Beauty industry on road to recovery

The Middle East beauty and skincare sector is on the road to recovery, indicated Madi International, as the industry continues to show resilience and optimistic signs of recovering from Q4 2020. The industry players, however, expect the recovery trends will become more noticeable in 2021.

Madi International stated that the industry declined by 85% in May 2020, only to bounce back and make a 50% recovery by June, on a year-on-year basis. This recovery is related to a shift in consumer mindsets, digitisation due to movement restrictions and drastically reduced spend on luxury during the pandemic.

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Businesses and consumers are now increasingly shifting towards digital solutions as their preferred selling and purchase methods, a trend many traders had been trying to break into for a long time but were being held back due to reliability and cybersecurity reasons. Following the trend, Madi International has embarked on a robust recovery strategy.

“Due to the changes in the trading environment, we are now boosting our e-commerce presence for B2B and B2C clients. Our B2B platform will provide our vendors and salon owners with intuitive tools to manage their orders with more convenience. On the other hand, our B2C platform will allow our end consumers to enjoy a seamless and luxurious shopping experience of retail portfolio from the convenience and safety of their homes. We feel that the launch of the platforms will be a great addition to our business models,” stated Mohamad Madi, president, Madi International Group.

Growth barriers such as high overheads, the rising cost of operation, market size in terms of population, lean demographics and steep segmentation continue to challenge the players. However, Madi International is pegging its optimistic views of growth on emerging factors, such as new beauty trends, online presence, well-marketed brands and the fighting spirit of the GCC business community. Additionally, new lifestyle choices, higher per capita income and being present in a prominent business hub such as the UAE will facilitate the recovery of beauty businesses.

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