As summer is underway, the sales of sunscreen products are surging. According to Ali Big Data, the sales of sunscreen products on Tmall amounted to nearly one billion Yuan in June, archiving the highest sales in one month in history [1].
Sunscreen has been one of the most fast-growing categories in China’s cosmetic market for several years and is predicted to keep a steady increase. As 2019-2025 China Cosmetics Market Trends and Strategic Consulting Research Report released by Zhiyan Consulting says: “the global sunscreen cosmetics market will grow at an average annual rate of 5.6%. It is expected that the global market will expand to 81.7 billion yuan in 2020, while the Chinese market will reach 9.9 billion yuan, accounting for 12.2% of the global market” [2].
The growing consumption power and consumers’ enhancing awareness of sun protection are the main drivers for this fast-growing market. Sunscreen Product Market Research Report shows that 24% of consumers start to use sunscreen products before 18 years old, and 45% of consumers use 2 or 3 units of sunscreen products a year on average. Almost all consumers are satisfied with the sunscreen products they have purchased (only 0.5% aren’t satisfied). 81% of consumers think that they’d like to buy the same sunscreen product multiple times [2].
As for channels, online shopping platforms have become one of the consumers’ favorite channels to purchase sunscreen products. One thing to notice is that the online and offline performances of sunscreen products at different prices vary. Data from Alibaba online shopping platforms, including Tmall and Taobao, shows that sunscreen products priced from 50 to 100 yuan are the most popular, with sales value accounting for 35.6% and sales quantity accounting for 49.0%. The second popular sunscreen products’ price range is 100-200 yuan, with 32.1% sales value and 22.6% sales quantity [2]. However, data from Intime Mall (One of the biggest shopping malls in China) shows that the sales of high-end sunscreen products (priced over 400 yuan) accounted for 62.99% [3]. These two groups of data prove that Chinese consumers tend to purchase lower-priced sunscreen products online and purchase high-end sunscreen products in the shopping mall.
New trends
The rise of niche brands
Like other skincare categories, the sunscreen product market is still dominated by international brands, like Shiseido, L’Oreal, and ANESSA. However, relying on novel marketing strategies like Douyin, some niche brands have gained much traction recently, such as ISDIN from Spain, Mistine from Thailand, RE:CIPE from South Korea. Some domestic brands also performed well in the competition. For example, GOZI uses one single product (Nickname: Little Yellow Hat小黄帽) to go viral online and outperformed many international brands.
Douyin TOP10 sunscreen brands’ sales in June[4]
The demand for new functions of sunscreen products
Single-function sunscreen products can no longer meet the needs of more consumers. 2019-2025 China Cosmetics Market Trends and Strategic Consulting Research Report shows that in addition to the basic function of sun protection, 51% of consumers pay much attention to the moisturizing effect of sunscreen products, and 44% of consumers value the skin nourishing effect [2]. Sunscreens with functions like anti-pollution and anti-blue-light also gain specific attention from consumers.
