What you need to know

Spending on BPC products has declined in France over the last three years, and many retailers have struggled to maintain sales momentum. The market grew by an estimated 0.2% in 2019 to €21.4 billion (including VAT). This was only €350 million larger than in 2014.

Sephora is the clear market leader and is more than twice the size of its nearest rival. The next two largest players in terms of sales are Nocibé and Marionnaud, but botanics brand Yves Rocher has the largest store network. Many retailers have been investing in high tech innovations for their stores as well as improving their multichannel proposition, leveraging the growing range of digital solutions that are now available to the industry.

The competition from online is becoming more significant as pureplayers increase their beauty offer - Amazon, Cdiscount, Zalando and ASOS all now have beauty departments on their websites. E-commerce is also allowing cosmetic brands to market their products directly. There is also growing competition from low-cost chains, such as Kiko and Adopt, but the threat from the grocers is reducing a little as the hypermarket format continues to struggle.

Areas covered in this report

This report examines the beauty and personal care retailing market in France. The report combines analysis of the market in France, including market sizes and forecasts for consumer spending on beauty and personal care and beauty retailers’ sales, along with our in-depth consumer data which analyses shoppers’ behaviours in France. It covers:

  • Beauty – including makeup and colour cosmetics, nail care, fragrances and skincare

  • Personal care – including haircare, body care, hair removal and everyday toiletries such as oral hygiene, bathing and deodorants

  • BPC accessories and electricals – including hair and make-up brushes, hair styling tools, beauty and dental tools.

For our consumer research this year we asked questions about the following topics:

  • Beauty and personal care products purchased in the last year

  • Participation in online and in-store shopping for beauty and personal care products in the last year

  • Which retailers have been used for beauty and personal care shopping in the last year

  • Agreement with a range of statements relating to shopping for beauty and personal care products.

For the purpose of this report, Mintel has used the following definitions:

Consumer spending: The total amount spent by French households (including VAT) on beauty and personal care goods and services.

Retail sales: Total sales of all types of goods and services (excluding VAT) via stores and directly to the consumer in beauty retailers, drugstores and perfumeries. It excludes sales of pharmaceuticals and sales of beauty goods through other types of retailer. It includes online sales of these retailers where the majority of sales are in bricks and mortar outlets.

Beauty specialists, drugstores and perfumeries: this includes chains and independents for which the largest part of sales are in beauty and personal care products.

The Channels of Distribution section provides Mintel estimates of the proportions of spending on beauty and personal care items via other channels, including the grocers, mixed goods retailers and non-store retailers.

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