It is reported by L’Oreal that the global beauty industry grew at 8% in 2021 and the market size is expected to exceed $250.2 billion. The U.S. and mainland China markets are the main growth drivers of the cosmetics market in the future, while e-commerce channels will also grow gradually.
Recently, L’Oreal released its 2021 annual report showing that the global beauty industry grew at 8% in 2021 and the market size is expected to exceed $250.2 billion.
According to L’Oréal data, the global cosmetics market growth rate bucked the trend from -8.1% in 2020 to 8.2% in 2021. The market showed a strong recovery in 2021.
The growth trend of the market is also reflected in the performance of the beauty giants.
According to statistics, after divesting the non-cosmetic business, the top 10 cosmetic companies in terms of global revenue were L’Oreal, Unilever, Estee Lauder, P&G, Johnson & Johnson, Shiseido, Natura & CO, LVMH, Beiersdorf, and Kao in fiscal year 2021. The overall volume of top 10 cosmetic companies reached $139.089 billion in revenue.
Estee Lauder, Coty, L’Oreal, LVMH and Shiseido all achieved double-digit growth. Among them, L’Oréal still leads the trend of beauty groups. LVMH has the highest growth rate with its cosmetics division including Dior, Guerlain, Givenchy, Benefit, and Fresh increasing revenue by up to 27% year-on-year. Hainan Duty Free Store in China made a significant contribution to that. Unilever has achieved the fastest underlying sales growth in nine years.
In fiscal 2021, revenues of L’Oréal, Estee Lauder and Beiersdorf exceeded their revenue of pre-pandemic level in 2019. They have a commonality: luxury brands are driving growth.
In 2021, L’Oreal’s Luxe cosmetics division with sales of $14.183 billion overtook the mass cosmetics division for the first time and became the group’s largest division, up more than 20% year-on-year. Strong performance has been shown from its brands such as Lancome, HR, Shu Uemura and others.
Last fiscal year, net sales of Estee Lauder’s Advanced Skincare Division increased 28% year-over-year to $9.534 billion and its operating profit reached $3.067 billion, of which LA MER achieved double-digit growth in global sales.
Last year, La Prairie, Eucerin and Aquaphor were key to Beiersdorf’s growth, with La Prairie sales up more than 20 percent year-over-year.
By region, the data show that northern Asia was the largest market for cosmetics accounting for 35.1 percent. Followed by North America, it accounted for 25.7 percent and Europe accounted for 22.1 percent.
From the perspective of the top three companies in terms of revenue last year, L’Oreal China has achieved strong growth of more than 20% in the past two years. Unilever grew 14.3% in the Chinese market last year far exceeding the 3.7% growth in the U.S. market. Estee Lauder’s earnings report mentioned that sales in the Asia-Pacific region were $1.9 billion from October to December last year with net sales of skincare, fragrance and hair care products increasing by double-digit growth.
It is shown that the Asian market especially the Chinese market has also become a battleground for cosmetic giants. In fact, in addition to foreign beauty groups, local Chinese cosmetics companies are also breaking through. For example, PROYA recently released its first quarter earnings forecast expecting net profit attributable to its parent company of 35% to 45% growth and its revenue is expected to grow 30% to 40% year-on-year. BTN achieved its net profit of $136 million in 2021 with an increase of 58.77% and Shanghai Jahwa is the highest increase in 6 years.
By category, L’Oreal data show that skin care products accounted for 41.8% of the cosmetics market, followed by shampoo and hair care (21.90%), cosmetics category accounted for only 15.70%, perfume and hygiene products accounted for 10.70%, 9.90%, respectively.
Among them, the largest share of the skincare market growth of 7.4% in 2021. 2020 suffered the biggest impact of the epidemic, but skincare market growth is also higher than the overall market growth.
By channel, L’Oreal data said that global online sales of beauty products grew by 16%, with e-commerce accounting for about 24.5% of the beauty market, compared with a 22.8% share in 2019. Among them, L’Oreal mentioned social e-commerce mass, online content creators, games social interactive space, etc. are important for the future development of e-commerce.
In summary, the global cosmetics market is currently showing recovery, skin care products, shampoo and hair care products are the main growth categories of the cosmetics market. The U.S. and mainland China markets are the main growth drivers of the cosmetics market in the future, while e-commerce channels will also grow gradually.
