Online cosmetic sales are up but direct sellers, Avon and Mary Kay are down. No mention of Quixtar who claim to be number one in health and beauty sales online.
Online beauty retail sales in the US got off to a bang this holiday season. US-based comScore Networks tracked non travel-retail spending for the period of November 1 – December 12, 2006, showing that fragrance and cosmetics sites in the US got 15,171 visitors in the period, reflecting a 5% increase on year.
While brick-and-mortar stores such as Sephora (LVMH) and Ulta are leveraging the advantages of online retail, direct-sellers Avon and Mary Kay may need to work on their e-commerce approach. Sephora.com, the second most visited site, saw its traffic rise 66% on year to 2,354, while the number-one slot holder, Avon, saw visits drop 26% to 3,265. Visits to Lancôme-USA.com (L’Oréal) jumped from 303 during the period in 2005 to 1,127 this year. Ulta.com, ranked seventh, saw traffic increase by 147%. Other sites that rounded out comScore’s top-ten—Fragrancenet, iVillage Beauty & Style, Hydroderm, Arbonne and Mac Cosmetics—all saw double-digit increases, except for Mary Kay, whose visits dropped by 15%..
Overall online consumer spending was up 24% to $17.56bn so far this holiday season with ‘Cyber-Monday’ (December 11) registering sales of $661m (+19%).
