UK beauty and personal care e-commerce is growing strongly and is expected to reach 2.45 billion euros in 2025!

In the UK, drugstores have always been the first choice for most consumers to buy daily beauty and personal care products. However, due to the impact of the epidemic in the past two years, the sales of physical stores have been hit, and online e-tailers have become an important channel for consumers to purchase such products.

According to a senior researcher at market research firm GlobalData, "E-tailers' market share has surpassed pharmacies and drugstores, ranking second." It has become the second largest beauty and personal care sales channel after hypermarkets and supermarkets.

According to the latest research data from GlobalData, the e-commerce market value of cosmetics and toiletries in the UK soared by 42% in 2020 to 1.98 billion euros, up from 1.4 billion euros in 2019. Currently, e-commerce channels account for about 14% of all-channel sales of cosmetics and toiletries in the UK. E-commerce has become the second largest sales channel for cosmetics and toiletries in the UK. While growing rapidly, it has also created important opportunities for brands and e-tailers.

GlobalData predicts that if the e-commerce market for beauty products continues to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.1% between 2021 and 2025, the beauty e-commerce market will reach 2.45 billion euros by 2025.

According to a previous GlobalData survey, 66% of consumers said that convenience is the main advantage of online shopping, 64% of consumers believe that online shopping can save time, 42% of consumers choose online shopping because of discounted prices, and 41% of consumers shop online to reduce social contact.

Researchers at GlobalData said that now in the UK, brand independent websites or sales on multi-brand platforms are more in line with the needs of local consumers.

For niche or emerging brands, selling on a multi-brand platform is very helpful in expanding brand influence. Consumers like to browse and try new products, and it is easier to find products that suit them on similar platforms; for big brands, maintaining the loyalty of consumer groups is the key to operations, because big brand websites can provide old customers with tailor-made products and advanced personalized services.

In the future, the beauty and cosmetics category will pay attention to the full range of multi-channel product promotion. For example, the cooperation between brands and websites such as Sephora and Zalando will help sellers increase product exposure, sales and brand awareness.

Therefore, relevant sellers and companies can also consider multi-channel promotion when considering the UK market. In addition to the website, they can also use social media, live streaming and other channels to increase product exposure as much as possible, which is conducive to increasing sales.

Although in terms of market value, physical hypermarkets are currently the largest channel for beauty and cosmetics shopping in the UK. However, due to convenience and environmental factors, e-commerce channels still have great development potential and are expected to develop in the future.

U.K.

Beauty