Amazon Expands Brick-and-Mortar Presence with Beauty & Personal Care Store in Italy

Amazon is taking a bold step into physical retail with the launch of Amazon Parafarmacia & Beauty, a new beauty and personal care store in Milan, Italy. This marks the e-commerce giant’s latest brick-and-mortar expansion, aimed at tapping into the growing demand for in-store beauty shopping experiences.

Amazon Parafarmacia & Beauty: What to Expect

Located in central Milan, the store offers a wide range of beauty, skincare, and personal care products, alongside non-prescription medications. According to Amazon’s official blog post, the first store will open its doors to the public on Wednesday.

Customers will find products from leading beauty brands such as La Roche-Posay, Eucerin, and Vichy. A key feature of the store is its “Derma-bar” stations, where shoppers can receive a complimentary digital skin analysis, helping them understand their skin type and get personalized product recommendations.

Additionally, the store has a dedicated pharmacy section with on-site pharmacists, offering over-the-counter medications and wellness products.

Amazon’s Push into the Beauty & Personal Care Market

With this launch, Amazon is looking to extend its online dominance in the beauty and personal care category into physical retail. The company has seen rapid growth in this segment, which includes cosmetics, skincare, haircare, deodorants, and wellness essentials.

Amazon first entered the health and beauty sector in 2000, initially offering mass-market brands. Over the years, it has expanded to high-end beauty lines such as Estée Lauder and La Mer, catering to a broader audience.

Amazon’s Brick-and-Mortar Strategy: A Work in Progress

The Milan beauty store is the latest in Amazon’s ongoing experimentation with physical retail. The company has previously tested various store formats, including:

• Bookstores, pop-up shops, and four-star stores (all of which have been shut down).
• Amazon Go convenience stores, with some closures in the U.S.
• Grocery retail, where Amazon operates Whole Foods and its Fresh store chain.

While Amazon has scaled back some of its brick-and-mortar operations, its latest beauty and personal care concept signals a fresh approach—leveraging its strong online brand presence to create a unique in-store shopping experience.

Will Amazon’s Beauty Store Succeed?

With beauty and wellness products among its fastest-growing online categories, Amazon is betting that physical interaction, expert consultation, and immersive shopping experiences will drive customers to its new Milan store. If successful, this model could be replicated in other key markets worldwide.

The question remains: Will Amazon finally find the right formula for brick-and-mortar success?

(Sources: cnbc.com, ChatGPT)