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The Coresight Research team attended Cosmoprof North America 2018 in Las Vegas this week. Cosmoprof is the leading B2B beauty trade show in North America and also offers a three-day education program where industry experts share insights and information on key beauty industry trends. Our team attended sessions led by industry experts and met brand owners to discover the newest trends and products. Here are our top takeaways from day two of the show
1. Cosmoprof created a live subscription box experience called “Boutique.” For a $10 donation to Look Good Feel Better, an organization that serves women undergoing cancer treatment, participants could choose up to seven deluxe beauty products to fill a Boutique box. The beauty items available included masks, serums, nail polishes, tinted lip balms, sleep powders, cuticle oils and facial cleansers. The selections were rotated daily, so event participants would be motivated to “subscribe” and purchase more than one box over the course of the trade show.
The Cosmoprof Boutique, benefiting the Look Good Feel Better program Source: Coresight Research
2. Amazon continued to be a focus of discussion on day two of Cosmoprof. Some brand executives were comparing Amazon with e-commerce giant Alibaba, suggesting that Alibaba is offering more brand protection against counterfeiting on its platforms than Amazon does. E-commerce was a hot topic of discussion throughout the show, both informally and in scheduled sessions, and a number of executives we spoke with said that they think Alibaba is doing more to fight counterfeiting than Amazon is. There was also a general sentiment among brands and retailers that selling on cross-border platforms, including Alibaba’s, and expanding into global markets is a top priority. 3. Approximately $22 billion is spent on pop-up retail experiences globally each year, according to market research firm PSFK. Of that total, the US contributes $7.7 billion, Europe $7.8 billion and Asia $6.7. At a panel session entitled “The Rise of Pop-Ups (Pop-Up Push),” Coresight Research CEO and Founder Deborah Weinswig highlighted that brands and retailers across the globe are finding ways to use pop-ups to engage with consumers. She noted, for example, that BingoBox operates 200 unstaffed convenience stores in China, and aims to operate 5,000 outlets by 2019. Shoppers scan their phone to access the stores, then scan again to pay using WeChat Pay or Alipay.
Coresight Research CEO and Founder Deborah Weinswig presenting during the “Rise of Pop-Ups (Pop-Up Push)” panel sponsored by Women’s Wear Daily Source: Coresight Research
4. Gen Z beauty consumers want to shop in a free-form, open environment, without the help of a beauty advisor. The Glossary is a beauty store format that operates inside Barnes & Noble stores on college campuses. When it was designing the store concept, Barnes & Noble surveyed over 600 college-aged students to determine how they wanted to discover beauty products, the brands that they were most interested in, and how and where they liked to shop. The company wanted to discover how to best set up fixtures and what products and mix of brands would work best in the stores. Lisa Mazzio, Barnes & Noble’s Director of Merchandise, Fashion Trends and Beauty, said that the company wanted to use this information to create social hubs focused on beauty on college campuses. She said that Barnes & Noble thought that it knew college-aged consumers well, but that the survey results were enlightening. The company discovered, for example, that Gen Zers tend to shop for both mass market and prestige cosmetics and that they want to shop in an open environment without the help of a beauty advisor.
Presentation on Barnes & Noble’s The Glossary beauty concept store Source: Coresight Research
5. Beauty brands are giving back. Cirem, a luxury skincare maker, is donating 10% of net sales to women in shelters and launched a “Share Your Beautiful Tour” in May 2018. Cirem regularly donates care kits with four essential items to women’s shelters. The company provides a kit for each woman housed in a particular shelter and pledges to refill the kits each month. The company aims to promote a community of charitable giving and is also donating 10% of its net sales to support charitable efforts.
Cirem donates its care kits to shelters. The organization is on a nationwide tour to deliver and donate the kits. Source: Coresight Research
6. At the “Glamour Me” beauty lounge at Cosmoprof, attendees could pamper themselves with an express service that included skincare, hairstyling, nail color and makeup, along with a photo shoot. The beauty lounge featured new product lines such as Melanie Mills Hollywood’s bronzing solution, which is able to realistically cover a tattoo with two applications. The Beauty Tribe hairstyling station used a new hot roller system that individually heated curlers within eight seconds.
The Beauty Tribe hair styling station at the Cosmoprof Glamour Me beauty lounge Source: Coresight Research
The Melanie Mills Hollywood bronzer station at the Cosmoprof Glamour Me beauty lounge Source: Coresight Research
7. The Beauty Vanities special exhibitor section of the trade show was dedicated to 30 emerging beauty brands. This area of the show floor was created to give smaller brands extra exposure at Cosmoprof. Many of the brands featured focused on a single hero product that they planned to launch.
The Beauty Vanities section at Cosmoprof featured emerging beauty brands Source: Coresight Research
Two of the featured products were The Vanity Project, which helps keep wine drinkers’ teeth white after they drink red wine, and Purvari, a hydrating rosewater elixir that reduces redness, brightens skin and softens dark spots.
TheVanityProject.com/Purvari.com Source: Coresight Research
8. Spout packaging for haircare products, lotions, body scrubs and face masks is trending upward. A benefit of spout packaging is that it prevents contamination better than jars do, as it keeps users’ hands from touching the product.
Real Earth Body Scrub in spout packaging Source: Coresight Research
9. Consumers are wearing their nails short and are seeking out muted tones in nail polishes, but opting for splashes of color. Nail art and polish trends include “party nails,” glitter polishes, metallics and holograms.
Hyd-Lock Clinic Mask in spout packaging Source: Coresight Research
LeChat brand nail polishes on display at Cosmoprof Source: Coresight Research
10. Nordstrom is using beauty pop-ups to engage with customers. Nordstrom held a pop-up collaboration with Byrdie Beauty Lab in New York to teach master classes in beauty. The two-week series saw twice the number of attendees that Nordstrom anticipated, according to Gemma Lionello, the company’s EVP, GMM of Accessories and Beauty. The company’s goal was to attract 2,000 attendees, but more than 4,000 attended. Lionello said that the goal was to increase awareness about the New York store and increase engagement; there was no product sold, and no fees for the classes.