Internationalization is more than ever the growth impulse for the hairdressing and professional beauty industry.
A survey conducted last October in Spain by ANEPE (Asociación Nacional de Empresas del Sector Profesional de Peluquería y Estética) shows that 76% of the Spanish companies in the industrial sector of hairdressing and professional aesthetics will close the year of 2019 with a significant increase in turnover thanks to increase in export. It is not the first year that export markets reveal themselves to be fundamental for the Cosmetic industry, especially in the professional cluster. Furthermore, this trend seems to be shared with all the main cosmetic manufacturing countries of the world.
The ANEPE report says: “The maturity of the national market, coupled with the current economic situation, where slowdowns are increasingly common, have induced companies to make more efforts on the international scenes and they can now reap the benefits of their investments. So important that for some ANAPE associates the export revenues already account for 50% of their total turnover”.
Spain is already among the top ten countries that export cosmetics, a position reached thanks to the speed of innovation and the ability to adapt quickly to the needs of the consumer.
The digitalization of the professional sector
Another significant conclusion of this survey reveals that 68% of respondents confirmed that they have started the process of digitalization of the company in order to adapt to the new demands of consumers and increase their presence on the Internet. The exposure on the great showcase of the international web has been able to publicize the latest trends and generate interesting professional contacts. Not surprisingly, 50% of respondents said that they have included in their digital strategy professional social networks such as LinkedIn, the social network specialised in business connections.
Logistics and R&D
On the other hand, the survey also shows that 35% of industrial companies in the professional hairdressing and beauty sector declared that they have started the transformation of their distribution and logistics model, in order to optimize processes and be more flexible to meet the requirement of international trade.
Another number of great relevance is that the cosmetic industry in Spain invests almost 3% of its turnover directly in R&D&I, which corresponds to about 208.62 million euros per year.
Good prospects for 2020
The study carried out by ANEPE concludes with an optimistic forecast for 2020. Consequently, 65% of the professionals surveyed budgeted growth prospects for the next year thanks to the increase in exports and the stabilization of the national market.
In this area, it should be noted that Portugal, Germany, France, the United States and the United Kingdom are the main destinations for Spanish perfume and cosmetics exports. Therefore, these are the markets to consider for any Brand planning to take the “leap” abroad, toward the conquest of new distribution opportunities.
