唇膏消费差异折射社会贫富差距

    大家可能还不知道，我们现在生活在一个全新的零售世界里。这个世界并不仅是一个庞大的消费群体，而是被经济地位划分成两个消费阶层。富裕阶层购买高档商品，贫穷阶层只能努力生存下去。

    这种两极分化的趋势既出现在服装和家用电器方面，也出现在唇膏、睫毛膏和保湿霜的市场。谈到美容产品的销售，有钱人开心购物，而穷人则黯然走开。

    美国美容和个人护理产品销售额近来总体表现低迷。根据欧睿信息咨询公司（Euromonitor）的统计，这个市场去年增长了1.8%，分别低于2012年3.2%的增长和2011年4.3%的增长。

    但是仔细观察高档美容和个人护理用品（售价21美元以上）的销售额，大家会发现完全不同的情况。高档美容产品行业去年的销售额增长了3.3%，在2008年到2013年期间销售额增长了16.9%。另一方面，大众美容产品（售价20美元以下）的销售额在2013年仅增长1.3%，在过去五年的增长幅度也只有8.3%。

    奢华美容产品的销售额较高，这些产品通常在百货商店和丝芙兰、MAC或资生堂等美容产品专卖店出售，反映了美国经济复苏仅限于最高端的消费者。截止到2013年9月，2009年以来美国收入最高的1%人口占据了全部收入增长的95%。结果是，美国收入最高的5%人口支出增长了17%，而收入最低的95%人口支出只增长了1%。

    欧睿信息咨询公司的高级研究分析师弗吉尼亚•李说：“随着股市的良好表现和房地产价格的回升，富裕客户更愿意付钱购买高端产品。”她表示，由于食品券开支削减和医疗保健的不确定性，低收入客户并不具备同样的消费信心，因此药店销售的廉价美容产品业绩不佳。

    比较销售类似美容产品的高端和大众品牌时，富人和穷人的差异更为明显。莎莉汉森（Sally Hansen）主要销售价格在4美元到6美元的指甲油，该品牌在2013年的销售额下降了7.3%。与此同时，艾茜（Essie）品牌销售的每瓶指甲油定价为8美元到8.50美元，销售额同比增长了13.6%。封面女郎（Cover Girl）主要销售廉价化妆品系列，人们可以在沃尔格林药店（Walgreens）和CVS药店找到这些产品，它在2013年的销售额增长了1.9%。相比之下，化妆品售价更昂贵的MAC品牌销售额增长了7.2%。露得清（Neutrogena）销售的4盎司面部保湿乳液每瓶只卖12.99美元，它去年的销售额增长1.3%。倩碧（Clinique）销售的4.2盎司保湿化妆水售价27美元，去年销售额增长了6%。

    当然，销售数字不仅反映了消费者信心，也揭示了零售商的营销策略。完全脱离经济不平等大辩论的一个影响因素就是丝芙兰和Ulta等专业美容产品零售店的迅速增长。这些零售店把声誉良好的品牌从百货公司专柜带到顾客手中，顾客现在感觉更愿意购买昂贵的产品，因为她们可以先试用产品。化妆品订购公司Birchbox也让顾客在家中享受类似的体验。

    此外，零售商也赞同穷人不想购买非必需品的理论。研究家用和个人护理产品行业的消费者前沿公司（Consumer Edge Research）执行董事哈维尔•埃斯卡兰特表示，2013年第三季度，大型零售商都在“消化库存”。这些商店把美容产品撤下走道两端的陈列架，也就是零售卖场吸引消费者冲动型购买的促销区，取而代之的是更实用的商品，这种做法抑制了大众美容产品的销售收入。埃斯卡兰特说：“零售商决定了人们不买睫毛膏，而是购买海绵。从某种程度上说，它成了一个自我实现的预言。”（财富中文网）

    译者：孟洁冰

    If you're not aware already, we're living in a new retail world, where there isn't so much one large consumer base, but two divided by economic status. The well-off are buying bigtime, the worse-off are just trying to survive.

    The bifurcation trend is present in apparel and home appliances, and it's holding true in the land of lipstick, mascara, and moisturizer too. When it comes to beauty product sales, the rich are puckering up, while the poor are pulling away.

    Beauty and personal care sales overall in the United States have been sluggish of late. The market grew 1.8% last year, a slowdown from the 3.2% and 4.3% growth it recorded in 2012 and 2011, respectively, according to Euromonitor.

    But a look at the sales of premium beauty and personal care products (priced $21 and up) tells a slightly different story. In that sector, sales grew 3.3% last year, and there was an increase in sales of 16.9% in the period between 2008 and 2013. On the flip side, sales of mass beauty products (priced $20 and under) grew just 1.3% in 2013 and 8.3% in the past five years.

    The higher sales of luxury beauty products that are typically sold at a department store or stand-alone beauty stores such as Sephora, MAC, or Shiseido reflect the economic recovery that's confined to the upper echelon of consumers. As of September 2013, 95% of the income gains since 2009 have gone to the top 1%. As a result, spending by the top 5% of earners has risen 17%; it's risen just 1% among the bottom 95% of earners.

    "With the good stock market performance and the recovery in housing prices, affluent customers feel comfortable spending on premium products" says Virginia Lee, a senior research analyst at Euromonitor. With food stamp cuts and uncertainty over health care, lower income customers don't have that same confidence, she says, and cheaper beauty products for sale at drugstores have struggled as a result.

    The rich vs. poor divide is obvious when comparing sales of premium and mass brands that sell similar beauty products. Sally Hansen, which sells nail polish that costs between $4 and $6, saw sales decrease by 7.3% in 2013. Sales at Essie, meanwhile, where a bottle of nail polish will run you $8 to $8.50, grew 13.6%. Cover Girl, with its inexpensive line of makeup you can find in any Walgreens (WAG) or CVS (CVS), saw 1.9% growth in 2013. Compare that to MAC's more expensive makeup, whose sales grew 7.2%. Neutrogena, whose 4 oz. bottle of facial moisturizer costs $12.99, saw sales increase 1.3% last year. Clinique, which sells a $27 4.2 oz bottle of moisturizing lotion, saw a 6% bump.

    The sales figures don't only reflect consumer sentiment, of course, but also point to retailers' strategies. One influence that's totally separate from the economic inequality debate is the proliferation of specialty beauty stores Sephora and Ulta, which bring prestige brands out from behind the department store counter and into the hands of consumers, who now feel more comfortable purchasing a pricey product since they can test it first. Subscription box company Birchbox gives customers a similar experience at home.

    And then there's the case of retailers buying into the theory that poorer people don't want discretionary items. In the third quarter of 2013, mass retailers did what's called a "de-stocking," according to Javier Escalante, an executive director at Consumer Edge Research who covers the household and personal care sectors. The stores removed beauty items from aisle endcap displays -- retail real estate known to prompt impulse buys -- and replaced them with more practical items, which helped depress mass beauty sales. "Retailers made the decision that people aren't into mascara, they're into sponges," Escalante says. "In a way, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."