For years, the beauty industry has operated under a seemingly indisputable conviction: to grow, one had to expand the assortment. More brands, more references, more ranges, more segments, and more innovation. The logic seemed simple. The more needs a brand covered, the more consumers it could attract.
However, the latest data from the Spanish market point in another direction. Mercadona has reached a 16.2% share in perfumery, consolidating itself as the undisputed leader in the category. The data is relevant in itself, but what is truly interesting is how it got there.
It has not done so by building an offer comparable to that of a large specialized chain. Nor by multiplying references or betting on a strategy of extreme breadth.
It has reached market leadership with one of the most rationalized assortment models in the sector, which could be interpreted as if growth in Beauty no longer depends so much on offering more options as on facilitating better purchasing decisions.
The paradox of beauty
Beauty has traditionally been one of the categories most associated with variety. The sector understood that consumers sought choice, discovery, experimentation, and personalization. Hence the constant proliferation of new launches, formats, variants, and subcategories.
But there is an important difference between what the industry produces and how a large part of consumers actually buys. While the manufacturer competes to differentiate itself, the buyer often faces a much simpler reality: they have little time, seek reliable solutions, and want to minimize the risk of making a mistake.
When a shelf offers dozens of seemingly similar alternatives, abundance ceases to be an automatic advantage. In many cases, it becomes complexity. And complexity rarely improves the shopping experience.
Mercadona does not sell more options; it sells more clarity
Much of Mercadona's success in beauty can be explained from this perspective. Its proposal is not to offer the greatest variety on the market. It is to facilitate choice. The consumer finds fewer references, but also fewer doubts.
The brand selects, simplifies, and prioritizes. Instead of transferring all the responsibility of choice to the customer, it does a significant part of the work beforehand. The consequence is a fast, simple shopping experience with a low level of uncertainty.
It's not just about price. Nor exclusively about private label. It's about clarity. And clarity has enormous value in categories where the offering grows faster than the consumer's ability to process it.
Short assortment also has economic advantages
From the retailer's point of view, simplification also generates benefits that go far beyond the shopping experience.
A more concentrated assortment allows for increased product rotation, optimized inventories, improved space productivity, and reduced operational complexities.
Every linear meter works harder. Every reference must better justify its presence. Every launch competes for a more limited space. The consequence is usually a more efficient and profitable category.
For years, many organizations have measured the success of a category by the number of references incorporated. However, the market is beginning to show that the real question is not how much assortment one has, but how much value each reference brings.
Adding is relatively simple. Selecting requires discipline.
What this leadership tells us about the consumer
Mercadona's growth also reflects a deeper transformation. Today's consumer is exposed to more information, more stimuli, and more options than ever before. Paradoxically, this overabundance is increasing the value of simplicity.
More and more shoppers are looking for brands that act as trusted filters. Companies capable of reducing complexity, selecting for them, and offering sufficiently good solutions without forcing them to invest time and energy in analyzing dozens of alternatives.
Beauty shopping does not disappear as an aspirational experience. But a significant part of the market is ceasing to behave like a cosmetic expert and acting like a pragmatic consumer. And retailers who understand that reality are gaining an advantage.
A lesson for specialists and manufacturers
Mercadona's leadership does not mean that a wide assortment has ceased to make sense. Specialized chains will continue to play a fundamental role in categories where advice, experience, innovation, or depth of offering provide real value. But it does force a rethinking of some beliefs that have been taken for granted for years.
Assortment breadth no longer guarantees growth. Constant innovation does not ensure relevance. And having more references does not necessarily mean selling more.
For manufacturers, the conclusion is especially relevant. Gaining an additional reference on the shelf should no longer be the ultimate goal. The question is whether that reference provides enough differential value to justify the space it occupies.
Because every product that enters a category competes not only against other brands, but also against the growing need for simplification demanded by consumers.
The true lesson
When a supermarket becomes the country's leading beauty retailer, the phenomenon deserves a deeper reading than a simple battle for market share. What we are observing is a change in the rules of value creation.
For years, the industry assumed that growth meant adding. Adding brands. Adding references. Adding options. However, Mercadona's results suggest a different interpretation.
Perhaps the future does not belong to those who offer more. Perhaps it belongs to those who help choose better. Because in a market saturated with alternatives, simplicity is beginning to become a competitive advantage.
And the share achieved by Mercadona demonstrates that, also in Beauty, less can be more.