Fenty Magnificence’s arrival to our shores is an thrilling growth, as a result of, whereas the Caribbean is residence to a lot of international manufacturers—from Hallmark to Starbucks to Bulgari—by my expertise, we’ve but to see a lot funding within the magnificence house.
The Caribbean consists of greater than 30 international locations and territories and is residence to round 44 million people. The vast majority of these folks reside on bigger islands like Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, whose populations are every round 11 million. Lots of the smaller islands have considerably fewer inhabitants than that. Barbados, as an example, has a inhabitants underneath 300,000. In comparison with the roughly 333 million folks in the USA, it’s true that, as a area, we don’t have a big shopper base, however inhabitants sizes solely inform half the story.
Caribbean shoppers are, and have all the time been, very lively contributors within the magnificence business. It’s simply more durable to trace. “Loads of the larger manufacturers do not enterprise into the Caribbean house, as a result of they do not suppose we have now any model spend,” Shantal Martin, a Barbadian magnificence influencer and content material creator, tells Attract. That’s not less than partially as a result of magnificence lovers within the Caribbean have needed to get inventive in the case of buying the newest launches. Transport magnificence merchandise on to the Caribbean isn’t all the time out there—as an example, neither Sephora nor Ulta ship to any of the islands that are not U.S. territories. Whereas massive, multi-category retailers like Nordstrom and Macy’s do supply expansive international transport choices, transport to the Caribbean takes longer and can seemingly incur extremely excessive import charges and duties upon arrival, making it cost-prohibitive for a lot of.
It then turns into a little bit of self-fulfilling prophecy: The absence of brick and mortar shops, together with excessive transport prices and import duties on merchandise despatched on to the Caribbean, implies that Caribbean shoppers usually tend to make their purchases once they journey to areas the place their favourite manufacturers are extra simply accessible. In consequence, there’s no proof that Caribbean-based shoppers are certainly buying these merchandise (and belief me, we’re!) and so there’s little incentive for manufacturers to arrange store right here.
And it’s not nearly your favourite manufacturers or merchandise merely being out there on island; the dearth of entry in our markets implies that many are lacking out on profession alternatives that the billion-dollar beauty business gives.
“[In] magnificence, all the pieces is trending quick. And in the event you’re not on it instantly, then you definately sort of miss out,” Martin says. “If [products] are simply not accessible on the island, then I miss out fully on alternatives to be part of trending subjects inside such [an] ever-changing social house. It positively impacts me, as a creator, financially.”
That isn’t to say that the wonder retail market right here is totally barren. There are many accessible drugstore manufacturers like Maybelline and L’Oréal, and you may entry a variety of high-end fragrances in our native duty-free division retailer. There’s additionally an rising resell market the place enterprising people will bulk buy merchandise abroad and promote them domestically. However model new merchandise, particularly from non-drugstore traces, are nonetheless troublesome to seek out. If I wished to strive a 2024 launch from Allure’s Best of Beauty Awards, as an example, I’d seemingly nonetheless must discover a method to supply most of them from overseas.
