Tag Archives: retail trends

10/04/2023 · 14:03

Cosmoprof Bologna 2023: [Show Report]

This year’s Cosmoprof Bologna took place from 16th to 20th March 2023 and it was a blast! The energy of this fair almost felt like the pre-pandemic Bologna shows and looking at the official trade show stats, Cosmoprof Bologna 2023 was indeed almost back to its 2019 strength [2019 was the last year that the fair took place before the pandemic; the first post-pandemic show happened in May 2022].

According to organisers BolognaFiere, a total of 2,964 exhibitors from 64 countries participated in the show while visitor numbers reached 250,000 attendees from 153 countries. This is still a bit less than the 2019 numbers (3,033 exhibitors, 265,000+ visitors) but it’s majorly impressive nonetheless, considering the current economic and geopolitical situation in Europe.

Halls (15)

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20/02/2023 · 17:56

Vivaness 2023: [Show Report]

In 2023, the world’s most important organic beauty trade show Vivaness (together with its sister show Biofach) finally took place again at its traditional time of year: in February! 14th to 17th February, to be precise. Nuremberg is usually rainy and cold (and on occasion snowy) in February but this week the weather was pretty great throughout – blue sky and sunshine, with moderate temperatures.

Anyway, it was wonderful to be back at Vivaness in the show’s usual Hall 3C. At last year’s trade show (Vivaness 2022 had been postponed to July so it was a summer edition), the beauty exhibitors had been dribbled around the Biofach halls rather than grouped in a single exhibition hall, which wasn’t great. But in 2023, everything was back to normal. More or less.

Intro (1)

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08/12/2022 · 20:17

Cosmoprof Asia Singapore 2022 [Show Report]

Singapore! This is where Cosmoprof Asia 2022 took place this year. Hong Kong still has a lot of pandemic restrictions (presumably thanks to its mainland China overlords and that government‘s spectacularly restrictive and ineffectual zero covid policy) so the organisers decided to relocate Asia-Pacific’s most important trade show rather than cancel it outright. And I’m very happy they did. Relocate the fair, that is. This was first in-person Cosmoprof Asia since 2019 (and my first Asian trade show since Cosme Tokyo in January 2020) and it was marvellous to be finally back in Asia.

Halls (4)

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06/05/2022 · 15:08

Cosmoprof Bologna 2022: [Show Report]

Finally! The first in-person Cosmoprof Bologna show (28th April to 2nd May 2022) since the pandemic began and although the Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese contingents were almost non-existent this year (Korea was the only Asian country with a major presence at the show), the world’s biggest cosmetics trade fair started its first edition in the New Normal with 2,700+ exhibitors from 70 countries and 26 country pavilions. Over 220,000 visitors from 140 countries attended the show.

If you’re interested in what the pre-pandemic trade shows were like: here are the links to my previous articles: Cosmoprof Bologna 2019, Cosmoprof Bologna 2018, Cosmoprof Bologna 2017 and Cosmoprof Bologna 2016.

halls (2)

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05/01/2022 · 09:27

Cosmoprof Asia Digital Week 2021: [Show Report]

Well, the second edition of virtual trade show Cosmoprof Asia Digital Week has come and gone. First introduced in 2020 as a substitute for the cancelled Cosmoprof Asia trade show in Hong Kong, CADW 2021 had the same format as last year’s show (here’s the link to my Cosmoprof Asia Digital Week 2020 article) – the Match & Meet database for exhibitors and visitors, online exhibitor database, Cosmotalks lectures, Cosmostage product demonstrations. The whole event took place from 8th to 16th November 2021.

This year I was registered as Media/Press so I didn’t have access to Match & Meet but still found a lot of interesting beauty brands and trends, so let’s jump right in!

CADW title pic

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05/05/2020 · 21:11

Vivaness 2020: [Show Report]

I began writing this trade show review just after Vivaness 2020, the world’s biggest organic beauty trade show, had ended. That was in late February and just a few weeks before Corona arrived in Europe.

Then came the lockdown and cancelled travel plans and all the rest of it, and other things in my life took priority – like tidying up my collection of cooking spices, cleaning out various cupboards and watching a lot of 1980s and 1990s TV series on DVD.

However, now that things in Germany have started to inch towards a precarious kind of (new) normality I decided that it was high time to finish this article. Which I did. Yay me. So if you detect a certain patchiness to this text that’s why: parts of it were written pre-Corona, the rest post-Corona. Or PreC and PostC. February and Vivaness seem like a very long time ago. Anyway.

This year’s Vivaness took place from 12th to 15th February in Nuremberg, a pretty medium-sized historic city in the Frankonia region of Germany. Vivaness and its sister trade fair Biofach (the biggest organic food products expo in the world) are an annual fixture on the European organic industry trade fair circuit.

The first Biofach show took place back in 1990 so this expo’s been around for 30 years. In 1999 the trade fair moved to Nuremberg and in 2007 Biofach’s organic beauty section was spun off into a separate trade show, Vivaness. The two trade fairs always take place in February and, incidentally, pretty much always in rain and snow. February in Nuremberg can be cold!

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14/12/2019 · 20:21

Retail notes from Hong Kong: [Show Report] Cosmoprof Asia 2019

As you can imagine, this year’s Cosmoprof Asia was massively overshadowed by the political situation in Hong Kong (#StandWithHongKong).

Many international exhibitors had cancelled their appearance at short notice, the majority of attendees from mainland China (one of the biggest visitor demographics for Cosmoprof Asia) also decided to skip the show this year; and so did quite a few international visitors.

I had booked my usual Wan Chai hotel in walking distance of HKCEC and my part of the neighbourhood remained fairly quiet this week so I felt pretty safe throughout my entire stay in Hong Kong. And I did enjoy Cosmoprof Asia 2019 despite everything!

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03/06/2019 · 14:02

Retail notes from Seoul: [Show Report] Cosmobeauty 2019

This was my fourth visit to Cosmobeauty Seoul and I must say, this trade fair is getting better every year. The 2019 edition took place from 9th-11th April 2019 and it was so busy; it definitely felt much more crowded than last year. Official figures confirm this: according to the organisers 52,376 visitors attended the 2019 trade fair (last year’s Cosmobeauty attracted 50,673 attendees). And, on a personal note, there were so many Westerners/foreigners amongst the visitors this year!

I remember my first Cosmobeauty in 2016: there were just a handful of foreign faces then. I guess it goes to show how K-beauty continues to influence the international beauty industry. Or something. Anyway, if you’re interested in the trade show review of my previous visits, you can check out Cosmobeauty 2016, Cosmobeauty 2017 or Cosmobeauty 2018.

And here are the official facts and figures about Cosmobeauty 2019! The exhibition space reached 11,088 m2 this year and there were around 520 exhibition booths with a total of 373 exhibitors from 13 countries – a significant increase compared to the 2018 edition of the show with its 342 exhibitors. The majority of exhibitors – 308 companies – were Korean, the remaining 65 companies came from Europe, China, South East Asia and the US.

Cosmobeauty 2019 also felt a lot more trend-driven than the previous shows – exhibitors came from the organic/natural sector and from the green/clean category; there were several young millennial-style brands and quite a few start-ups. The organisers also added some exciting features in 2019: a new section was the “Rookies of the Year” showcase which introduced interesting new exhibitors and their product innovations. Altogether a very exciting show!

And now let’s jump straight in! Click on the link below to read about some of my favourite brand discoveries.

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28/03/2019 · 23:38

Cosmoprof Bologna 2019: [Show Report]

Cosmoprof Bologna becomes more fun every year. This was my third visit to the world’s biggest C&T trade show (well, the fourth if you count my Cosnova-sponsored overnight visit from 2016 – and while I’m at it, here are my trade show reviews from 2017 and 2018!).

By now I know the basic layout of the halls (although I still get lost in the CS (Centro Servizio – press office, event rooms, store, pharmacy, post office etc.) every single time because the different sections are just so badly signposted!).

I know which buses go to the trade show from the city centre (an important consideration when selecting my accommodation!) and, almost more importantly, which of these bus lines are diverted on the weekends because Bologna’s historic city centre turns into a pedestrian zone on Saturdays and Sundays.

And I can rest assured that I won’t need to get morning espresso fix in the city before heading to the trade show centre (like I would in any German city) because the cafés at Bologna Fiera serve excellent espresso for 1.20 Euro and a 1 ½ littre bottle of water retails for 3 Euro. Water and caffeine, two trade show essentials!

Click on the link below for an overview of some of my favourite brand discoveries at this year’s Cosmoprof Bologna!

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02/12/2018 · 20:36

Retail notes from Hong Kong: [Show Report] Cosmoprof Asia 2018

The 23rd edition of Cosmoprof Asia was amazing and super busy. It was my fifth visit to Asia-Pacific’s largest C&T trade show and by now I know many of the exhibiting beauty brands and companies.

Cosmoprof Hong Kong is a great place to meet up with people because almost everyone in the Asia-related international beauty industry tends to be there. The trade show has become a very social event for me, with lots of meetings and coffee dates. It’s so much fun catching up with everyone!

And although this means less time to walk the floor and check out exhibitors and brands, Cosmoprof Asia – the finished cosmetics/retail beauty part of the C&T trade show – is so big that you never manage to see everything anyway. There are only three days allocated to the HKCEC trade show and even if you start at 9.30am sharp (which is when the halls open) and stay until 6pm, the days are never long enough.

Still, I managed to post a total of 30 Instagram pics/brand profiles during those three days – well done me! – and now I’ll introduce the most interesting of these brands (plus a few others that didn’t make it into my Insta coverage) in more detail.

Click on the link below for more info!

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