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SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. mass cosmetics sales on Amazon.com surged 45% year over year in 2017 to an estimated $110 million, according to e-commerce specialist One Click Retail.
Last year, Maybelline was the leading mass cosmetics brand by sales and share, at 12%, on Amazon, One Click Retail said. Rounding out the top five were L’Oréal (11%), Wunderbrow (8%), CoverGirl (5%) and Burt’s Bees (4%).
Though Maybelline dipped 1% in overall market share, the brand saw year-over-year growth of 25%. Meanwhile, L’Oréal held onto the No. 2 spot with a 41% growth year over year.
As more makeup brands enter the Amazon space, incumbent brands are feeling the pinch, particularly in the luxury cosmetics segment, One Click Retail noted. The top five selling luxury cosmetics brands held nearly 80% of the market share on Amazon in 2016, but last year they saw their share sink to just under 60%.
The top sellers in luxury cosmetics on Amazon for 2017 were Jane Iredale (20% share), Stila (15%), RevitaLash (11%), Lorac (7%) and Blinc (6%), One Click Retail said.
“With both the mass and luxury segments of cosmetics growing at more than 40% and 50% year over year on Amazon, brands big and small are beginning to embrace an Amazon-first strategy,” according to Spencer Millerberg, chief executive officer of One Click Retail.
While the mass cosmetics segment on Amazon didn’t undergo such drastic year-over-year shifts as the buxury segment, some notable growth occurred among the top-selling brands, reported One Click Retail. For example, Wunderbrow grew 66% year over year but remained at No. 3, just a few points behind leaders Maybelline and L’Oréal. Similarly, both CoverGirl and Burt’s Bees rose three spots each to Nos. 4 and 5, with respective 60% and 55% year-over-year growth. And despite 83% year-over-year growth, Revlon only climbed up a couple of notches among the top sellers to No. 8 in 2017 from No. 10 in 2016.
“Consumers are shopping for everything they can on Amazon, in one trip. When they’re purchasing on Amazon, they’re purchasing as much as they can. And if they can buy their luxury items at the same time as their everyday essentials and big-ticket items, they’ll do it,”Millerberg explained. “Brands from across all categories begun significantly in 2017 to take notice and take control of their Amazon presence.”
One Click Retail pointed out that luxury cosmetics remain in their early growth stage on Amazon, with much of the growth in this category from brands entering the space as first-party sellers instead of from brands already on Amazon and growing significantly. As a result, the top brands from 2016 saw a sharp drop in market share as the number of major competitors climbed in 2017, not necessarily because they were outperformed, the company said.
Of key year-over-year changes among luxury cosmetics brands on Amazon, Jane Iredale dropped 8% in market share but retained the top spot, while RevitaLash jumped to No. 3 with 11% market share in 2017 after a negligible rank in 2016, One Click Retail said. Elizabeth Arden edged up to No. 7 from No. 9 and snared 5% market share. Dermablend entered the luxury cosmetics space on Amazon in 2017, rising to No. 8 with a 4% market share. And two small brands, Colorescience and Jouer, rounded out the top 10 with 3% market share apiece, having climbed six and three spots, respectively, from 2016.
One Click Retail specializes in e-commerce data measurement, sales analytics and search optimization for brand manufacturers in North America and Europe. The company said it uses a combination of website indexing, machine learning and proprietary software to estimate weekly online sales and traffic figures, with over 90% accuracy down to the SKU level.