According to the Federation, despite a market share of 14.5%, perfumes and cosmetics sold through selective distribution channels did not recover like other manufactured goods, following the -9.8% collapse in 2013.
In fact, it was department stores selling prestige perfumes that showed the best performance with +2.6% for meeting the expectations of customers willing to pay for the 'buying experience', in Paris in particular.
The FFPS reports they managed to curb the decrease of their turnovers by -0.1% by the end of the year.
Top brands
According to market analyst The NPD Group,the top 5 brands battling it out in luxury category include; Lancôme’s La Vie est Belle, followed by J'Adore Dior, La Petite Robe Noire, Coco Mademoiselle, and Chanel N°5.
Women's fragrance is the only category driven by innovation this year with a more focused brand strategy on new initiatives for major lines that had been declining - such as Black Opium by YSL, Little Black Dress Couture Guerlain and Kenzo Love Game that the emergence of new concepts,” Mathilde Lion, beauty expert with NPD Group reports.
Make-up helping French prestige market stand its' ground
While not posting figures quite as impressive, the make-up category still maintained its sales level in 2014, with foundation and concealer sales helping the face make-up category return to growth.
Other smaller segments that seemed to connect with consumers were eyebrows products, facial brushes, lip gloss and multi-purpose cosmetics..
It was also a year of two halves it seems, as the first half’s 1.5% decline was then given a boost from August onwards with an, albeit small, 0.1% increase, thanks to performance in fragrance and make-up.
As the French market is very mature, strong growth is not expected going forward; although with new launches planned at the start of 2015, NPD expects the sales will continue as they did in the second half of 2014.
Are you up to date with colour cosmetics developments?
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