Italian cosmetics continues its growth trend in 2019

The Italian cosmetics sector is continuing to perform strongly in 2019. According to the economic survey conducted by the Cosmetica Italia Research Centre, the sector is expected to record an aggregate turnover of almost €11.7 billion in the current year, up 2.8% on 2018.

Exports make a major contribution to production growth and are expected to reach almost €5 billion by the end of 2019 (+4.5%).

Amongst distribution channels, the large-scale retail sector is anticipating growth of +1.5% (41% of the national cosmetics market) to a value of around €4.2 billion.

E-commerce continues to grow in step with the digital transformation of the sector and in 2019 is again projected to outperform other channels (+22%), particularly direct sales (door-to-door and mail order) which will see a 2% decline.

The forecast end-of-year growth in subcontracting (+5%) reflects an anticipated growth trend across the entire sector.

Cosmetics companies are making investments aimed at satisfying today’s key trends, such as the concept of clean and eco-friendly beauty, simplified beauty routines and the evolution of stores in keeping with the experiential retail concept.