Adore Beauty sets sights on New Zealand; beauty and personal care second most represented category in Euromonitor's Top 100 Megabrands rankings; Whole Foods releases beauty and wellness predictions for 2019; and JD.com reports Q4 revenues of US$19.6 billion.
Adore Beauty sets sights on New Zealand
As we reported last week, one in four Australian women now buy cosmetics and skincare online. Apart from the major pharmacy chains and other bricks-and-mortar retailers, one of the major beneficiaries of the purchasing shift is Adore Beauty. Founded in 1999 by Kate Morris, the website was Australia's first beauty e-commerce site and featured two then under-the-radar brands. Today, Adore Beauty sells more than 200 brands, 13,000 products and boasts a customer base in the hundreds of thousands.
Morris has won a laundry list of awards and accolades and was inducted into the Businesswomen's Hall of Fame in 2015. Sales have surged over the past two years from $16 million in 2016 to $52 million in 2018 and are expected to reach $100 million by year's end.
Adore Beauty has shipped internationally from the beginning and partnered with Borderfree Global Shopping in 2017. With Australian and international brands highly sought-after by overseas direct purchasers, Morris is set to dial up revenues by launching a localised website in New Zealand over the next few months. The launch will be promoted through a marketing campaign to boost brand awareness and the company recently expanded its main warehouse to meet increased demand at home and abroad.
Beauty and personal care second most represented category in Euromonitor's Top 100 Megabrands rankings
Euromonitor International has released its much-anticipated global report – Top 100 Megabrands: How the World's Fast-Moving Brands Remain at the Top. Beauty and personal care is the second most-represented category with a 25 per cent share of the total rankings for 2019.
Japanese giant Shiseido ranked number one in the Asia/Pacific region but hardly rated in Western Europe and North America. While three out of the top five highest-valued brands – L’Oréal Paris, Gillette and Dove – did well in all geographic regions. The top 20 brands in descending order with their overall ranking on the 100-strong-list are:
- L'Oréal Paris (5)
- Nivea (9)
- Colgate (11)
- Gillette (14)
- Avon (21)
- Dove (22)
- Garnier (27)
- Shiseido (34)
- Maybelline (35)
- Natura & Co (36)
- Pantene (38)
- Lancôme (42)
- Mary Kay (47)
- Oral-B (50)
- S.C. Johnson (53)
- Estée Lauder (54)
- Chanel (57)
- Head & Shoulders (63)
- Olay (67)
- Clinique (69)
Whole Foods releases beauty and wellness predictions for 2019
In the US, Amazon and Walmart are trying to grab advertising revenue from Facebook and Google by claiming – rightly – that their huge sales give them insight into what people are actually buying, not just what they are thinking of buying. One of the highlights of Priceline's bi-annual Beauty Prescription LIVE Events are the bestseller and growth category data covering the 5300 cosmetic products stocked by the major pharmacy chain. Many Instagram fads are exposed as flash-in-the-pans and quiet achievers such as dermo-cosmetics, dry shampoos and organic skincare are confirmed as major moneyspinners.
With 490 stores across the US, Canada and the UK, Whole Foods is the world's leading natural and organic foods retailer and has built up a multi-million dollar beauty business. The company released its first top beauty and wellness predictions last week compiled by global buyers and experts who have analysed sales across all beauty and personal care categories. There's a natural and organic bias, of course.
- Super Foods - Green tea, matcha, kale, avocado, blueberries and more have all made the transition from supplements and smoothies to face masks, moisturisers, shampoos and body care.
- Beauty from Within - The category has gone ballistic from Sephora to Aldi as consumers look to ingestibles for healthier hair, skin and nails. The hero is collagen which is now available in powders, gummies, shots and liquid.
- Vegan Cosmetics - Globally, consumers are searching for labels with the Leaping Bunny logo. There's nothing hair shirt about today's vegan makeup as brands like Nude by Nature and Designer Brands deliver highly-pigmented products with staying power to match their mainstream counterparts.
- Sleep Supporters - The right amount of beauty sleep is top-of-mind, thanks to new generation sleep masks and powders.
- Microbiome-Friendly Beauty - A year or two ago, most people hadn't heard of the word microbiome and the need to help "good" bacteria as the key to healthier skin. Brands like L'Oréal-owned La Roche-Posay have propelled prebiotic and probiotic skincare into everyday conversation.
JD.com reports Q4 revenues of US$19.6 billion
China's e-commerce titans have been rolling out international partnerships and services as the rate of domestic growth slows. That's a relative stat in China, though, where the number of consumers who bought goods and products online in the year to June 2018 increased to "only" 569 million – up from 516 million in the same period 12 months earlier.
Cosmetics and skincare are major drawcards on JD.com and the company leapfrogged past analysts' expectations to reach revenues of US$19.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018 – up 22.4 per cent on the same period in 2017. The world's leading company in drone and robot delivery, JD.com is increasing its cred in luxury by recently teaming up with Farfetch, the UK-based online luxury fashion retailer, and welcoming topline skincare brands such as AmorePacific's Sulwhasoo. The company launched an Australian head office in Melbourne in February last year, following similar moves in the US and France.
Snippets from the Wires
- China may be the hotspot for Australian beauty and healthcare brands looking to boost their export revenues, but the UK remains an important springboard to Europe. According to the NPD Group, online sales of prestige beauty products jumped 13 per cent in the 12 months to December to represent 20 per cent of total prestige beauty sales of AUD$3.87 billion. The UK is also the fourth largest market in the world for colour cosmetics, behind the US, Japan and China.
- South Korea's online exports surged 25 per cent in 2018 to US$3.25 billion, reports the Korea Customs Service. Online exports of cosmetics soared 43 per cent and were topped only by fashion which achieved a growth rate of 162 per cent. The two categories accounted for 69 per cent of total Korean online exports last year.
- Many multinationals are working on waterless formulas for haircare and cleansers as part of their overall sustainability programs. But in parts of the world where running water is a luxury, such developments are a necessity for everyday hygiene. P&G is launching a new collection of haircare products called Waterless – two foam and residue-free dry shampoos, two dry cleansers and an alcohol-free hair refresher – to roll out first in South Africa.
