With a share of almost 42% and a value that reaches 4.8 billion euros, large-scale distribution is the protagonist of cosmetics purchases by Italians in 2022. Once the repercussions of the crisis linked to the lockdown have ended, and despite the he impact that international tensions and the energy crisis will have on the propensity to purchase, the consumption of cosmetics between super and hypermarkets, drugstores and single-brand stores is expected to grow by 5.4% by the end of the year. Without forgetting – warns the trade association Cosmetica Italia – «the profound changes within the large aggregate which saw in the first six months of the year the important consolidation of the single-brand stores and the home and toiletry channels, penalized in the first period of lockdown, confirming an important transformation in organized distribution that favors attention to the mix of products and new consumer purchasing habits”.
The mass market is the absolute preferred sales channel for the purchase of products for the body (for a value of 815.1 million), hair (743.8 million) and hygiene (710.9 million). In particular, super and hypermarkets concentrate 26.4% of total sales of products for body hygiene, 25.9% for hair and scalp, 21.3% for oral hygiene; while drugstores and specialized home-toilet shops stand out for hair (18.8%), body (16.2%) and hygiene (15.5%).
Sustainability, natural formulas and welfare are characteristic factors of the operators in the sector. Just to give an example, Tigotà – an Italian retailer of cosmetics, personal care and house cleaning products – has in fact decided to turn off some switches in almost half of its stores. The trial, which began in June, involves lowering the lighting by 30% in 291 stores, the largest in the group. The choice was made after completing the relamping process which saw the company involved in the replacement of over 100,000 old generation light bulbs with less energy impacting LEDs in over 600 points of sale nationwide. For each relamping intervention, electricity consumption is reduced by approximately 50%, with an estimated value in terms of emissions of 500 tons of CO2 saved per year, to which will be added the reductions in carbon dioxide due to switching off the lights.
The group has also decided to focus on the digital receipt: in 2019 all Tigotàs in Italy issued receipts for over 20 thousand kilometers equal to the distance between the North Pole and the South Pole. In 2021, by sending the receipt by e-mail, the consumption of thermal paper has dropped leading to a reduction of 2,000 kilometres.
Gottardo, the company that owns the Tigotà brand, has been included in the list of the 400 best places to work in Italy. In fact, it ranked 145th in the general ranking and number 11 in the ranking dedicated exclusively to the best operating companies in the sales, sales services and wholesale trade sector. «With the pandemic we have understood the need to listen to our collaborators and rethink the way we work – comments Tiziano Gottardo, president of the company -. More attention to people and welfare, greater care in growth paths are just some of the measures we are implementing to guarantee the well-being of our 5 thousand collaborators in a very complex historical moment”.