Foreign beauty products lead as Eid shopping reaches high gear

Mohammad Wazed Ali | Published: June 23, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Sales of beauty and grooming products have spiked significantly as the Eid-ul-Fitr approaches, according to city market operators.
They, however, said Indian, Thai and British cosmetics are sapping the demand for home-made items significantly in the Dhaka market.
Akash Rahman, owner of Angel Cosmetics in New Market told the FE that Eid shopping has almost reached full gear since the first week of Ramadan passed.
"We noticed that most of the customers preferred foreign brands to local brands, especially Indian and Thai. We sell both products from Uniliver Bangladesh and Hindustan Uniliver. Customers prefer Hindustan Uniliver products to local ones even though the price is almost double," Akash added.
Similar accounts came from shopkeepers from other city markets.
Shoppers in city shopping hubs like the Newmarket, Bashundhara City, Elephant Road, Nilkhet, Farmgate, and Bailyroad were seen rushing to the cosmetics shops as much as they were frequenting fashion stores.
Sabrina Alam, a senior sales clerk of Mustafa Mart, said their sales have also increased after the first week of Ramadan.
"The prices vary greatly, even if the products are of the same brands, depending on where the products were made. Customers value country of origin as importantly as brand distinctions," she said.
Sadia Al-Amin Ria, a student of Dhaka University shopping for beauty products in the New Market area, told the FE that cosmetics are an indispensable part of her Eid-shopping; her concern was about the quality of products as she had not found what she was looking for,"
"Actually it is difficult to get genuine products from most of the shops as they sell counterfeit products in the name of genuine products," she said.
"It is really difficult to identify the counterfeits. I always like products from renowned brands and most of which are Indian and Thai. I also buy very few items of local brands," she added.
Mehedi Hasan, a shopper at Mustafa Mart, said quality is his prime concern in case of buying grooming products.
In this case, he can't keep faith in the local products due to the bad reputation for the local ones: "I come for buying cosmetics products for me and my family. As cosmetics are sensitive, I always like to buy after being sure about the country of origin along with the brands. I can easily rely on foreign brands which have a worldwide reputation."
Arzuda Karim, Director of Kohinoor Chemical Company (Bangladesh) Limited, told the FE that the scenario of Dhaka city is different from rest of the country - the products from Bangladeshi manufacturers also see increased demand during Eid season.
"In the capital, customers often feel only foreign brands offer high-quality products even though we also maintain world-class quality. However, the propensity is changing day by day," she added.
Â Â Â wazeddu@yahoo.com