due to a dynamic immigration policy.
Contrary to France, which is centred on its capital, the German federal State is extremely decentralized: ‘This has important impacts,’ Guillaume Lemaire commented, ‘for example on prospecting, because you can have prospects everywhere. In addition, logistics follow a very specific scheme.’
The German market
The population counts about as many men (49%) as women (51%) and is marked by its global aging: 21.2% of Germans are over 65, and according to analysts, they could account for 33% to 40% of the population in 2060. ‘This will have an impact on just about everything, consumption patterns, of course, but also pensions and the whole economic system, which the Germans have already anticipated,’ Guillaume Lemaire emphasized.
Today, Germany is the first economic power in Europe and the fourth richest country in the …
