According to a study by The NPD Group, the prestige beauty market has been heavily affected by the closure of stores in France. Few categories are resisting. Only hand soaps and high-end hair products are the exception.
The closure of non-essential stores throughout France is having a serious impact on sales of high-end beauty products in France, says The NPD Group, a specialist in market research and analysis. These have fallen by 93% in the first week of total containment (beginning March 16) compared to the same week in 2019.
With the closure of physical stores, however, sales of selective beauty products did not shift to the online channel. Online sales were down 9% compared to the same week in 2019.
In the week beginning March 16, while most product segments suffered losses of more than 90%, sales of high-end hand soaps increased eightfold compared to the same period in 2019. This trend could be observed as soon as the national prevention communication on “barrier gestures” was introduced, with a 15-fold increase in soap sales in the four weeks prior to 22 March, compared to the same period in 2019.
Another exception was high-end hair care, where sales grew by 2% year-to-date as of March 22, 2020, while total sales in the selective beauty market declined by 9% compared to the previous year.
Mathilde Lion, Europe Beauty Expert at The NPD Group explains : “The impact of …
