After a rough few years economically, the US market for beauty has turned a corner and sales are on the rise, as Faye Brookman reports:
Despite all the economic worries exacerbated by fears of falling off the fiscal cliff, the US beauty business – on both the mass and prestige side – showed a sales resurgence in 2012. The country’s prestige beauty industry posted a 7% gain in 2012, generating US$10.2bn, according to research from NPD Group.
The mass market on the other hand revealed 3% gains across beauty categories, according to data from SymphonyIRI Group. The sales increases marked the first positive growth since 2008.
The holiday season also fared better than it had in the previous two years, NPD’s Vice President and Senior Global Industry Analyst Karen Grant says. Make-up became more of a ‘go to’ gift, fuelled by consumer demand for nail and lip products.