Fight over price and with other channels impact fluff

São Paulo-Despite the industry of perfumery and cosmetics have been shown to be more resilient to the crisis, the specialized retailers have a sense with the consumer migration to lower-value-added products, with the need to increase promotions (sacrificing margin) and with the increasingly fierce competition with pharmacies and supermarkets.
The scenario, in the vision of executives and specialists in the sector, has impacted mainly the independent perfumeries. "The market is going through an extremely delicate moment. I don''t believe in the survival of individual stores that are not pro ", says the commercial Director of Spasso Cosmetics-perfumes with 18 units in the interior of São Paulo, José Roberto Munhoz.
The major networks of drugstores, explains, have organized and taken a larger role in the cosmetics segment, with the increasing investment in the category. Munhoz, stirs up the movement to the competition for the specialty shops and imposes further hardship to an already complicated picture.
The General Director of Beauty Fair, facing the branch, Caesar Tsukuda, also signals an increase in competition, but States that, by the limited space, the drugstores can''t offer a mix of products as wide as the fluff. "Of course impacts on competition, but each channel meets a role," he says.
According to the marketing director of Danny cosmetics, Mariella Scuro, another aspect that differentiates the fluff is the consultancy. "The drugstores have opened my eyes to the thread, but do not work with the relationship at the point of sale and the personalized service," he says, adding that despite the distinction between channels, the largest contribution of both drug stores as supermarkets in the category has increased the competitiveness in the industry.
Cheap items and promotion
In relation to the behavior of the consumer of cosmetics and toiletries and beauty, the view of the experts is that although they continue searching for articles, the recession made them migrate to items with a lower added value. The move, according to Mariella, began to be felt in the last two years. "There was this migration of the items with high added value to products with a lower value. But, even in times of crisis, the consumer is still investing in this type of product, "he points out. According to her, the Danny Cosmetics, which has 12 operations scattered around the interior of São Paulo, grew last year 14% in real turnover compared to 2015. For this year, the network design 17% high-already considering two new stores opened.
The Ikesaki perfumery with eight units, also saw the change. The Manager of the company''s e-commerce, Anjana Gandhi says that currently consumers are qualifying your consumption, and seeking better benefits and differentiators. In this sense, the retailer has sought to offer a greater variety of products and best price options.
The scenario has also driven the growth of the offer of the so-called '' packs '' of discounts and promotional. "It was the year in which the market had '' packs '' junket", says Mariella, Danny cosmetics. According to her, the company brought back the offers section, which before the crisis had lost relevance at the point of sale. "We seek to negotiate with suppliers all of this to do and give volume discounts to consumers," he says.
At Spasso Cosmetics reality is similar and Munhoz explains that the promotional packages, which started the '' pumping '' in 2015, has increasingly gained visibility in the network. On the impact of the growth of discounts on the Bank of the operation he laments: "Unfortunately this isn''t you who determines the margin, who determines is the client and has no way to circumvent this," he says. He considers, however, that to mitigate the impact the key is choosing the right mix of products that will be given at a discount.
The Managing Director of GS & Consult, Alexandre Machado, signals precisely to this need. "They have to work the separation of key products that have value to the client. Why take a product that already has a monthly frequency of purchase and put on sale is a mistake. The retailer is giving away for the consumer Bank, "he explains.
Strategies
On the economic situation, explains Tsukuda, the Beauty Fair, the industry''s retailers have sought mainly to invest in improving the management and improving the consumer experience. "The biggest gamble is on the issue of customer service and shopping experience, are trying to strengthen it in front of the consumer," he says.
In line with the opinion of the expert, the Ikesaki claims that it is precisely the improvement of care for both the professional beauty as for the final consumer, the main pillar of the company for this year. Another bet, explains Anjana, will be on the development of the newly launched e-commerce network. "We are investing heavily in integration of the real world with the virtual," he said.
On the prospects for this year, Munhoz, Spasso cosmetics, shows a conservative vision. "Our expectation was good, but January and February were terrible for us. We are working with the idea of maintaining the stable turnover compared to last year ", says the Executive, who adds that the network plans three more opening this year and that, in the long run, can be seen in the capital.