Monitoring of retail prices on the perfumery & cosmetics market of Moscow in August 2009. Is there any true classical “discounter”?

Decreasing of consumer activity during financial crisis makes the majority of retailers reduce prices for perfumery and cosmetic products. Many consider it as an effective way not just to increase total revenues, but to maximize profits as well. However, real benefits are obtained by those retailers only, who could get two times sales increase as a result of the carried out reduction of the prices. And the maximum benefits from the reduction of prices would be received by the so-called “discounters”, as this is the only concept allowing to minimize all the expenses, and to maximize the in-store traffic of consumers. Presently, there is no true and clearly defined “discounter” on the perfumery and cosmetics market of Russia, as many of the market players for the most part are still falling between two stools. Bellow there are some sample retail prices of Moscow’s retailers on August 15-20, 2009.

Eau de toilette 50 ml                             58                              47                    58          45            58

Eau de toilette 90 ml                             76                              49                    78          59            80

Eau de toilette 50 ml                             58                              38                    58          45

Eau de toilette 50 ml                             63             67              50                    64          57

Eau de toilette 50 ml                             61             63                                                   54            60

Eau de toilette 50 ml                             67             71              50                                  68

Mascara Hypnose #1                           32             32                                                   32

REN MLIFT RARE Creme 50 ml           95             95                                                   95

Eau de parfum  50 ml                            77                              36                    78          70

Eau de toilette 40 ml                                                               33                    49          44

Mascara volume #1                            30              32                                                  30

ROUGE VOLUPTE lipstick                   32              32                                                  30

Eau de toilette 50 ml                             60              54             54                                  60

Eau de toilette 100 ml                           81              86             73                                  81

Eau de toilette 50 ml                             64              67                                                  64

Eau de toilette 100 ml                           88              93                                                  88

Eau de parfum  50 ml                            84              89                                                  84

Eau de parfum  35 ml                            60              63                                                  60

Mascara «Inimitable»                          31              32                                                  31

Eau de parfum  30 ml                            56              56                                                  54

Eau de toilette 75 ml                             72              72                                                  68

Eau de toilette 30 ml                             44              51             37                    44          42

Eau de parfum  50 ml                            76              87             57                                 72

Eau de toilette 30 ml                             47              47                                                  48

Eau de toilette 30 ml                             35              36                                                  34

Eau de parfum  50 ml                            52              51             44                    52          49            52

Eau de toilette 50 ml                                              77                                                  52

Resilience Lifting Eye Creme             46              48                                                  41

* –  1 euro = 45 rubls