Online’s Potential Discussed at Milan’s Beauty Summit

MILAN — The digital disruption can’t be ignored any longer. That was the key message Wednesday at Pambianco’s third Beauty Summit, hosted by the Italian fashion and beauty consulting company in partnership with Condé Nast Italia at the city’s Bourse. The summit spotlighted the increasing relevance and potential of online in providing business opportunities for Italy’s cosmetic companies. The digitalization of the domestic beauty market has met resistance in past years because of cultural and structural reasons. Local cosmetic companies, which are on average small to medium-sized, have seen online stores as threats that could erode sales in their brick-and-mortar businesses rather than as opportunities. Even in the case of the more innovative firms, budgetary limitations affected their digital strategies, both in terms of media investments and e-store developments. Despite the initial delay compared to the rest of Europe, the U.S. and Asia, e-commerce sales are quickly increasing in Italy. As reported, according to preliminary data released by Cosmetica Italia, e-commerce was the most dynamic channel in 2018, climbing 10 percent compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, such growth still represented only a marginal value of 350 million euros out of the total cosmetic industry’s sales, which reached 11.2 billion euros in 2018. “The last

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