UPDATE (Thursday, December 7, 2023): Circana is now reporting that Cyber Monday's beauty sales results were on par with Black Friday, posting double-digit gains in dollars and units.
Skin care and hair care were the top performers, followed by fragrance and makeup.
UPDATE (Friday, December 1, 2023): According to newly released ICSC data, health and beauty stores experienced a 24% rise in popularity among shoppers during the post-Thanksgiving shopping weekend. Meanwhile, according to data cited by Larissa Jensen of Circana, prestige beauty experienced double-digit percentage increases in units and dollars for Black Friday week.
Jensen noted that hair care, skin care and fragrance experienced double-digit dollar gains the week of Black Friday. Makeup experienced "strong single-digit growth," she added.
Average luxury fragrance prices for the period escalated more than any other category, though skin care sales overall grew "eight points faster than fragrance."
UPDATE (Wednesday, November 29, 2023): The 2023 Thanksgiving holiday shopping event, officially running from Thanksgiving day through Cyber Monday, was a massive hit for beauty. According to the National Retail Federation, 23% of all U.S. shoppers bought personal care or beauty items.
“Over the course of the weekend, consumers were able to find great deals on holiday gifts and other items they wanted,” said Phil Rist, executive VP of strategy of Prosper Insights & Analytics. “This year is the first time personal care and beauty items were among the top five most popular gifts purchased over Thanksgiving weekend, with nearly one-quarter of shoppers purchasing these items.”
PREVIOUSLY: “This holiday season, we anticipate growth for the prestige beauty market, despite the consumer pull back we are seeing in other general merchandise industries. But as consumer spending power is squeezed, they will make choices that reflect what is important to them," Circana's Larissa Jensen recently noted. “This holiday season, we anticipate growth for the prestige beauty market, despite the consumer pull back we are seeing in other general merchandise industries."
However, she added, "as consumer spending power is squeezed, they will make choices that reflect what is important to them."
With Cyber Monday/Week upon us in the U.S. market and results from Black Friday 2023 in, we already have a snapshot of how the beauty sector is faring so far for the holidays.
To begin, health and beauty store visits were up 13.3% year-over-year, dwarfing gains in other categories such as jewelry, which posted 6.7% growth. Many other sectors saw store visit declines.
Elsewhere, Salesforce reported that Black Friday online sales spiked 17% year-over-year.
That said, the holiday shopping season has witnessed extensive discounting. According to GlobalData numbers cited by CNBC, "discounts were on average as high as 24.1% for apparel, homewares, electronics, toys and games, sporting goods and beauty, compared to 16.7% off in 2019 and 12.9% off in 2021."
