Besides supermarkets and specialist shops, the preferred sales channels for natural cosmetics in France particularly include pharmacies and parapharmacies.

A closer look at this segment clearly shows that the pharmacies with almost 90% still occupy a dominating position. The French manufacturer Lea Nature has two brands in the pharmacy market. As Jeanne Christensen from Lea Nature explained at the Natural Cosmetics Conference in Berlin, the parapharmacies are on the up, however. These are a mixture between pharmacies and drugstores that sell non-prescription medicines, food supplements, cosmetics and wellness products. Seven per cent of these shops belong to supermarket chains and 4per cent are independent chains. The main ranges of this type of shop include inexpensive cosmetics and food supplements.

Whereas the organic specialist trade focuses on ethics and sustainability, performance counts among the pharmacies and parapharmacies. For the majority of their customers, effectiveness and fine packages are more important than organic ingredients. The French consumers’ awareness of critical ingredients has grown enormously particularly in the past years. The share of buyers for natural cosmetics rose from 7% to 25% within the three years from 2007 to 2010.