According to Euromonitor International, beauty and personal care market across Europe was negatively impacted by the pandemic, with Eastern and Western Europe seeing declines in 2020 of 8% and 3% respectively. In 2021 the European beauty market is expected to rebound at the rate of 7% in current value terms, with the largest markets such as Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Russia driving the recovery.
Colour cosmetics, fragrances and sun care were the largest categories, experiencing the most negative impact of home seclusion, reduced social occasions and non-essential retail closures due to the pandemic. Even though all European countries universally return to seeing positive growth from 2021, the declines in colour cosmetics and perfumes were so deep that the recovery in value and volume terms is not expected before 2025.
Yet, relatively smaller, but more dynamic Eastern European markets are expected to see faster recovery in these categories, driven by more intensive makeup culture and growing younger consumers base. New generation is adopting a more intense beauty regime at a younger age, heavily influenced by social media and celebrity culture.
Bath and shower, oral care and skin care are among the most resilient categories which supported European beauty and personal care in 2020 and will drive its recovery during the upcoming five years period. Bath and shower, after benefiting from unprecedented growth in hands sanitisers and liquid soap, will be back to moderate growth in the upcoming five years. However, oral care and skin care are projected to become the best performing categories in the five-year prospective, supported by the trends of the premiumisation in oral care and reinforced priorities on health and wellness.
Competitive environment varies across Europe. Western European beauty and personal care markets continue to see the rise in fragmentation, with major companies such as L'Oréal Groupe, Procter & Gamble Co, Unilever Group facing share erosion in 2020 from smaller players. The same global leaders proved to be more stable in Eastern Europe, gaining share in 2020 from more vulnerable to pandemic-related impact smaller brands.
E-commerce penetration in beauty and personal care in Europe for the first time reached double-digit share of 11% in 2020 with skin care, fragrances and hair care being among the most popular categories purchased online. To put this dramatic shift into perspective, only 5% of beauty and personal care products were bought online in Europe in 2015.
Companies which prepared ground for omnichannel presence prior to 2020, took advantage of the pandemic accelerating the shift to e-commerce and will continue to benefit from it in “new normal”.
