The perfumery market was filled with “casting agents”: test tubes of 2-10 milliliters
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The holidays are ahead – February 14 and March 8, and perfumes are still considered a traditional gift for girls. Although the assortment was predictably reduced due to sanctions, the Russians did not stop buying perfumes – however, now they do it a little differently. Correspondent “MK” walked through the cosmetics stores and found out: parallel imports, alas, can not cope.
The average check for cosmetics fell by almost 45% compared to last year – in January 2023 it amounted to 1972 rubles, but a year earlier it was 3588 rubles: experts from one of the research platforms shared this data. There is nothing to rejoice at, the key is not in saving and not in reasonable consumption. Perfume sales increased by 31%. The fact is that after large and well-known international brands left Russia, their place on the shelves was taken by others – Russian, Belarusian and Korean. Their products are cheaper – that’s the answer.
There is another trend leading to a decrease in the average check. An innovation is large ads with offers to buy perfumes and cosmetics in installments: the payment can be divided into 4 parts. Given the current prices – not the worst offer. True, a nuance: there is nothing to buy … or rather, almost nothing.
The genre of walking around the store and idle testing of all the perfumes in a row is a thing of the past. On the shelves here and there are dull clearings. Only a row of empty tester bottles reminds of the former variety, something else is splashing on the bottoms of some of them. You can sniff or even sprinkle it on a piece of paper, but you can’t buy it anymore: testers are testers, but there are no goods left …
Hello, can I help you? – sounds behind the traditional question of the seller.
“How can you help here if there is nothing already?”
– Well, uh … – the consultant is clearly at a loss. – Well, we can try to find an analogue. What scents are you interested in, anything floral?
The situation becomes more or less clear: for those who are just looking for “some perfume” in the agreed direction, consultants are really able to help – after all, the store is not empty, there are enough bottles on the shelves … Well, for those who came with the intention to buy a specific bottle of a specific perfume, rather than “something floral”, will be much more difficult.
True, in the light of the upcoming February 14 and March 8, this is unlikely to be a problem – as consultants admit, men who choose perfume as a gift most often willingly accept advice and tips.
– Units come with specifically formulated orders: they say, such and such a fragrance. From the point of view of sales, it is, of course, more difficult with them, although an experienced seller will find an opportunity to increase the check here too: for example, he will offer the largest volume of the bottle or advise you to take a shower gel and body cream with a suitable smell, if any, in the kit, – says in an interview with the correspondent of “MK” Anna K., who worked for several years in a large perfumery network. – However, more often requests are as vague as possible. Sometimes they just ask, they say, what is fashionable now? Sometimes they ask “To your taste.” Here it is desirable to dissuade, because the seller’s taste does not necessarily coincide with the taste of the one to whom the gift is intended. In such situations, I usually recommended something as neutral and unobtrusive as possible – say, aromas with notes of rose or green tea are liked by almost everyone, it’s hard to get into a mess here. But sometimes you have to recommend something that the store needs to get rid of as soon as possible.
Although you can’t turn around with shower gels in the kit today – they have long been snapped up. In some places, the situation is quite depressing: for example, only 5-7 perfume options and the same number of shower products are left on the counter of a well-known British perfume brand. Here’s just a nuance: gels are not at all the same as perfumes, you can’t assemble sets of them.
Today it is easier to buy a particular desired perfume in virtual online stores, and not in cosmetic supermarkets – there, of course, you will have to do without the opportunity to try it, but there is a great chance that the desired product will be found. True, prices bite: most of the perfumes of popular luxury brands (Chanel, Dior, Guerlain, Yves Saint Laurent and others) today cost at least 7–8 thousand rubles for a 30 ml bottle, and at least 10 thousand for 50 or 75 ml. If, for some reason, perfumes can be considered rare – for example, they have already been discontinued or were originally released for a small “boutique” line, then prices can reach 25-30 thousand rubles per bottle. The novelties of 2022-2023, which, in accordance with the position of brand owners, should never have reached Russia at all, are estimated at 30-35 thousand (instead of the original price in the range from 100 to 150 euros), and this is quite predictable – this is how you have to pay for parallel imports and the ability to circumvent the ban. No wonder that in the current conditions, more and more lovers of diversity in perfumery make a choice in favor of the so-called. “pourings” – test tubes of 2–10 ml, into which expensive fragrances are poured specifically for the purpose of resale. The demand for branded miniatures has also grown – another thing is that for some brands, even the price of “kids” with a volume of 10-15 ml can reach 2500-3500 rubles.
Recall that in December 2022, Russia introduced a 35% duty on hygiene products and household chemicals from unfriendly countries – the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and some EU states. The measure should be valid until the end of 2023. Accordingly, the price of these goods proportionally increases – such a measure should discourage customers from goods from “bad” countries and motivate them to opt for local production.
Newspaper headline:
Floral scent of scarcity
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