As one of the fastest growing markets in the world, the global cosmetics industry isn’t slowing down any time soon. With a 5.5 per cent growth rate between 2017 and 2018, it’s set to be valued at over 800 billion dollars by the year 2023.
With stats like that, it comes as no surprise that online retail giant, Amazon, is jumping on board.
Over the past few years, Amazon has been dipping its toes in the beauty industry in a big way. It’s expanded its listings to over 200,000 make up, skincare, and hair products, and is now America’s second-most-shopped retailer for beauty products, only second to Walmart.
Findings by consulting firm Coresight Research found that Maybelline New York, Clinique, and COVERGIRL are the retailer’s top 3 beauty brands listed on the site, and Clairol, Redken, and Goldwell are the top 3 hair care brands, respectively.
Over 90 per cent of these listings are by third-party sellers.
In mid-2017, Amazon removed its approval process for brands to post listings in the beauty category. While this seemed like a risky move at the time, getting rid of the red tape proved to be successful for their bottom line. Brands took up the opportunity to be listed on Amazon, and Forbes reported the retailer saw a 57 per cent increase in the “Luxury Beauty” category in Q2 sales year-on-year.
Off the back of this wildly successful endeavour, the-commerce giant announced the June 2018 launch of Indie Beauty Shop, a marketplace where Amazon buyers can discover up-and-coming skincare and cosmetics brands that are not already sold at mass retailers.
Again, many brands jumped on this opportunity, including those who were previously cautious of listing their products on Amazon. “To be honest, I was afraid that, if I got on Amazon, we were going to get lost in all the brands there,” AveSeena founder Ebru Karpuzoglu, told Beauty Independent. “But, with the Indie Beauty Shop, I think they’re going to show extreme care and help the brands to make the platform perform on Amazon.”
But last week, Amazon made its biggest move in the beauty industry yet. It announced the launch of its very own affordable, no-nonsense skincare brand called Belei.
The aim is to make it easier for consumers to know what to buy based on their specific skin concerns. “We took a simple, no-nonsense approach when creating Belei, developing products with ingredients that are proven to deliver results and also offer customers great value for the quality," said Amazon head of beauty Kara Trousdale.
Looks like Amazon finally dove in headfirst.
Read more about the launch of Belei in Elisabeth King's latest column.
