The Italian cosmetics market is the fourth largest in Europe, behind France, Germany and the UK. According to Cosmetica Italia, domestic consumption grew by +0.5% in 2016, reaching 9.9 billion euros (compared to 9.85 in 2015). Contrasting with this relative weak domestic demand, exports increased by more than 12.3% to reach 4.27 billion euros in 2016.

The Italian domestic market grew by 0.5% in 2016. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Italian exports of cosmetics are mainly directed to the European Union (Germany, France, and the United Kingdom at the top) and to the United States.

Top 10 destinations of Italian cosmetics exports. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Looking at the various retail channels, sales in beauty salons grew by 2.1% in 2016, reaching 230 million euros, while hairdressing salons grew by 1% to reach 563 million euros.

Perfume shops (which account for 20.4% of cosmetics sales in Italy) have shown signs of slight recovery (+9.0%) and the value of this channel now amounts to 2,018 million euros. Meanwhile, pharmacies appear to have reached a stalemate: cosmetics sales fell by -1%. For their part, cosmetics sales in the mass market channel, which accounts for 40% of cosmetics sales in Italy, fell by 1.1% in 2016.

Finally, data from Cosmetica Italia show that the dynamism of make-up sales with lip-glosses and lip glosses growing by +8.5%, and sales of foundations and tinted creams grew by + 5%. On the other hand, sales of body care products decreased by 2% compared to 2015 reaching 1,383 million euros and 16% of the total cosmetics market.