Amazon is the leading beauty retailer in Europe, but new challengers are swiftly emerging there, according to NielsenIQ Digital Purchases.
reigns supreme in online beauty across Europe, ranking first in eight out of 10 major countries there. But other platforms — especially“It’s the fastest-growing merchant in the U.K., Belgium and Austria,” said Agathe Apollin, beauty sales lead Western Europe at NielsenIQ Digital Purchases, during a recent virtual video presentation of its study “Beauty E-commerce 2026: The New Rules of Growth.
”Shop is rapidly gaining traction across continental Europe, wherever it has launched,” she continued.
“It’s now the fastest-growing player in those markets, entering the top five in Germany, in Italy, in Ireland, and even reaching number two in the U.K.” The landscape varies widely by geography, though. In France, for instance, secondhand marketplace Vinted and the direct-to-consumer brand Aroma-Zone each rank within the top five. ’s position in online beauty,” Apollin said.
“But at the same time, you can see that new business models, from social commerce to resale and DTC, are reshaping the competition landscape across Europe. ”“One of them is the strong appeal to male shoppers,” Apollin said.
“While many competitors remain more female-skewed in beauty, men actually account for around half of Amazon’s beauty sales in value. Also, beauty specialist shoppers — from Sephora to Nocibé to Notino to Primor to Douglas — to name a few are actually spending a lot on Amazon.
“In fact, Amazon is their number-one destination in Italy and in the U.K., and a top player in Germany, France and Spain,” Apollin said. “A significant share of consumers buy beauty exclusively on Amazon — from around 18 percent in France to up to 37 percent in Italy,” Apollin said. Category-wise, Amazon leads across most beauty segments in the EU five — which counts the U.K., Italy, Germany, Spain and France — except in fragrance.
“Skin care is where Amazon is really gaining momentum, with market-share growth across all countries,” Apollin said, adding dermocosmetics really stands out in the segment. “It’s a category where Amazon has progressively built leadership and continues to gain share across the EU five. That success in a more expert segment is now helping Amazon move further into prestige beauty progressively.
”“Amazon now ranks among the top four across the EU five,” Apollin said, noting the momentum is particularly strong in key markets such as Germany, the U.K. and France, where Amazon is the fastest-growing merchant in the category.
“In Spain, it also delivers strong performance, ranking as the second-fastest growing player, just behind Primor. ” Concurrently, new players are reshaping the competitive European online landscape, therefore impacting the performance of established beauty e-merchants. A concrete example isShop. The platform was originally seen as being mainly for discovery and inspiration.
But it’s now climbing the beauty online rankings. TikTok Shop was launched in the U.K., its first European market, in August 2021, then relaunched officially there at the end of 2022. Today, the platform is the country’s second-largest beauty retailer.
“Beyond the U.K., we see the same momentum across Spain, Ireland, Germany and Italy, where it has been launched more recently and is now in the top 10 for all those countries,” Apollin said. “This acceleration of TikTok Shop highlights a clear shift in consumer purchasing behavior online through social commerce. “TikTok Shop is not just shifting demand from other online players, it attracts new beauty players and new beauty buyers,” she added.
“Around 30 percent of shoppers on TikTok Shop had not bought beauty online in the previous 12 months, and we see this consistently in markets like Germany, Italy and France. ” Shoppers migrating to TikTok Shop from other retailers are increasing their total outlay on beauty, too.
“On average, these consumers spend 40 euros more on beauty year-on-year after moving to the platform,” Apollin said. “TikTok Shop is often perceived as an entry-price or mass-beauty platform, but … it’s broader than that. ” Some key performance indicators: In the U.K., 27 percent of prestige beauty buyers purchased beauty on TikTok Shop as well over the past 12 months, and it is the same for beauty specialist shoppers, with 30 percent overlap.
“So TikTok Shop is not replacing prestige or specialist channels, it’s becoming a complementary touch point in the purchase journey,” Apollin said. “That’s really reinforcing the growing relevance across the entire beauty spectrum, including among premium consumers. ”“Across markets, we see challenger brands such as P.Louise, Be Perfect, Lattafa and Dr.Melaxin scaling quickly on the platform,” Apollin said.
“At the same time, well-established players that launched on TikTok Shop, like L’Oréal Paris, for example, are among the top brands in value in several countries. ” Lattafa, a United Arab Emirates-based brand, is a particularly strong example, ranking among the top-five beauty brands by value in Spain, France, Germany and Italy. It has registered an almost 250 percent increase in sales versus two years ago, driven by early adoption on TikTok Shop across Western European markets.
“The brand successfully leveraged third-party sellers, a strong value-for-money positioning, often presented as an affordable alternative to luxury fragrances and highly engaging TikTok-native content,” Apollin said. “As a result, Lattafa is today the number-one beauty brand on TikTok Shop in Europe, highlighting how social commerce can enable rapid multimarket scale.
”“At total e-comm, at just eight months after launch, Joybuy has already reached 2.3 percent of the German online market and around 1 percent of Belgium, which is the best start for a new platform,” Apollin said. Although such penetration levels are modest today, it is clear a new player can speedily gain traction online.
In the Netherlands and Belgium, Joybuy’s most advanced European markets, the platform’s first product category is groceries, but beauty is already playing an important role in the business. It’s Joybuy’s number-two category in Belgium and fourth in the Netherlands. With about 0.3 percent online beauty penetration Joybuy remains small. Yet, “there is still significant room for growth ahead, and it will be key to monitor its performance in the coming months,” she continued.
Primor, the Spanish beauty retailer, is another disruptive online beauty player. It entered the French market in October 2023 with a dedicated French version of its website. There are no physical Primor stores in France, where the traction online has been exceptionally fast, according to Apollin.
“In less than a year, Primor has already reached the number-seven position in online fragrances in value, while its customer base has doubled year-on-year,” she said, adding the growth is qualitative. “Sixty-one percent of Primor’s shoppers are new to the fragrance category in France. So Primor is not just taking from competition, it’s actually expanding the markets.
That said, of course, the competitive pressure is still visible, especially on Notino, Nocibé and Sephora, where we see an important switch from those retailers to Primor in fragrances. ” Fragrances represent about 70 percent of Primor’s sales online in France. But to get a sense of what the future might hold, it is important to look at Primor in its home market of Spain, where it is more mature.
There, Primor is already the number-two beauty retailer, with steady market-share growth over the past years.
“Most importantly, their model is much more diversified,” Apollin said, explaining fragrances are still key, but skin care, hair care and makeup all contribute significantly to its business. “Primor is number-one in fragrances online in Spain, but also number two in skin care and hair care. ” Aroma-Zone is an example of yet another disruptor, as the French clean and holistic beauty brand and retailer gains ground.
In France, the site already ranks second in skin care, while in Belgium it’s moved swiftly from the number-12 position to number six.
“Aroma-Zone is expanding beyond beauty,” Apollin said. “Vitamins, minerals and supplements are now the second-biggest category in France and number three in Belgium. ”WWD and Women's Wear Daily are part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Fairchild Publishing, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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