‘India is being discussed a lot more at the group level today’
NEW DELHI : The popularity of e-commerce and social media in India has played a major role in stimulating demand for beauty products over the past decade, Alexis Perakis-Valat, president of the consumer products division at L’Oréal, said in an interview. This is helping the world’s largest beauty company attract more shoppers. Valat, who was in India last week, oversees a portfolio of brands for the French beauty company, including Garnier, L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline, Nyx, Essie, and Mixa.
Edited excerpts from the interview: It’s fascinating to see the changes in the Indian beauty market. A decade ago, when I came to India, I was living in China then. The feeling was that the market was moving in a very traditional, very static direction where the distribution was static, and the brands were the same for years.
In the last five years, the Indian mass beauty market has changed more than it has maybe in the last 100 years. The catalyst of this change is clearly digital, social media and e-commerce. What’s very interesting is the way social media has democratized knowledge because now Indian consumers are more savvy than before.
For instance, year-to-date, the number of beauty video views in India has doubled, but it’s the same in the rest of the world. I’m seeing consumers that are more savvy because they know more. They are demanding more from brands and are ready to pay a bit more for products that deliver.
The second consequence is that you’re also discovering new beauty segments and categories, such as serums and make-up products. We see this as an amazing opportunity for our company and our brands. The next 10 years are going to be even more exciting.
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