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Shoppers consider surprising items 'essential' despite drop in spending over cost of living

Mirror September 20, 2024 02:39 PM

Spending on cosmetics is booming despite the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, as consumers increasingly consider these items to be essential.

While rising living costs have seen consumers cutting back and retail sales as a whole up 0.1% year-on-year in August, spending on health and beauty was up 7.3%. This was significantly higher than non-essential spending overall, which was up 0.7%, according to Barclays.

A quarter of shoppers say they have been cutting back on buying clothing and accessories, with Barclays transaction data showing clothing was down 1.7% last month. But 46% say they consider health and beauty purchases as "essential" - a category which typically includes priority spending such as groceries and childcare.

The most resilient products over the past three years - those where consumers say they have either increased or not changed their spending - are pharmaceuticals, hair care, body care and fragrances.

Those aged 18 to 27 have increased their spending on health and beauty by 17.5% over the past 12 months - more than double the rate of growth for those aged 44 to 59 at 6.5%, and triple the rate of 60 to 78-year-olds, 4.7%.

But almost a third of consumers say they are turning to "dupes" - affordable copies of more expensive products. Fragrances are the most sought-after health and beauty dupe, with 28% of those who buy cheaper copies admitting to spending on imitation scents.

Karen Johnson, head of retail at Barclays, said: "Despite rising living costs and subdued growth across the rest of the retail sector, the UK's beauty spending highlights a growing emphasis on self-care.

"It's encouraging to see that overall beauty spending has been in growth year-on-year, with August showing the highest level of growth in the past 18 months."