Replete with opportunities for both home-grown and international cosmetic companies, India’s beauty market is experiencing a major boom. Currently valued at $6.5 billion, the market is projected to top $35 billion by 2035.
Other positives for India’s beauty market:
- it has a growth rate of 15-20% a year
- it’s expanding twice as fast as sales in the United States and Europe
- people with higher disposable incomes and young urban dwellers who are heavily influenced by digital media, are accelerating this growth says Jean Christophe, managing director of L’Oréal India
- Indian men’s cosmetics market has grown 42% in the last 5 years, far faster than the personal-care market as a whole; haircare, beard-grooming, scents, spa treatments and even make-up are of interest to the middle-class Indian super-groomer
- the most intense competition is between natural and herbal brands; in 2016, the sector experienced 12 percent growth
- India’s beauty exports, which already exceed imports, are expected to see a large part of their future growth in the natural segment. Brands such as Biotique, Himalaya Herbals, Blossom Kochhar, VLCC, Dabur, Lotus, Jovees, Kama Ayurveda, Patanjali and Just Herbs are just some of the herbal ranges reaching European, American and Asian markets
- Estée Lauder backs Forest Essentials, an Ayurvedic concept line that markets itself as “the quintessential Indian beauty brand”