Thailand's beauty and personal care market: what consumers want

Revenue from Thailand’s beauty and personal care market continues to grow an estimated 22.27% between 2023-2027, to reach USD7.0 billion. The country’s skincare and cosmetics product sectors are one of the largest in Southeast Asia. The market for the prestige category of cosmetics and fragrances alone amounted to USD487 million in 2022. These figures from Statista suggests a strong and promising market for the next few years.

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In a new Kantar report titled 2023 Thailand Beauty Trends, Howard Chang, managing director for Kantar (Thailand and Malaysia), said the colour makeup category was among the first to recover after the pandemic, as do facial products that specifically offer the promise of healthier skin. He said growth is coming from higher priced products favoured for the advanced technologies that deliver efficacy and pampering. The report further suggests that consumers are willing to pay more for such products if those will work as formulated. On the other side, affordable mass market products that contain natural ingredients also contribute to the growth, as Thai consumers demonstrate more price sensibility amid inflation.

In the prestige / luxury brands, anti-ageing and serum/essence are the driving segments of the outperforming beauty brands. For mass market brands, they are eye/brow liners; serum/essence; facial UV, and moisturisers, the report also says. Having shared this, the main goal of consumers is specially to have healthier skin.

E-commerce and social media made a good impact on the revenue of the beauty sector during the pandemic, and expect these to continue influencing consumer behaviour and purchasing. But as the pandemic eases, the demand for affordable and effective products is on the rise.

The ASEAN Personal Care Technology Summit which will take place from 15-16 June 2023 in the Pullman Bangkok Grande Sukhumvit hotel in Bangkok, aims to provide a broader aspect of the beauty and personal care in Thailand. Targeted at mostly processors and manufacturers that wish to develop new products with new materials, the agenda will include relevant topics on sustainability and innovations, applications of raw materials and ingredients, processing technologies as well as improving packaging designs.  The event will include presentations from The Thai Spa association, the Thai Cosmetic Cluster Association, the Thai Design Packaging Association, and the National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC), as well as topics from speakers from the Kasetsart University and Mahidol University. China-based companies will also present their innovations to Thai event delegates. This hybrid event is still open for those interested in understanding the Thai market, simply click on registration.