After the 618 shopping festival, China’s cosmetic market entered off-season and witnessed a drop in both total retail sales and growth rate. In the skincare segment, Mask Family and UNIFON, two brands that mainly selling facial masks, performed extremely well due to the popularity of smearing masks (i.e. gel/clay/cream masks). Domestic brands, such as Florasis, Perfect Diary, Colorkey, and Little Ondine, which had dominated the makeup segment in June still performed well in July.

Pangqiu Data shows that the GMV of TOP50 live streamers in July decreased by 40.92% MoM, suggesting live-streaming is cooling down in China. Three phenomena are worthy of attention: - The beauty category is still the king category in live streaming; - Small brands are beneficial from long-tail micro live streamers (live streamer only with a small number of fans); - The ability of celebrities to do live stream E-commerce needs to be questioned.

Benefiting from the rapid development of the beauty industry and ChiNext (创业板), 14 beauty-related companies have either successfully established an IPO or announced IPO plans in the past half-year of 2020. From their prospectuses, we can see Flagship products contribute greatly to brand companies’ development. The profit model of beauty-brand e-commerce operation companies is still single and highly dependent on e-commerce platforms. Packaging material suppliers are subject to three major risks, including the high dependence on essential customers, the chances of changes in the overseas market environment, and the upgrade of China's environmental protection standards. Biomedical cosmetic ingredient suppliers have gained much traction while traditional cosmetic ingredient suppliers are too dependent on a single big client.

Key word: Duty free store, financial results, cosmetic total retail sales, CSAR subsidiary regulations...

Using the power of online communities can be beneficial for developing a brand in China. The CEO of YAT (言安堂), a brand doing an excellent job in operating an online skincare community, shared his experience with us: - Be clear about brands’ targeted consumers; - Strive to keep the community active. A membership rating system is a good choice; - A mature community’s power can help brands in many aspects, including boosting sales, improving engagement, and even problem-oriented product R & D.

China’s sunscreen product market will reach 9.9 billion yuan in 2020, accounting for 12.2% of the global market. The growing consumption power and consumers’ enhancing awareness of sun protection are the main drivers for this fast-growing market. The online and offline performances of sunscreen products at different prices vary. Two new trends are emerging in the market: the rise of niche brands and the demand for new functions of sunscreen products.

The cosmetic industry has recovered from the hit of the outbreak and showed promising data in June The skincare segment’s sales surged due to the promotion of the 618 mid-year shopping festival, especially the beauty services category. The makeup segment had a smaller increase rate than the skincare segment, but it still kept steadily increasing. Some domestic brands still dominated this segment and had a great performance during 618.

CHANDO, a Chinese domestic cosmetic brand with a 19-year history, performed excellently during the 2020, 618 shopping festival. It achieved these results by focusing on segmented products targeting niche demographics and prioritized the marketing of these products. It also adopted an omnichannel marketing strategy with a specific emphasis on livestreaming. As a nationwide marketing campaign launched during the post-COVID19 period, 618 2020 has taken on special significance this year as a surrogate metric for consumer confidence and a measure of economic recovery in post-Covid China.