Beauty Business Journal: More and more people around are turning to online retailers instead of face-to-face stores — but, perhaps surprisingly, it’s Iran that has the highest growth rate for online purchasing. Moojan Asghari is an entrepreneur from Tehran who relocated to Paris in 2012 and co-founded Startup Sesame — an alliance of tech events. After Asghari contributed to a Tehran startup weekend in 2016, she remarked on the large number of women wearing on-trend hijabs and make up. It became clear to Asghari that e-commerce in the Middle East is being reshaped by Iranian women, unlike the largely male-dominated online retail industries in the US and Europe.
But why is online shopping so popular in Iran — and how have Iranian women begun to tap into its business potential?
Political sanctions have, over the course of nearly a decade, set Iran’s economy apart from the rest of the world. Imports were subject to strict limitations and international currencies were restricted. It was only in 2016 that these sanctions were lifted, and the economy is still heavily regulated by the state. Under these restrictions, a number of underground scenes emerged in Iran as individuals and groups sought freedom and self-expression — and the beauty scene was pursued with passion, particularly by Persian women.
Online shopping, along with underground Persian designers and the rise of Iranian beauty and fashion Instagrammers, provided a means for women to acquire and share beauty technology, skin cosmetics and makeup that wasn’t available or on display in public. Beauty and fashion held a sense of subversion, and the online marketplace was far less tightly regulated than physical stores.
Today, online shopping dominates purchasing in Iran. In the Iranian calendar year 1396 (which ended on March 20th 2018) 1,110 trillion rials, or approximately $26.5 billion, was spent on online shopping, according to a report published by the E-Commerce Development Center of Iran. 11% of the country’s GPD was spent online last year, in transactions totaling 1,600 billions rials, or approximately $38 billion. And around 46% of these transactions were in Iran’s capital city, Tehran.
Ehsan Golabgir, CEO of a popular online beauty and fashion portal called Albasco, says that international brands are increasingly flocking to Iran which means that more products are available and the demand is rising in response. Non consumer electronics products, and particularly those that fall within the fashion and beauty sectors, are among those with the fastest growing sales statistics.
The country’s sanctions have prevented the big global names from taking hold of consumer purchasing power here — but where Apple, Amazon and Google have not been able to control the market, space has been created for energetic entrepreneurs to offer alternative products. And startups are prolific and successful; Digikala, for example, is ranked by Alexa as the third most popular website in Iran and is worth more than $150 million. Founded in 2006 by twin brothers Saeed and Hamid Mohammadi, the company’s primary intention is expansion — even if that expansion has a negative effect on profits, says Hamid Mohammadi.
Khanoumi is a popular Iranian startup focusing solely on beauty and cosmetics. It offers simple, consumer-friendly purchasing terms, and stocks an extensive range of makeup, skincare and haircare products. Other startups have a broader scope, stocking non-beauty items as well as their cosmetics lines. But often the beauty section is among the most popular for these multi-market online stores; Bamilo, for example, offers low cost beauty products; and Buyex has recently expanded into the health and beauty sector too >>>
This lady in the photo wearing an Hermes scarf has Asian features! Besides cosmetic surgery is more important than vaginal rejuvenation or bread on the table these days!