To remove excess: retail chains have reduced the range of cosmetics
Russian retailers have begun to reduce the range of cosmetics after several years of active expansion of the offer. In January–August 2026, the number of brands of face care products and decorative cosmetics presented in offline stores decreased by 13.6% year-on—year, and hair care products - by 7.5%, Izvestia found out. Retailers explain the revision of the assortment by a more careful selection of new products, and experts attribute this trend, among other things, to the flow of customers to marketplaces and consumer fatigue from many similar products.
How has the representation of cosmetics and household chemicals brands changed?
According to the results of January–August 2026, the range of face care products and decorative cosmetics in Russian retail chains decreased by 13.6% compared to the same period in 2025. This follows from the review of the consumer goods market (FMCG) by the analytical company N – Data Factory (formerly Nielsen), which was reviewed by Izvestia. The range of clothing care products decreased even more noticeably — by 15.1%. In the category of child care products, the indicator decreased by 10.8%, air fresheners — by 10.1%, hair care products — by 7.5%. At the same time, the average range of online retail in the FMCG market decreased by only 0.6% in the first eight months of 2026. The study is based on an audit of more than 150 retail chains.
Market participants themselves evaluate the dynamics of these categories in different ways. In the Rainbow Smile network (part of the Lenta group), the assortment increased by 9.3% on average over the year, said a company representative. In particular, according to him, the number of brands of air fresheners increased by 21.5%, and facial care products and decorative cosmetics — by 9.7%. Auchan Retail Russia did not disclose specific figures, but acknowledged that the cosmetics market continues to change in 2026. Izvestia sent inquiries to X5 and Magnit.
After the departure of a number of foreign brands, Russian manufacturers actively occupied the vacant niches, said the representative of Auchan. According to Nielsen, 11,912 new brands appeared in all FMCG categories in 2024 alone. Among the areas with the most active launch of new products were face, hair and body care products, as well as laundry and cleaning products.
The retailers themselves confirmed the growing presence of domestic cosmetics. Thus, in the first half of 2025, Russian brands accounted for about 40% of the Golden Apple product range, the company reported. According to the Cooper service, the share of domestic brands in cosmetics sales has almost doubled from 2022 to 2025, from 22% to 43% in the first half of 2025.
After the rapid expansion of the product range, some of the new products could not withstand competition for a buyer, said a top manager of a large retail chain. According to Nielsen, of the FMCG brands that appeared in 2024, 14% had already disappeared from store shelves by 2026. At the same time, the pace of new product launches is slowing down: by the end of 2025, 8.8 thousand new brands entered the market - 25.9% less than a year earlier.
Another reason for the reduction in the range was consumer fatigue from excessive choice, says Irina Amosova, CEO of Estilab. According to her, after the departure of a number of foreign brands, new opportunities opened up for domestic manufacturers, but it became difficult for customers to navigate a large number of often similar products. As a result, consumers do not want to independently understand the variety of products on the shelves and prefer brands that they already know, she explained.
Against this background, retailers have begun to take a more balanced approach to bringing new products to the market. For example, Rainbow Smile develops categories based on demand dynamics and consumer preferences, while Auchan focuses on the most in-demand products and creates a more thoughtful assortment. Now every new product item (SKU) is undergoing in-depth analysis, the retailer's representative said. And in July, Globus launched a new concept for the beauty department with an AI consultant, its representative added.
How marketplaces affect the reduction of the assortment
The range of traditional retail can be influenced by the redistribution of consumer demand in favor of online stores and marketplaces, said the chairman of the Association of Omnichannel Retail Companies (ACORT) Stanislav Bogdanov. Most often, representatives of generation Z go online, said the representative of Auchan.
According to the analytical company, in January–August 2026, the share of online sales in the child care category in monetary terms reached 52.6% against 48.5% a year earlier. In the category of hair care products, this figure increased from 42.6% to 51.4%. In the third quarter, hair care products had the highest share of sales in the online market in terms of money - 56.2% (+9.5 percentage points compared to January—September 2025), according to data from N–Data Factory.
In the first six months of 2026, the number of articles of facial care products on Wildberries increased by 15%, care cosmetics - by 6%, air fresheners — by 9%, child care products — by 15%, and clothing care products — by 1%. At the same time, the number of articles of hair care products has not changed. The company did not disclose data for July–August.
In eight months, sales of clothing care products have doubled year—on-year at Ozon, and face and hair care products have doubled 1.8 and 1.5 times, respectively, said his representative.
Izvestia also sent inquiries to a representative of Yandex Market.
The ICMR data also shows a decrease in consumer activity in traditional retail. In August 2026, the frequency of purchases in drogeri format stores specializing in the sale of cosmetics, household chemicals and other non-food consumer goods decreased by 4.8% year-on-year. Against this background, retail chains are looking for additional ways to attract customers to stores. In September, Auchan opened a corner of the shop-in-shop "Territory of Beauty" format in the Aviapark shopping center.
At the same time, the reduction in the number of brands on the market does not mean a decrease in consumer interest in the category, the Lenta representative emphasized. Thus, according to Nielsen, sales of hair care products in all channels in January–August 2026 increased in monetary terms by 19.5% year-on-year, and in physical terms by 6%, despite the reduction in the assortment in traditional retail chains. In Rainbow Smile, sales increased by 9% in physical terms, and by more than 15% in monetary terms, a representative of the chain said.
The share of Russian goods in certain segments of household chemicals and cosmetics has already reached about 95%, Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Roman Chekushov said at SPIEF 2026. The development of domestic production is also facilitated by the own brands of retail chains.: They provide orders to medium and small enterprises of the industry, Stanislav Bogdanov drew attention to. According to him, retailers are interested in competitive products that are in demand by consumers. Therefore, the choice of goods for customers will remain diverse. Globus expects the development of the cosmetics range, as the supply exceeds the capacity of the retailer's shelf.
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