Fenty Magnificence’s arrival to our shores is an thrilling growth, as a result of, whereas the Caribbean is residence to a lot of world 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 stay on bigger islands like Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, whose populations are every round 11 million. Most of the smaller islands have considerably fewer inhabitants than that. Barbados, as an illustration, has a inhabitants beneath 300,000. In comparison with the roughly 333 million folks in the US, it’s true that, as a area, we don’t have a big shopper base, however inhabitants sizes solely inform half the story.
Caribbean customers are, and have all the time been, very energetic contributors within the magnificence trade. It’s simply tougher to trace. “A number of the larger manufacturers do not enterprise into the Caribbean house, as a result of they do not suppose now we have any model spend,” Shantal Martin, a Barbadian magnificence influencer and content material creator, tells Attract. That’s a minimum of partially as a result of magnificence lovers within the Caribbean have needed to get artistic with regards to buying the newest launches. Delivery magnificence merchandise on to the Caribbean isn’t all the time accessible—as an illustration, neither Sephora nor Ulta ship to any of the islands that are not U.S. territories. Whereas giant, multi-category retailers like Nordstrom and Macy’s do provide expansive world transport choices, transport to the Caribbean takes longer and can possible 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, signifies that Caribbean customers usually tend to make their purchases after they journey to areas the place their favourite manufacturers are extra simply accessible. Consequently, there’s no proof that Caribbean-based customers 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 accessible on island; the dearth of entry in our markets signifies that many are lacking out on profession alternatives that the billion-dollar beauty trade offers.
“[In] magnificence, all the pieces is trending quick. And for those who’re not on it instantly, then you definately type 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 sweetness retail market right here is totally barren. There are many accessible drugstore manufacturers like Maybelline and L’Oréal, and you may entry a spread 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 regionally. However model new merchandise, particularly from non-drugstore traces, are nonetheless tough to seek out. If I needed to strive a 2024 launch from Allure’s Best of Beauty Awards, as an illustration, I’d possible nonetheless must discover a technique to supply most of them from overseas.
