Chinese emerging beauty brands Perfect Diary and Florasis both boast a large number of high-selling products and have been maintaining a high rate of new product releases.

Perfect Diary:

• Velvet lip glaze 200,000+ pieces sold during pre-sales in “618 Mid-Year Shopping Festival” (started from May 25)

• Weightless Soft-velvet Blurring Loose Powder 150,000+ pieces in monthly sales

• Amino Acid Makeup Remover 150,000+ pieces in monthly sales

Florasis:

• Gorgeous Peach Blossom Powder 500,000+ pieces in monthly sales

• Makeup Remover Wipes 250,000+ pieces in monthly sales

• Eyebrow Pencil 200,000+ pieces in monthly sales

(Data collected as of May 27 14:00 in Tmall flagship store)

In contrast to recent market entrants Perfect Diary and Florasis, which started on social media and e-commerce, most traditional Chinese beauty brands grew up from offline channels and have been behind the curve in terms of their digital strategy. These established brands are finally starting to compete with newer entrants by availing themselves of the power of social media, live-streaming, and aligning with the purchasing behaviors of the modern generation of young consumers to generate huge online traffic and huge sales. 

New releases of domestic cosmetics brands recorded high sales in just one month. 

Four major domestic cosmetic brands KANS (founded in 2002), MARUBI (founded in 2002), PROYA (founded in 2006), and MARIE DALGAR (founded in 2006) all released new products in April, and according to statistics provided by Pingguan.com, as of 14:00 on May 19, the monthly sales of these new products have all exceeded 20,000 pieces, with the highest even exceeding 100,000 pieces.

Hot-selling products must be distinctive.

Actually, since last year, these four brands have produced hot-selling products. For example, KANS’s Gold Honey Comb Active Mask, which claims to contain high-purity gold (97.8%) for its purported anti-aging effects, sold 7.2 million boxes within four months of its release ^[1]. PROYA Black Salt Deep Purifying Bubble Spa Mask recorded monthly sales exceeding 1 million boxes on its Tmall flagship store ^[2], breaking the Tmall beauty makeup sales record. MARUBI’s Little Brown Bottle Moisturizing Repair Serum and MARIE DALGAR’s Knight Series Lipstick now frequently appearing as the brand top-selling product on its Tmall flagship store.

For a new product to gain rapid traction amongst consumers that translate to a large volume of sales, it must position itself in the market as a product with a strong identity that is easily differentiated from its competitors and must have a major competitive edge over other brands. Domestic cosmetics brands now are investing heavily in product R&D, innovation, and product development to formulate products using state of the art active ingredients supported by strong scientific evidence. Examples include:

These ingredient claims can amplify the product features, create a lasting impression among consumers, and facilitate sharing by KOLs/KOCs on social media platforms. 

Harness the power of social media

Male celebrity endorsement increases online traffic.

KANS, MARUBI, and PROYA have all announced popular young male celebrities as their brand ambassadors or product spokesperson for many of their new products, which has helped spread their popularity and, most importantly, generate sales.

For example, On April 16, PROYA announced Cai XuKun (@蔡徐坤 30.41mln followers in Weibo)'s endorsement of its new product facial essence, which has contributed greatly to the sales. The total number of comments, likes, and shares related to this announcement on both Cai Xukun and PROYA’a Weibo has reached 4.7 million.

Live-streaming realizes the integration of new product promotion and sales.

KANS launched its Peptide Diamond Essence Facial Mask on April 29 during a live-streaming session presented by Taobao’s top anchor Viya. The session was attended by brand spokesperson Wu Yifan, and helped generate sales of 15.6 million yuan in just 10 minutes ^[3].

MARUBI promoted its new product, Multiple Peptide Anti-Wrinkles Eye Cream in Viya’s live-streaming room, with the presence of brand ambassador Zhu Zhengting, attracting 6 million fans to watch in 15 minutes ^[4].

MARIE DALGAR’s Bouncy Red Ginseng Essence Beauty Cream was selected as the only makeup item during a live-streaming session jointly anchored by CCTV host Zhu Guangquan and the beauty KOL Li Jiaqi, and was sold out immediately after it was available on shelves ^[5].

Xiaohongshu is the perfect choice for cosmetics marketing.

The four newly released products mentioned in the table above have all chosen to focus on social media platforms Xiaohongshu (Red), Weibo, and Douyin to do marketing and branding, with  Xiaohongshu as the main focal point.

KOLs in Xiaohongshu generally don’t have large numbers of fans like those in Weibo, but cosmetics, skincare, and fashion KOLs generate the highest volume of content on this platform. Xiaohongshu can help brands foster consumer loyalty and leverage digital word of mouth marketing.

***Disclaimer: All images used in this article are from the internet.