International hypermarket chain Carrefour has unveiled its new mass market beauty range, which will be rolled out across the globe this year and comprises toiletries, facial care, anti-ageing products, haircare and makeup.
WWD reports February 7 that the French firm's low-priced Les Cosmétiques Design Paris brand will replace the supermarket's existing private-label offerings.
"Beauty is not a luxury, it is a right," Carrefour's international beauty director Marie-Caroline Renault told the publication.
With prices ranging from 1 to 12 euros (SG$1.65 to SG$19.80), the brand is divided into categories such as Essentials (toiletries), Nectar of Nature (organic and natural-based toiletries), Hydra Science (facial care), Age Science (anti-ageing), Kéra Science Professional (haircare), Body Ultimate (pampering) and Pro's (cosmetics).
The launch will begin in France with makeup in March, followed by skin and hair products and toiletries in May.
Les Cosmétiques Design Paris will hit Carrefour stores in Italy, Spain and Belgium by the end of the year, before reaching Asia and South America in 2013 and 2014.
The company's decision to enter the mass beauty category is smart given the current economic climate, as last year a study by US market research company The NPD Group revealed sales of low-end beauty products had been on the rise in 2011. This backs up the "lipstick index" theory, originally coined in the early 2000s to express how cosmetic sales are often inversely correlated to economic health as women substitute extravagant fashion purchases with beauty buys.
The move contrasts with UK-based global supermarket chain Tesco's successful strategy of stocking high-end beauty brands such as Calvin Klein and Paul Smith alongside affordable products such as those by Barbara Daly, the acclaimed makeup artist who first came up with a low-budget collection for the supermarket back in 1999. Just last November Tesco added to its up-market beauty cachet by becoming a stockist of Italian makeup brand Diego dalla Palma. --AFP RELAXNEWS