What is the future of domestic beauty products after taking stock of the double 11 list for 7 years？

The contest between domestic brands and international brands has always been a hot topic in the beauty industry.

In the past double 11, domestic brands finally won a staged victory: Polaiya won the first place in the beauty industry of Tmall and Tik Tok, and the first place in the beauty industry of JD.COM, which is the first time that domestic brands have topped the beauty list of Tmall double 11 since 2018. Earlier in October, Polaiya released the third quarter financial report, and the company’s revenue in the first three quarters reached 5.249 billion yuan, ranking first among cosmetics listed companies in China. From these perspectives, the industry pays attention to and studies Polaiya not only to find an answer for its success, but also to find the direction of the evolution of domestic beauty products.

At the same time, international brands are still aggressive. L ‘Oré al China’s double 11 Battle Report shows that it is the beauty group with the largest number of short-listed brands in the TOP list of Tmall, Tik Tok and JD.COM, and maintains a leading position in high-end beauty, high-end dermatological skin care, make-up, hair care and so on. During the 6th China International Import Expo(CIIE), many beauty giants announced the launch of new products and new skin care technologies, showing their attention to the China market.

As important industry weathervanes, double 11 Dapromotion and China International Import Expo(CIIE) represent the "offensive and defensive" strategy and evolution direction of beauty enterprises. It is difficult for us to draw any conclusions from the short-term ranking changes and new trends in enterprises, and we need to lengthen the cycle to look at it, but perhaps we can find the frontier trends of the beauty industry and the development opportunities of domestic beauty.

On the ups and downs of domestic beauty cosmetics from double 11

The performance of domestic brands is not a new topic in double 11 this year. Taking stock of previous double 11, there are many domestic brands in the beauty industry, but compared with international brands, the ranking of domestic brands is unstable, and there are many "one-round tourists". Taking the Tmall platform as an example, the domestic beauty products shortlisted in the TOP10 list have experienced the iteration of Amoy brand, local big brands and a new generation of domestic brands. Taking 2020 as the boundary, the domestic brands in the head have been greatly replaced, and only Winona has been shortlisted in the TOP10, ranking steadily and rising; Polaiya has made great efforts since last year and has become one of the representatives of new domestic products.

This year, the beauty category was affected by multiple factors, and there were not many surprises in the overall transaction performance. The domestic beauty products rose obviously and became one of the highlights. Among them, Tmall’s head beauty brand pattern has undergone a major renovation. SK-II and Shiseido fell out of the TOP10 due to the Japanese nuclear pollution incident, and Polaiya pushed a number of foreign brands to the top. From the perspective of brand types, comprehensive beauty brands occupy the mainstream, and functional skin care brands represented by Polaiya, Winona and Xiulike gradually rise.

In Tik Tok, another important position of beauty cosmetics, the brand pattern is different. Before that, some international brands didn’t enter Tik Tok, but domestic brands took advantage of the traffic bonus to win some opportunities. In the face of international big-name competition this year, domestic brands still have comparative advantages, achieving breakthroughs with high cost performance and refined channel operation. It is worth noting that the beauty instrument brand is outstanding in the beauty category in Tik Tok, which may be due to the live e-commerce gene of the platform, and the anchor can convey the complex principle, function and use experience of the beauty instrument to consumers.

The change of brand pattern is only the appearance, and behind the replacement of domestic brands, there are some phenomena worthy of attention.

On the whole, in addition to the cost-effective advantage, the rise of domestic brands is largely due to the accurate understanding of the needs of local consumers and the targeted launch of large single products. This feature is particularly evident in the category of skin care products. Domestic brands focus on consumers’ anti-aging anxiety and popular skin care concepts such as formula skin care, morning C and evening A, and barrier repair, and launch large single products that focus on maintaining stability, anti-aging and anti-wrinkle, contributing an important sales share to the brand. Winona Soothing and Repairing Freeze-dried Mask, Quaddy Essence, Kanshuhong Waist Suit, and Polaiya Early C Late A Suit have all appeared on the list of explosive items in double 11 on the e-commerce platform. Guoji Feigua’s 2022 double 11 Yuehaowu Power Saver Data Report shows that Polaiya’s early C late A combination contributed about 35% of its sales in double 11, Tik Tok in 2022 (from October 15th to November 11th, 2022).

Hot topics related to skin care on social platforms, image source: Fruit Collection "Insights into Accurate Skin Care Crowds on Social Media Platforms in 2023"

Large single products help domestic brands occupy a place in the list, but whether the brand stands stably enough and rushes high enough depends on whether the product iteration and category expansion can be carried out around the core efficacy to extend the product life cycle. Take Polaiya as an example, its core product series has been iterated for 2-3 generations, and many categories such as essence, water emulsion, cream and eye cream have been introduced. This helps the brand to enrich the sku portfolio, continuously create a "freshness" and increase the customer unit price. Before double 11, Polaiya released Ruby Cream 3.0 series, which contains three textures of lightness, moisture and lightness to meet the needs of different skin types. This product is also the best-selling product of brand Tmall flagship store in the past year. According to the official list of Tik Tok, Polaiya’s Early C Late A Essence Cream Set was shortlisted in double 11’s beauty explosion list. The price of this group member is close to 700 yuan, which greatly improves the price range of the product.

Compared with the field of skin care, the overall competitiveness of domestic brands in makeup is still not as good as that of international brands, especially in the high-end price band. The reason is that domestic cosmetics are mostly designed innovatively around "Chinese aesthetics", and the advantage lies in color-related categories, but the fashion trend of cosmetics changes rapidly, which is difficult to bring high consumer loyalty to brands. Domestic brands still need to make breakthroughs in skin feeling and makeup effect in order to break the situation dominated by international big brands and explore the high-end price. Perfect Diary, which was criticized for focusing on marketing, gradually paid more attention to the functional attributes and technical barriers of products. Before double 11, the brand released its "bionic membrane" essence lipstick, which is the research result of "integration of makeup and nourishing", focusing on the combination of red makeup effect, lip essence effect and lip membrane, to show the brand’s breakthrough in scientific research and innovation.

Another obvious feature of the great promotion is that the pattern of domestic beauty cosmetics is moving towards differentiation. Judging from the performance of domestic brands in different stages of Tmall double 11, many brands have become "dark horses" with the help of the initial promotion atmosphere, super-anchor delivery and other factors, but they often have bright short-term performance and insufficient stamina, and few of them can continue to lead in the whole cycle. Under the trend that Japanese and Korean brands are cold and consumers are disenchanted with international brands as a whole, the development of domestic brands is welcoming, but it is still necessary to continue to precipitate the normal operation ability and cultivate brand endurance on the basis of explosive power.

Generally speaking, domestic beauty cosmetics have ushered in a "reversal" moment during this double 11 by accurately understanding the needs of local consumers, constantly expanding the matrix of large items, high cost performance and refined channel operation.

More than "big items"

Relying on the explosive strategy to meet the current hot demand, domestic beauty brands have the opportunity to "go to the table" and gradually narrow the gap with international brands. However, from the results, it is difficult for domestic beauty products to obtain long-term growth momentum by relying on explosive products. Only by creating a "big single product" and developing a "big brand" can a brand resist a round of shuffling and sit at the poker table for a longer time.

It is not without trace that domestic brands represented by Polaiya and Winona have won great victories. They benefited from the rise of the component party and the efficacy party, and implemented the strategy of "big single product", but they did not rely on this strategy. As mentioned above, the three series of Polaiya Double Antibody, Ruby and Yuanli have been extended from essence to different categories. This year, Polaiya launched a new energy series for the anti-aging needs of mature muscles, and its three-piece energy set, which cost more than 1000 yuan, entered the live broadcast room in Li Jiaqi during its stay in double 11, which shows the brand’s intention to push this series. Winona, Kerfumei and other brands are also constantly expanding their category matrix and reducing their dependence on a single big item. After verifying the heat of recombinant collagen components with collagen rods, Kefumei accelerated the pace of promoting new products, supplemented the categories of emulsion and mask, and its water supply line and oil control line also launched different types of products one after another.

The richness of brand category structure, on the one hand, represents the life cycle and anti-risk ability of brand products, on the other hand, represents its coverage of different levels of consumer demand and different scenarios. The application of patented ingredients to the technical threshold such as essence and cream with higher premium ability also helps domestic brands to gradually get rid of the image of relying on low prices and explore high-end prices. According to Polaiya’s financial report, the average selling price of the company’s skin care products increased by 57.05% year-on-year, mainly due to the year-on-year sales increase of essence and cream products with higher unit price.

From the above results, we can see that domestic beauty cosmetics are taking enhancing product research and development capabilities as a strategic goal and tearing off the label of "emphasizing marketing and neglecting research and development". Local beauty companies have increased the proportion of R&D investment, and focused on components, raw materials and other links that can help enterprises build barriers. In recent two years, synthetic biology, molecular biology and other technologies have been accelerated to be applied to skin care products, and "skin care+biological components" has become a high-growth concept of beauty track, which requires enterprises to carry out collaborative research on basic research, functional raw materials and formula system. According to Zhongxin. com, there are currently 121 research and development projects on raw materials and synthetic organisms in Huaxi Bio. Double 11’s outstanding Fumei brand, its parent company Juzi Bio has four collagen medical beauty products under research, two of which are expected to be approved in 2024, becoming a new source of growth for the enterprise.

Image source: CBNData《2023 Oriental Beauty Valley Blue Book "

Another dimension that domestic brands have been examined for a long time is the ability to operate omni-channel. This batch of new domestic brands have risen online. When the traffic dividend is gradually divided up, on the one hand, brands need to treat online channels in a refined way to improve profit margins. On the other hand, they begin to respect traditional channels, return to offline and near-field e-commerce, and even enter duty-free shops to find new growth opportunities. However, with the new channels, there are new ways of playing and brand logic, as well as powerful opponents. Domestic brands still have a long way to go.

Grouping proposition

From the perspective of single brand, domestic brands initially have the right to speak in the beauty industry with big names. However, from the perspective of the group, there is still a big gap between the comprehensive strength of domestic brands and international beauty cosmetics. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, almost half of the seats in double 11’s e-commerce platform beauty list this year belong to L ‘Oré al’s brands. Although the performance of Estee Lauder Group declined in fiscal year 2023, the main brands of the same name, Estee Lauder and Hailan Mystery, are still relatively strong in the high-end price band.

"L ‘Oré als" have achieved the coverage of different categories, price bands and sub-groups by virtue of top-class, high-end, Volkswagen, cinema and other brands, and better enhanced the Group’s ability to resist risks. No matter how the external environment and consumer demand change, there are corresponding sub-brands in the group to undertake.

However, domestic beauty cosmetics have not yet owned their own "L ‘Oreal" and "Estee Lauder". Although Polaiya, Huaxi Bio and Juzi Bio take the multi-brand route, at present, their dependence on a single brand is still relatively high, or the differences between sub-brands are not obvious. Although the ingredients and focus areas of Fumei and Kelijin under Juzi Bio are different, the brand needs to further formulate differentiation strategies in order to make consumers clear about their differences. According to the data of Polaiya’s financial report, in the first three quarters of 2023, the main brand contributed about 80% to the Group’s revenue, and Caitang accounted for about 10% of the total revenue. The sub-brands such as Off&Realx and Yuefushi made little contribution, and it remains to be seen whether they can become the "N-th growth curve". At the brand’s 20th anniversary strategy conference, Polaiya said that she would innovate the strategic planning, from "troika" to "6*N strategy", and broaden the multi-category matrix of skin care, make-up, toiletries and high-efficiency categories.

In addition to self-incubation, some brands refer to L ‘Oré al’s acquisition strategy to build their own brand matrix. Take Yixian Group as an example. Since 2019, it has successively acquired cosmetics brand Odin, French high-end skin care brand Kelanli, British high-end beauty brand EVE LOM, and functional skin care brand DR.WU (business in Chinese mainland). On the one hand, it has improved the layout in the field of skin care, on the other hand, it has told high-end stories. Increasing the proportion of skin care business has indeed improved the financial situation of Yixian e-commerce. The financial report shows that Yixian e-commerce has maintained an upward trend in gross profit margin in the past four quarters, with a gross profit margin of 74.7% in the second quarter, up 11.9% year-on-year, the highest in a single quarter since listing.

In addition to the width of demand, the gap between domestic brands and international brands lies in the depth of brand value. Beauty has always been regarded as a category with great emotional value, and emotional skin care is also a hot topic on social platforms. Polaiya has recently made intensive speeches on gender equality, mental health and emotion to show the social value of the brand. On the basis of brand-level vocalization, domestic beauty cosmetics are also integrating emotional concepts into products. During the 6th China International Import Expo(CIIE), Yixian E-commerce unveiled the Shanghai Global Innovation R&D Center, and "emotional skin care" is one of its four major R&D fields in the future. EVE LOM brand bears the realization of this concept. It launched the fragrance candle of "Manor after Rain" in China International Import Expo(CIIE), and tracked and analyzed the emotional changes of users when they experienced the SPA through the AI brainwave emotional test instrument to show the brand’s emotional skin care technology.

From supplementing research and development, creating large single products, enhancing brand power in multiple dimensions and developing towards collectivization, domestic beauty cosmetics are constantly evolving. However, compared with international brands that have experienced long-term accumulation, there are still many gaps that need to be filled. At present, China consumers’ recognition of domestic products has increased, and Japanese and Korean brands have given up some market share in the cold, so domestic beauty products have ushered in new development opportunities. This year’s double 11 can be said to be the best performance of domestic beauty products. Jumping out of the promotion atmosphere and price advantage, domestic brands need to make more efforts to prove their unique value. As consumers, we may wish to give more opportunities and patience to domestic beauty cosmetics, so as to wait for the brand to hand over better answers.

Cover image source: unsplash