Key issues covered in this Report

  • The impact of COVID-19 on the beauty and personal care retailing sector.

  • The winners and losers in the sector since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

  • The growth of the online BPC channel and the boost given to it by the COVID-19 outbreak.

  • How people shop for beauty and personal care items and which retailers they use.

  • What innovations consumers would like to see in in-store and online BPC stores.

Areas covered in this Report

This report examines the beauty and personal care retailing market across Europe.

The data in its entirety is contained in the pan-European report, which gives a full overview of beauty and personal care retailing in France, Italy, Spain and the UK. The Executive Summary – Europe – The Market section also includes market data for the rest of Europe’s leading economies and the leading retailers table is pan-European.

Single country reports are available for the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

The report combines analysis of the market, 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 the five major economies. 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.

The consumer research focuses on beauty and personal care purchases, including beauty accessories and electrical appliances.

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

Consumer spending: the total amount spent by 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 of beauty and personal care products.

Consumer research

Our coverage of the five major markets includes proprietary Mintel consumer research. We ask what beauty and personal care products were bought, where they were bought and about some attitudes to innovations around buying such goods.

The results of our consumer surveys can be found in the relevant sections of the individual country reports as well as in Executive Summary – Europe – The Consumer and in the Databook.

The UK and Germany report also include further consumer research.

Technical notes

Our Executive Summary – Europe - The Market section includes data on consumer spending on personal care goods and services in total.

Consumer spending data is quoted including VAT. Data is sourced from national statistics offices and Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistics office.

COICOP code Market Market includes
12.1 Personal care All non-healthcare personal care goods and services
Includes:
12.1.1 Hairdressing salons and personal grooming establishments Services of hairdressing salons, barbers, beauty shops, manicures, pedicures, Turkish baths, saunas, solariums, non-medical massages, etc.
12.1.2 Electrical appliances for personal care Electric razors and hair trimmers, hairdryers, curling tongs, sunlamps, vibrators, electric toothbrushes, etc.
12.1.3 Personal care products (excl. appliances) Non-electric appliances: razors, scissors, nail files, combs, shaving brushes, hairbrushes, toothbrushes, personal weighing machines, baby scales, etc.; articles for personal hygiene: soap, cleansing oil and milk, shaving soap, shaving cream, toothpaste, etc.; beauty products: lipstick, nail varnish, make-up, hair styling products, pre-shave and after-shave products, sunbathing products, hair removers, fragrances, deodorants, bath products, etc.; other products: toilet paper, paper towels, sanitary towels, cotton wool, nappies, etc.

Retail sector sizes

Retail sales data is adapted from national statistics data for specialised retailers of “Pharmaceutical, Medical, Cosmetic & Toilet goods”. In the UK, this data excludes NHS income from dispensing prescriptions.

All retail sales data is quoted excluding VAT.

UK: Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland.

Financial definitions

  • Financial definitions used are: Sales: Turnover as reported by the company, excluding VAT

  • Operating profits: the return made on trading. This is the profit after depreciation, but before finance charges, tax, amortisation and any exceptional items, such as property profits or impairment charges

  • Pre-tax profits: Profit after all charges, including exceptional charges but before tax

  • Operating margin: operating profits as a percentage of sales

  • Pre-tax margin: pre-tax profits as a percentage of sales.

Abbreviations

B2B Business-to-Business sales
B2C Business-to-Consumer sales
BPC Beauty and Personal Care
CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate
CPI Consumer Price Index
e Mintel Estimate
f Forecast
GDP Gross Domestic Product
: :
: :

VAT rates

Figure 1: VAT rates around Europe, 2016-21
01-Jan-16 01-Jan-17 01-Jan-18 01-Jan-19 01-Jan-20 01-Jan-21
% % % % % %
France 20 20 20 20 20 20
Germany 19 19 19 19 19 19
Italy 22 22 22 22 22 22
Spain 21 21 21 21 21 21
UK 20 20 20 20 20 20
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