2 tricks to sell your cosmetic products in Italy (practical tips to apply immediately).

2 tricks to sell your cosmetic products in Italy (practical tips to apply immediately).

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Hello, and welcome to this first short guide.

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If you are reading this document, it means that you are a foreign manufacturer of beauty products or a foreign distributor of cosmetics that does not yet have the Italian market in his customer list.

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Well, you are in the right place to read some tips that will help you approach my country’s market in the right way.

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I’m not talking about marketing or advertising advices (those are professional strategies that we use with our customers as part of a targeted planning that involves the development of brand awareness and marketability of the brand through the creation, for example, ?of promotions for specific Italian holidays (such as April 25th, May 1st, December 8th) during which we offer extremely advantageous conditions, etc.

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Let me introduce myself.

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My name is Lorenzo Cattani, formerly a lawyer, about 10 years ago I became a cosmetic entrepreneur operating in the Italian market.

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I specialized in importing brands and products from abroad that have not yet arrived in Italy through physical stores, and my job consists in “putting on the shelves” the perfumes, perfumed waters, body mist, body and face creams that the foreigners manufacturers/distributors want to trade in my country.

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My most important case study is this one: SO…?, the best known body mist in UK.

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This London brand, unknown to most in Italy until 2019, has experienced (and still growing) impressive growth, and now among its customers we can include national drugstore chains such as Tigotà, Caddy’s, Ingromarket, Ingroshop, in perfumeries such as Douglas, Ethos and Maxì and in pharmacy chains such as Farmacie Italiane, Phardis and Medery’s also.

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Actually we can boast the presence in over 1,000 physical stores, and online obviously.

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This magic result was achieved in just 3 years, also considering a pandemic and a war in between!

…and without having asked foreign producers/distributors for stellar budgets in advertising or marketing...

...to be frank, WITHOUT ANY KIND OF BUDGET!

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Now, experience has led me to write a guide (this is only number 1) in which I offer advice and food for thought to all stakeholders in the sector who want to approach the Italian market.

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So I decided to publish it in various parts.

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In this regard, if you are really interested, I ask you to give me a feedback or an opinion on the matter, so that I can continue to publish the other parts of the guide as well.

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Obviously, since my time also has a cost, if I don't find feedback, I will abandon the project (and I will keep my advice to myself, using it with my clients as part of a consolidated strategy).

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Remember that I want to mentally prepare you for the Italian market, absolutely peculiar in its uniqueness, so that you can understand if it is right for you.

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Are you ready? Let's start

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1.????LABELLING.

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The labels of any cosmetic product that wants to be sold in Italy MUST have the labels in Italian language.

It's mandatory. It's law.

If you have not contemplated the Italian language in the multilingual label, and redoing all the labeling is excessively expensive, there is a cheap solution (already tested with the SO brand...?).

A sticker, with very few lines, applied to the external packaging of the product.

It is not necessary (indeed, it is useless) to translate the ingredients as well.

Instead it is necessary, to sell in Italy, to translate the "instructions for use", the "recommendations" and the "uses advised against".

An example:

Spray on the body from a distance of 15 cm (instructions for use)

Keep out of reach of children (recommendations)

Do not inhale (uses advised against).

This first advice is necessary to start trading the product in Italy, otherwise you will never have the chance to see it on the Italian shelves.

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2.????ONLINE PRICE.

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When a product is offered to an Italian merchant/buyer, you must know that he will immediately search online for this product.

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At this point a different scenario opens up:

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·??????You are not present online through ecommerce (owner or marketplace).

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It can be a problem, because the trader/buyer will make the equation "not for sale online = little volume = few sales for me".

Sometimes, however, it can happen that the trader / buyer is particularly shrewd, and intends to "bet" on a product that he cannot find online.

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·???????You are present online through proprietary ecommerce.

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There are no major problems, because it will be sufficient to inhibit the sale and/or shipment to Italy (the Italian trader, especially if he is small to medium-sized and has 1 or 2 shops, always feels threatened by online competition, especially if he comes from same producer who sells both to him and directly to the public);

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or it will be sufficient to level the prices from Italy (unfortunately this solution presents some problems in terms of margins) to those that are present online in the proprietary ecommerce (unfortunately this solution presents some problems in terms of margins).

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·??????You are present online through marketplaces (Ebay, Amazon and others).

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This last case is the most difficult to manage, above all if it is not you who produces to sell directly (but it is a foreign reseller/distributor).

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The most effective solution (in addition to ad hoc contractual clauses, which, however, in a free market perspective like ours, make no sense, and indeed are prohibited in many legal systems) is to keep prices under control and, if necessary, make corrective changes to the conditions of sale and resale to those resellers who sell to Italy at lower prices than the transnational average.

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In fact, it seems obvious, the foreign online retailer who sells to Italy at a lower price than the Italian competition can only be one who buys directly from the manufacturer (we all know that the more passages there are, the more the product will cost) :

a corrective could be to formally ask this retailer - by the manufacturer - to sell to Italy by applying high shipping costs which discourage the purchase of the Italian consumer, for example.

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Or to limit the possibility of purchasing from Italy to some references.

Or to limit the sale of products in Italy to short periods of the year, disguising it as a "timed promotion".

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Another possible solution, this time on the Italy side, could be to provide for improved purchase conditions - for the Italian distributor - so that, at the end of the various steps, the price to the Italian public is competitive with that found on the marketplace ;

or again that the foreign manufacturer - in agreement with the Italian distributor - has special gadgets created for the Italian market which increase the value of the product in Italy and which make the Italian customer perceive the advantage of buying directly in Italy (rather than from the market place).

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In short, the possibilities of action are different, based on the different situations that may occur.

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Since this is a very generic short guide, the answers are also necessarily generic.

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These are the first 2 tricks, immediately expendable and verifiable, which can help you to market your product in Italy.

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See you soon for guide number 2

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Lorenzo Cattani

“are you a manufacturer and want to enter the Italian market? It’s my job, contact me. I distribute in personal care chains, in perfumeries, beauty centers, pharmacies, etc.”