Cosmetics: the "Safe Beauty" trend is driving the market recovery

"Innovation and digitalisation are the success factors for sustainability, efficiency and safety," says Emidio Zorzella, CEO of the Antares Vision Group.

Consumers are increasingly interested and informed about quality, the origin of ingredients and the sustainability of production processes. At the same time, they are increasingly attracted by the brand story and the values linked to the product they buy.

In France, the post-pandemic cosmetics sector had a contrasting year in 2020: a 20% contraction in sales, a historic drop in exports of 11.8%, the first since 2009, and a 20.7% increase in exports to China, instead of 48% in 2019 (source DGDDI and FEBEA 2021), the sector's companies are relying on innovative trends to resume their rise

Quality, transparency and sustainability are the requirements of Safe Beauty

Safe Beauty is one of the main trends in the sector, which sees health and beauty closely linked in the purchase of "transparent" products, with greater attention paid to brands and sustainability throughout the supply chain, both in terms of the raw materials used and the production processes and packaging characteristics. According to the ESV Digital study, Slow Cosmetics is also on the rise! With time spent at home on the rise and the wearing of masks, habits have been turned upside down. The French are looking for ecological, healthy, intelligent and reasonable cosmetics!

The pandemic has also seen an increase in online sales worldwide, and the trend continues to grow. In France, e-commerce has increased by 42% compared to the previous year, with cosmetics representing 10% of e-commerce in 2020 compared to 7% in 2019 (source ESV Digital March 2021). This scenario increases the risks for the beauty and cosmetics sector in terms of counterfeiting and proliferation of parallel markets, with repercussions on brand reputation and consumer confidence.

"To meet these new changing needs, the Antares Vision Group - a company listed since April 2019 on the Italian stock exchange on the AIM market dedicated to dynamic and competitive SMEs - offers specific solutions for the beauty industry to guarantee quality, security, integrity and complete traceability of the supply chain," emphasises Nicolas Perrin, director of the Antares Vision France subsidiary. Our traceability solutions are adapted to the requirements of Safe Beauty. "

An international specialist in the pharmaceutical sector for Track & Trace hardware and software solutions (anti-counterfeiting and supply chain transparency), the Antares Vision group is one of the leading players in inspection systems (quality control) and intelligent data management (production efficiency and digitisation of the end-to-end supply chain: from raw materials to the end consumer).

From pharmaceuticals to cosmetics

By exploiting the know-how acquired over more than twenty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, the Antares Vision group is a reference partner for a particularly demanding cosmetics industry sector, both for consumers, who are increasingly well informed and demand guaranteed and transparent products, and for manufacturers and brands, whose challenges concern the efficiency and optimisation, as well as the sustainability of production processes.

This is thanks to innovative solutions for automatic visual inspection (which guarantee the total quality, safety and integrity of cosmetic products, thanks to precise control of ingredients, production processes and packaging), end-to-end traceability (which allows the complete life cycle of a product to be tracked, achieving a real revolution in the supply chain thanks to the creation of a digital identity for each unit) and intelligent data management (to maximise the efficiency of production and the consumer experience, also thanks to artificial intelligence).

"Innovation and research are the two key factors in the development of the cosmetics industry in recent years. The constant improvement in the quality and transparency of the products we use every day for personal care is the result of studies and the implementation of new technologies for process optimisation and supply chain management. In order to continue to compete in the major international markets, the digitisation process is the real trump card: collecting data, transforming it into information and processing it so that it can provide value. The result is a higher standard of sustainability, value for money and consumer safety", emphasises Emidio Zorzella, CEO of Antares Vision Group.

Thanks to technology, supply chain transparency and full control of the product life cycle can be guaranteed, resulting in a higher standard of safety and efficiency for brands, the subcontracting sector and end consumers. The concept of Trustparency, invented by Antares Vision, enables trust to be built through product transparency, supply chain transparency and information sharing. Guaranteeing the origin and quality of ingredients and raw materials, the history of a product at every stage of production, supply chain information, as well as protecting authenticity, is becoming an important part of a brand's reputation and its relationship with the end consumer. 

Source : translation of the article "Cosmétique : la tendance "Safe Beauty" est le moteur de la reprise du marché", Industries Cosmétiques, 2 juin 2021.