International Women’s Day Sparks Cosmetics Buying Spree

Interestingly enough, this time of the year is a seasonal boom for the cosmetics industry in Russia. First is Valentine’s Day in February, which more and more people in the country celebrate. And now, as March 8^th approaches, men all across Russia are frantically buying gifts for the women in their lives.

According to a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, fine fragrances are the biggest sellers, while all other beauty product sales increase also during this time of the year. The company does a number of special promotions over this holiday period, as does Kalina, which is the biggest Russian cosmetics company.
A greater number of men than usual are out shopping for Women’s Day gifts for their Russian wives, daughters, mothers and sisters. There also are more women buying gifts to pamper themselves as spring approaches.

The cosmetics industry in Russia is happy to see the increase in sales, as an estimated $500 million in revenue was lost due to the EGAIS system which mandated that all cosmetic products containing alcohol should be registered with the state to help stop the production of illegal moonshine.

The Russian cosmetics market is worth more than $9 billion a year thanks in part to the sales brought about by the Women’s Day buying season. The fact that Russian women tend to wear more color makeup than their Western counterparts also contributes to the continuing growth of the market.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 11:59 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.