Exporting your Beauty Brand into the UK Market
The world is your oyster when building a brand. One of the ways in which to grow is through exporting into a new market.
The beauty industry is a buoyant industry worth $579bn in 2023, and it is growing at an annual rate of 3.54% It is part of a much larger sector – the Wellness sector, reported to be worth $5.3 trillion in 2023. Over the past few years boundaries have been blurring between health, beauty and wellness, leading to the emergence of new categories and trends from supplements that address our sleep, to our sexual health and wellbeing, gut health, hormonal levels and customised beauty supported by AI.
Statista suggests that UK is the third largest cosmetics market in Europe, with skincare being the largest category – in particular facial skincare – worth nearly £1.8 billion. The UK organic cosmetics market size is expected to grow to £339 million by 2025. With this phenomenal growth, there is no doubt that international brands would like to dip their toes into the British beauty and wellness market.
There are a few aspects to consider when exporting your brand into the UK marketplace:
Added value – what is your USP and what differentiates your brand? Defining this at the beginning will help you to achieve greater success. It is important to keep in mind competitors for your brand in the UK market, this maybe be different to those in your home market.
How can you make your products easy to purchase? Convenience, time, and cost are important considerations. Can your website be easily adapted to service customers from the UK? And will your business require a UK fulfilment centre?
What do your customers want and need? The best businesses focus on delivering a specific product to a group of customers. Addressing the needs of a well-defined audience provides clarity to what you’re offering your customers. Remember today’s consumers are extremely demanding with regards to delivery costs, times, after care service – customer experience is a priority.
Think about margin implications and volume orders. Retailer margins are an important consideration – just because a retailer isn’t charging you a high margin, it doesn’t mean that they are the best retailer for you.
Legal – consider the legal implications of entering a new market – are you setting up an office in the UK, how are you managing your banking, VAT, Tax, trademarks?
Regulatory & Compliance – global cosmetic labelling is quite similar around the world except for mandatory information for specific countries. In the UK, the manufacture and supply of all cosmetic products is governed by the UK cosmetics Regulation. Do your products comply with regulations in the UK?
There are plenty of routes to market when thinking about selling into the UK.
This may sound a little bit daunting to start with. As an international beauty brand consultancy, we specialise in supporting our clients in expanding their brands across the marketplace and cover this in our beauty accelerator program. Discover More:
If you have a great idea, or perhaps you have already started building your brand, and you would like to work alongside Janet, and her expert team to help you to make this happen, let us know.
Get in touch at hello@beautytolife.co.uk. Enroll today to become a successful beauty entrepreneur.