LONDON – While the world is still troubled by the virus, China has been largely free from COVID-19 for almost a year. With world travel prohibited and the wearing of masks here to stay, the nation beauty the market has adapted to this new reality with major developments in sales-oriented, clean and cruelty-free online initiatives beauty, national duty-free purchases and acquisitions of niche brands.
“Due to the wearing of masks, the demand for clean beauty has increased, and the need for facial cleansing and maintenance has also increased,” said Mao Geping, one of the Chinathe most famous makeup artists of.
During the pandemic, like many others, he began working with influencers and vloggers to share makeup skills or promote his label via live streaming. A video of him transforming the face of China’s most followed fashion vlogger Teacher Xu has been viewed nearly a million times on Chinese streaming site Bilibili and so far on YouTube.
Mao made his name in the early 90s for a series of magical makeup tutorial videos in which he transformed ordinary Chinese women into glamorous starlets. At that time, when most of China still understood the idea of capitalism, her visionary approach to beauty inspired a generation of Chinese women.
Shanghai-based own beauty brand Forest Cabin, or Lin Qin Xuan in Chinese, is also capitalizing on the live streaming trend.
During the pandemic, company co-founder Sun Fuchun was among the first to sell via live streaming in a bid to save the company from bankruptcy as half of its outlets across China were closed due to government regulations and security concerns.
Its most famous organic camellia oil was then marketed as a product capable of repairing damage to nurses’ skin after wearing masks for a long time. The brand is now one of the top selling skin care brands on Tmall.
Another hot topic that emerged in 2020 was the revision of Chinese rules on animal testing for cosmetics.
Earlier this month, China’s National Medicines Administration announced that ordinary imported cosmetics will no longer be subjected to animal testing from May 1, paving the way for a wave of new beauty brands. to enter the land that had previously avoided the second greatest beauty in the world. market – the United States is the largest – on ethical values.
For example, Brazilian beauty conglomerate and cruelty-free beauty leader, Natura & Co., parent company of Aesop and The Body Shop, announced days later that the two brands were considering market entry. Chinese.
Roberto Marques, president of Natura & Co., said Aesop is expected to open its first store in Shanghai in the fourth quarter of 2021, and The Body Shop’s first store in China is expected to open in 2022.
The Body Shop was once available in duty free shops at Chinese airports, but the brand exited the market in 2014 due to animal testing regulations.
No brand is likely to say no to duty free shops in China these days, as the industry has grown exponentially since China tightened its broader control.
Cities like Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and The capital of Hainan Island, Haikou, and the tourist hotspot of Sanya have all taken strategic steps to gain a greater share of this lucrative market, where beauty and perfumes are the biggest sellers. In fact, L’Oréal and Estée Lauder cited spectacular growth in China in their latest earnings calls.
Shortly after the central government eased regulations on this lucrative sector last June, DFS Group, the travel retail operator owned by Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, acquired a 22% stake in Shenzhen Duty Free Ecommerce Co., majority owned by Shenzhen Duty Free Group. The two recently unveiled the first phase of their new downtown duty-free shopping complex in Haikou Mission Hills.
China Duty Free Group, the largest duty-free operator in China, also announced expansion plans with Sanya Phoenix International Airport to open duty-free shops in the airport to capture more influx of tourists.
In January, Dufry unveiled a cooperation agreement with Hainan Development Holdings and opened its first store on January 31 at Global Duty Free Plaza of Mova Mall in Haikou. At the same time, Lagardère has partnered with Hainan Tourism Investment Development to open the second largest duty-free shop in downtown Sanya.
Driven by attractive discounts and warm weather, during the Chinese New Year holiday, which ran from February 11 to 17, Hainan Island duty-free stores saw sales exceed 1.5 billion yuan, or $ 231.2 million, doubling the amount recorded in the same period for 2019.
Building on this momentum, Haikou will also host the first China International Consumer Products Expo from May 7 to 10. Confirmed participants include Galeries Lafayette, DFS Group, Tapestry Inc., Swatch Group, L’Oréal Group, Shiseido and Kao.
While international beauty companies are struggling to enter the market and going after China’s affluent buyers, some of the biggest Chinese beauty groups with high mass market shares faced a different set of challenges.
Shanghai Jahwa, which relies heavily on traditional sales channels, saw its revenue drop 7.43% in 2020 due to the pandemic. But Jahwa’s premium and specialty offerings like Vive, Gaofu, Dr. Yu and Herborist Derma, still managed to achieve healthy growth in the second half of the year.
In the third quarter, the company also adjusted its e-commerce business structure, optimizing the frequency and proportion of live streaming and cultivating the streaming talent within the company to improve profitability.
For Proya Cosmetic, more digitally savvy, its 2020 beauty product sales are expected to increase by more than 10%. The company cited e-commerce as the main driver of this growth. The gross value of its goods on Alibaba’s platforms alone rose 40 percent and topped RM1.89 billion, or $ 292 million. The company has also set up an incubation program with Alibaba’s Tmall to guide beauty start-ups.
The newly registered Yatsen Holding Ltd., the parent company of cosmetics and skin care brands Perfect Diary, Little Ondine, Abby’s Choice and Galénic, reported a 72.6% increase in sales in 2020. Pioneering the model direct sales to consumers in China, Perfect Diary was also the best-selling Chinese beauty brand during last year’s Singles Day shopping festival on Tmall.
The company recently doubled its investments in niche brands to sustain its profitability. In March, he announced his intention to acquire London beauty brand Eve Lom which has built up a cult following over the years for its Botanical Cleansing Cream. Last year, she acquired the premium skincare brand Galénic from Pierre Fabre.
Omnichannel brand partner Ushopal, which announced the closing of a $ 100 million funding round in early March, is another Chinese player active in acquisitions of niche beauty brands.
The group has already invested in several of its partner brands, such as Natura Bissé from Spain and the perfume brand Juliette Has a Gun, created by Romano, the great-grandson of Nina Ricci.
