It’s mid-November and I’m starting to think it’s time to start thinking about my holiday shopping list.
But the brands and retailers that offer colorfully packaged beauty product sets that are the staple of seasonal shopping are way ahead of you.
Melissa McGinnis, head of beauty at British retailer Selfridges, said: “We joke that it’s not that we don’t talk about Christmas, because most of us don’t talk about it during Christmas or planning Christmas.” “This is because we are standing up for the cause,” he said.
Around this time last year, when people were talking about skyrocketing prices for Thanksgiving turkeys and their decorations, at least in the U.S., McGinniss and her team of 14 began working on the store’s 2023 beauty gift lineup. Selfridges has been selling popular advent calendars since 2010.
This year’s versionThe burgundy box opens like a multi-tiered 1940s jewelery box, with a bottom drawer that slides out to reveal 25 smaller compartments containing items from brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Augustine Bader and Byredo. is hidden. Price is 220 pounds or $245 in the US.
(There are multiple schools of thought as to exactly how many compartments an advent calendar should have. Some say 24, ending on Christmas Eve, which is the traditional choice, while others choose to have 24 in December for the final big reveal.) Some people want the 25th. Iconoclasts who pick whatever numbers are convenient for them.)
Shoppers were likely still on their 2022 summer holidays when London department store Liberty began producing advent beauty calendars that hit shelves.
Sarah Coonan, the store’s managing director of retail, said: “It’s a long process and one of the reasons for that is the complexity of the calendar, because we have 29 different products and 29 different suppliers.” Told. “The volume is quite large. The boxes have to be manufactured and designed. There’s so much work that goes into that, and the time spent just repeating the lineup is one of the most time-consuming tasks. (At Liberty’s warehouse in Derby, about 195 miles northwest of its Regent Street flagship, a large area has been permanently set aside to store products that will eventually be hidden behind shoji screens.) )
This year, Liberty has launched two advent beauty calendars. Both have packaging that features the store’s timber-framed façade and peaked roof.Colorful female version It has 25 compartments, but some items are doubled so it contains 29 products and costs £250, or $320 in the US.of male version comes in black and white and contains 25 items, including Klaus Porto soap from Portugal and Marvis toothpaste from Italy, and costs £230 or $295.
Many other retailers, including Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue in the US and Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Fortnum & Mason in the UK, also have their own Advent beauty calendars, which are a staple of their holiday beauty offerings. You’ll also find products from beauty brands such as Molton Brown, Jo Malone London, Yves Saint Laurent Beauty, and Fresh.
depending on the season
There is a reason for every careful strategy. Retailers and the beauty industry rely on the holiday season for a large portion of their annual sales.
Millie Kendall, chief executive of the British Beauty Council, a not-for-profit industry advocacy group, said: ‘I know that Christmas presents can be very lucrative, because based on a year’s worth of Christmas presents, “Because I bought a house,” he said. The house created a holiday gift set for British health and beauty retailer Boots, thanks to the now-defunct beauty brand Ruby & Millie, which she helped found.
In the United States, sales of luxury beauty products (brands sold in department stores and high-end retailers such as Sephora) totaled $9.2 billion from October to December 2022, with annual revenue for the category reaching $27.5 billion in the same year. This accounted for one-third of the total. According to the marketing company, Chilkana.
Seasonal gift sets also have global appeal, even in countries where Christian celebrations are less prevalent.
“Christmas here has evolved into a more commercial festival, with sales and flashy-looking packaged products being introduced by brands,” she says, focusing on health and beauty trends in Asia. said Yan Fu, insights manager at Euromonitor International in Seoul.
value and price
Value is a strong marketing point for advent calendars. For example, if you search for his 2023 version of Selfridges on Google recently, you’ll see the main link line: “SELFRIGES — beauty advent calendars worth over £1094.”
Many brands are doing the same thing with less elaborate products. For example, Benefit Cosmetics’ Nice List Lashes set points out that the $48 box set is worth his $99.
Drunk Elephant is offering the Trunk 7.0, which comes with 10 full-sized items in a bright green backpack, for $465, but says it’s worth $639. Hair care brand R+Co also has a Dreamscape Must-Haves kit that comes in a metal bag and costs $165. It says it would cost $233 to buy the eight items individually.
“Consumers want beautiful designs, but they also want more affordable prices,” Hu said.
And special packaging, she noted, is “a way for brands to give discounts without discounting the actual price.”
But promoting value can be difficult in this age of social media, as Chanel made its first foray into the genre in the shape of the Chanel No. 5 bottle in 2021 to commemorate the perfume’s 100th anniversary. There is.
The TikTok influencer, who shared an unboxing video that was hugely popular at the time, said the $825 calendar comes with stickers, sample-sized products, and things like the dust bag that usually comes free with the purchase of high-end products. I was shocked at what had happened. Last year, Dior’s $3,500 version received similarly lukewarm reviews online.
But it wasn’t all bad, as both brands said the limited edition calendars sold out almost immediately.
Chanel doesn’t have a beauty advent calendar this year, but they do have a selection of seasonal boxed gift sets. including one Contains both No. 5 perfume and scented body oil. And Parfum Christian Dior has two Advent products, both of which have 24 drawers. 1 price Priced at 600 euros, or $750 in the U.S., the luxurious wooden version, “La Malle des Rêves 2023” (“Trunk of Dreams” in English), costs 3,600 euros, or $4,200 in the U.S.
Increase sales
Increased sales when new products are included in holiday specials is also important for both brands and stores.
For example, Le Labo’s Eau de Parfum Discovery Set 6X5ML includes Lavande 31, a fragrance launched in October. And Selfridges’ Beauty Advent includes two nail polishes from pop star Harry Styles’ brand Pleasing.
LVMH Moët Hennessy Le Bon Marche, the Parisian department store owned by Louis Vuitton, has a gold holiday beauty set that includes 14 items from brands that may be new to some customers, including Herve Hérou, Glory and Dream Distillery. It is a velvet pouch. Some well-known names include Tata Harper, Dr. Barbara Sturm, and Westman Atelier.
“Customers will probably buy for Tata Harper, but within that they will discover a premium, niche brand,” said Marion Pontvienne, the store’s beauty director. “For us, it’s a way to attract new customers.”
This strategy appears to be widespread. Kendall said that over the past few years, some members of her organization have seen sales of holiday gift set items increase by as much as 50 percent in the subsequent six months.
And when Liberty featured a 15-milliliter bottle of Le Labo’s Te Noir 29 in its 2015 calendar, the scent became the store’s best-selling fragrance for nearly two years. As Ms. Coonan says, “That product was absolutely amazing.”
sustainability
And this year, many beauty sets include full-sized products rather than tiny miniatures. Anna Keller, senior global beauty and personal care analyst at market research firm Mintel, says larger sizes make sense, “especially if you want consumers to use the product enough to want to buy it again.” He says it suits him. “When it comes to skin and body care, I think it’s more effective. Just using a small amount won’t win you over. It won’t be as effective as buying the whole thing.”Today. end. “
Kendall added: “What you don’t want to do is go to a manufacturer and make a bunch of smaller sizes and stick them on an advent calendar. That’s very expensive and not very sustainable. ” he added.
Advent calendars still have a strong appeal. Selfridges’ 2023 version was released on September 22nd. After six weeks, the store reported selling 80% more calendars than during the same period in 2022.
Still, for some consumers, “it feels like there’s a lot of expectation right now,” Keller said. Strategically, he adds that it’s better for brands to “think of advent calendars as like a mini-sampling experience,” so they can create “a small, gift-giving experience that you can give to yourself or share with someone else.” “We can actually connect this to the idea of products that are suitable for people.” Other people. “
Perhaps that’s why some brands’ holiday sets this year are more Advent-inspired than traditional.
French fragrance brand Maison Francis Kurkdjian costs 950 euros. countdown calendarwas scheduled to open between December 25th and New Year’s Eve.
And from Hermès, a €1,420 circular box contains 24 nail polishes, cut out in the middle to roughly suggest a wreath, given the brand’s signature orange hue.
“If brands and retailers don’t evolve their design and product content, customers will say, ‘This looks too much like last year’s product,'” McGinniss says. “They’re really looking for something that will surprise them.”