The current state of the travel retail sector and the opportunities it holds for the beauty industry was a focus of one session at the recent Cosmetics Europe Annual Conference industry knowledge-sharing event in Brussels.
The speakers were:
- Julie Lassaigne, Deputy Secretary General, European Travel Retail Association
- Isabelle Martin, Vice President Government Affairs, The Estée Lauder Companies
Session highlights
The aim of the travel retail session was to update attendees on commercial developments and innovations in the travel retail channel.
The key points from the session were:
• The value of the global travel retail market was 68 billion dollars in 2017;
• Cosmetics represent the biggest proportion of sales;
• Global sales are projected to rise to 120 billion by 2025, driven by Asia Pacific;
• Travel retail outlets are developing online sales as part of the travel experience;
• Some regulatory challenges remain – there are increasing demands for product information at regional and national level, but it is impossible to e.g. meet all language requirements for labelling in a travel retail environment;
• ETRC is developing a pilot project which aims to allow consumers to check product information in their own language via a digital platform.
• We need to closely follow the developments in this area, particularly in the Asia Pacific region
• We need to share learnings between our digital ingredients list pilot and the ETRC pilot
• In general, we need to work closely with ERTC to monitor developments
Travel retail case study: L’Oréál
L’Oréal’s Travel retail division, dubbed by the company as its ‘sixth continent’, is continuing to strengthen its offering with the launch this summer of its first campaign for L’Oréal Paris.
It’s one company keen to maximise on the potential of travel retail, and it believes that Chinese consumers and millennials are the particular consumer groups worth targeting in the coming period.
“While Travel Retail is already making a serious contribution to the Group’s development, the market still has lots of upside through Chinese clients and millennials,” explains the company.
L’Oréal notes that the number of Chinese consumers is set to double by 2023 to around 180 million globally.