With the beauty category growing almost +20% in 2017 (source: Generation Research) and being twice the size its nearest rival, wine and spirits, Counter Intelligence Retail (CiR) has surveyed the industry to see how the segment can maintain or increase its strong momentum.

CiR found that beauty has the third highest average spend in travel retail at $144. This may be behind luxury categories such as jewellery and watches and fashion and accessories, but the volume of visitors entering  beauty areas is much greater due to the ‘relative price accessibilit’y of prized brands. The names most looked for were Chanel, Estée Lauder and Mac.

Garry Stasiulevicuis, Founder and President of CiR said: “About 40% of travellers actively visit a duty free or specialist retail store while in the airport, with almost half going on to browse the beauty category. Of those browsing beauty, almost two thirds go on to make a purchase. That is a high conversion rate and reflects the sizeable demand that is being seen for the category.”

STRONGEST DEMAND

According to the CiR Beauty Shopper Review 2018 study, the strongest demand comes from Asian markets with the highest conversion levels and average purchasing from Asia Pacific nationals. These travellers spend significantly more in the category despite their high conversion rate being only slightly above the global average.

The lowest levels of conversion come from Middle Eastern and African nationalities, but their average spend in the beauty category is above average.

“Clearly Asia Pacific and Middle East and African travellers are willing to spend more for beauty products,” said Stasiulevicuis. “If travel retailers can raise the conversion rates for Middle East and African travellers in particular, they will be onto a winner in terms of increasing their beauty revenue.”

KEY FINDINGS

The Beauty Shopper Review 2018 also revealed that female fragrance is the most visited and purchased beauty sub-category, but that the highest conversion rate is for cosmetics.

Well-known brands like Chanel and Estée Lauder drive beauty purchasing, according to the study, while in men’s skincare and fragrance, the two leader brands do not appear anywhere among the top-four favourites in the women’s sub-categories.

It is also apparent that half of beauty buyers tend to purchase their regular brand and that attractive pricing and samples influence non-regular brand purchasing, with almost one in 10 buying a brand for the first time.

Additionally, just under half of beauty buyers are willing to purchase a more expensive item than they would normally buy domestically, indicating the trading-up potential in duty free.

FURTHER INSIGHTS

The study contains further insights and trends about the changing shopping habits within this growing segment along with data on arrivals duty free shopping behaviour, trends in the beauty sub-sectors from male skincare to female fragrance, purchase drivers for beauty based on region and global traveller trends and forecasts.

The Beauty Shopper Review 2018 is based on research conducted online from a nationality representative panel. All respondents have travelled in the last 12 months and the total sample size was 22,741 interviews, of which 8,002 were beauty visitors.