Feelunique.com Christmas sales up 50%

For the period October 1 to December 31, its sales lifted to £5.3m, compared with £3.5m in the same period of the previous year.

The etailer said its website received 180,000 orders compared with 110,000 in the last quarter of 2009.

Aaron Chatterley, chief executive of Feelunique.com, said: “Every company that relies upon postal services in the UK was hit by the freezing weather conditions that deterred some customers from ordering from online retailers.

“However, despite this, I am pleased to announce that we recorded another record quarter of sales during this key trading period.”

He said the company is on track to hit full year sales of around £20m, up from £11m the previous year.

The online beauty market represents just 2% of total online retail sales in the UK, according to Mintel. It is growing though, up 20% in 2010 to an estimated £420m, equivalent to 5% of the total beauty market.

Chatterley said: “Although we have grown rapidly over the last five years, all the evidence points strongly to the fact that the market for online beauty products is still expanding rapidly.  Our strong brand presence means we are well positioned to take advantage of that trend.”