What is flaconi

 

Online purchases make out a rapidly growing portion of all beauty sales worldwide. While the entire market is growing by an annual 7%, e-Commerce now accounts for almost half of all beauty purchases. No wonder that brands and retailers alike flock to the internet, either to their direct-to-consumer channels, or to well-known platforms like Amazon and flaconi.

 

You never heard of flaconi? Here’s your chance.

 

 

Introducing flaconi

Founded in 2011 and based in Berlin, flaconi is a German online retailer of beauty products, including perfume, skin and hair care products, makeup, beauty tools, and more. The platform has around 3 million active customers and works with approximately 1,000 brands listing 50,000 products.

 

 

Screenshot of flaconi.de displaying flaconi’s homepage

 

 

The company is committed to acting responsibly towards its customers, employees, and the environment. This includes experimenting with innovative, plastic-free packaging materials, powering its logistics headquarters with electricity stemming from 100% renewable sources, and offering flexible working conditions to its employees.

 

flaconi opts to work only with brands and manufacturers and excludes third-party sellers, which is kind of a rarity in the world of e-Commerce. This means that customers are guaranteed to get original products. Premium brands like Prada, Burberry, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, and many others trust flaconi with their products.

 

flaconi’s annual sales value reached 514 million euros in 2024, a sharp 31.7% incline from the previous year. No wonder that the company currently occupies the fourth place on the list of the most popular online beauty retailers in Germany behind dm.de, douglas.de, and parfumo.de. International revenue constitutes around 20% of all revenue, with further increases highly likely in the future, as flaconi’s international business currently grows at triple-digit rates.

 

As for technology, flaconi uses a mobile-first approach, preferring simple solutions over complexity, which has allowed for scalable growth and prioritizes user experience. This combination of premium products, trustworthy shipping, and a customer-centric approach provides an excellent basis for growth.

 

 

Flaconi expands to Europe

Due to its rising success, flaconi leaped and expanded to 11 other European countries by mid-2025, including France, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and the Czech Republic. Moreover, further expansion is planned to seven more countries throughout 2026.

 

 

The key features of successful online beauty platforms like flaconi

Given the nature of beauty products, selling them online requires a certain approach. Taking a look at flaconi and other platforms like caretobeauty.com, we can definitely draw attention to a few important features.

 

• Offering a curated selection of brands and products. While image is very important for all brands, it’s perhaps not surprising that in the beauty industry, image is everything. No wonder that flaconi carefully selects which brands to work with and which products to offer.
But quality doesn’t necessarily equal luxury. A diverse offering of brands (both luxury and everyday) is important for the platform to attract customers with different means. flaconi does a good job of catering to a large array of tastes and budgets while maintaining its image of an authentic beauty platform.

 

• Authenticity has to be shown in different ways. For example, detailed, transparent product information, honest reviews, and efficient customer service are all required features of successful online beauty marketplaces.

 

• Seamless user experience. Providing a stellar shopping journey from start to finish is a must in the world of beauty e-Commerce. Personalized offers, fast and secure checkout options, as well as convenient shipping methods, are just a few examples of the mixture required for a seamless shopping experience.

 

Discover more about the importance of a great online shopping experience

 

Hyper-personalization is among the hottest e-Commerce trends of beauty products this year. Thanks to innovations like artificial intelligence and augmented reality, beauty brands are now able to offer features online that were previously only accessible to physical retail. Customers can upload a picture and receive personalized recommendations for their skin care routine, makeup choices, and so on. Similarly, they can virtually try on various shades of eyeliner, lip gloss, etc.

 

 

Screenshot of sephora.my promoting the virtual try-on features of the Sephora smartphone app

 

 

However, competing with the personalization levels of physical retail and maintaining quality as well as authenticity are still significant challenges for online beauty sales, especially for marketplaces that work with third-party sellers. Because in that case, the danger of counterfeits and grey market products becomes much more pronounced.

 

 

Grey market issues in beauty e-Commerce

Counterfeits often steal the stage in online brand protection. No wonder: the dangers of fake products are prominent and easy to grasp. Unfortunately, this usually means there’s simply not enough time and resources left for dealing with grey markets, although they’re just as dangerous, if not more so.

 

Grey markets form when original products are sold outside of their brand’s authorized distribution network. This can happen in many cases, like when a manufacturer creates excess products and sells them to third parties, a distributor derails a shipment, or even when an authorized seller offers the products outside of their agreed selling zone.

 

Grey markets are problematic because they distort your pricing and undermine the trust within your distribution network. Your products, offered cheaper than authorized, create competition for your honest sellers, eroding their trust in you and damaging your reputation.

 

While the better deals may seem promising to customers, this is not a win for them either. Grey market products often arrive in damaged or unoriginal packaging (especially if the manufacturer supplying the branded packaging is not a part of the grey market operation), which is highly disadvantageous for your brand image and authenticity. Besides, grey market sellers are not known for their customer-centric approach, which usually results in subpar customer service, faulty warranties, and another blow to your reputation.

 

Ignoring and downplaying the dangers of grey markets contributes to their increasing proliferation in digital trade. Brands and businesses must recognize and address the challenge before it’s too late.

 

 

Related topics

The beauty industry in e-Commerce

 

International e-Commerce expansion and brand protection

 

16 top European countries for cross-border commerce

 

 

Brand protection on flaconi and other online beauty marketplaces

Due to flaconi’s commitment to only work with brands and manufacturers, it’s unlikely for counterfeit or grey market products to make their way to the platform. However, what’s unlikely is not impossible. In addition, since other beauty marketplaces still allow third-party sellers to use their platforms, it’s important to protect your IP rights to nip damaging infringements in the bud.

 

Our online monitoring services detect potential infringements anywhere online. We check marketplaces and social media for fraudulent listings, domains for fake webshops, and the entire internet for stolen or copied images.

 

If we need more information about a certain seller or the origins of a product (i.e., is it counterfeit or grey market), we conduct a test purchase. And once we establish that a product listing, image, webshop, etc., indeed infringes on your IP rights, we demand its takedown from the internet.

 

To curb the growth of grey markets, we can discreetly check how your business partners comply with your requirements. As shown above, grey markets usually stem from non-compliant behavior that, when allowed to continue, can cause massive harm to your authorized distribution channels and distort your pricing.

 

Finally, we offer you advice on how to best educate your customers about the risks of counterfeits, grey market products, and who your authorized resellers are.

 

 

Conclusion

Flaconi is a growing online beauty marketplace with a commendable commitment to its customers, employees, business partners, and the environment. Considering the potential of beauty products in e-Commerce, flaconi may be a great choice for your products.

 

If you have any questions or concerns about the protection of your IP rights on flaconi or anywhere else online, get in touch with us!