EltaMD is an American healthy skincare brand with three major product lines: professional sunscreen, healthy skin care, and post procedure products. They are sold in more than 5000 dermatology clinics in the U.S.

After EltaMD entered the Chinese market four years ago, it was accepted by Chinese consumers quickly, and grew to a popular brand in a short time.

Its Tmall Global Flagship store now has 1.02 million followers. During last year’s double 11 shopping festival, its ace product, Foaming Facial Cleanser, was the TOP1 product in the cleanser category on Tmall Global. ¹ In the recent 618 shopping festival, this product has been sold 340,000 units in seven days. As an ace product, so far there has been 750,000 people who repurchased this product. ²

What mainly contributes to this brand’s success in the severe competition is that it successfully follows two trends: consumption upgrade and consumers’ preference for skincare brands with a medical background.

In recent years, with the improvement of living standards, people are paying more and more attention to the safety of cleaning products. The whole cleaning market shows a high-end trend. EltaMD boldly launched cleansing products with a unit price of more than 100 yuan in response to this consumption upgrade. This product later became a phenomenon-level explosive product in the industry, which also improved the brand’s exposure. To a certain extent, EltaMD has changed the situation in which low-price products competed for the facial cleansing market share, and upgraded the whole cleansing market. In the meantime, the concept of healthy skincare advocated by EltaMD has also become increasingly popular among consumers. The brand has sold 18 million bottles of Foaming Facial Cleanser from 2018 to 2021 in China. ¹ Later, EltaMD again seized the rising trend of sunscreen products in the Chinese market and introduced its sunscreen products to the Chinese market. The sunscreen product becomes another growth point for the brand with a monthly sales on Tmall Global of over 220,000 units.

EltaMD’s sunscreen products

EltaMD’s popularity is also attributed to the rise of consumers’ favor of cosmetics with a medical background (functional skincare). This category has become popular since the rise of skintellectual (a group of consumers who focus on cosmetics ingredients). During the pandemic, EltaMD’s popularity is further promoted, for people tend to believe dermatologists and medical experts more than before. As a brand focusing on healthy skincare, EltaMD again becomes a priority for many consumers. After the pandemic, EltaMD launched many marketing campaigns to highlight its medical background. Besides emphasizing that it is a brand recommended by American dermatologists, it also invites Chinese dermatologists from public hospitals to join their marketing campaigns to endorse their products and answer skincare-related questions from consumers. Through these actions, EltaMD has successfully positioned itself as a healthy skincare brand with a strong recommendation from dermatologists. With the wind of functional skincare, ChemLinked believes that its expansion in the Chinese market is just beginning.

Chinese dermatologists invited by EltaMD posted on EltaMD’s weibo page