On April 15, Kaola.com, the second-largest cross-border e-commerce (normally abbreviated as CBEC) platform in China, officially launched its self-owned brands. By cooperating with famous manufacturers worldwide, Kaola expects to nurture a series of brands targeting female consumers, satisfying their personalized demand.
Kaola’s Self-Owned Brand Channel
History of Kaola
Founded by NETEASE in 2015 and acquired by Alibaba Group in 2019, Kaola.com is currently the second-largest CBEC platform in China. According to Analysys, it accounted for 27.5% of CBEC retail market share in China, only ranking after Tmall Global (37.2%) in 2020Q41.
Kaola’s main business is B2C and bonded zone. It takes control over all business processes, including procurement, pricing, warehousing, logistics, and after-sales. By this way, it guarantees products’ quality, thus gaining consumers’ trust.
In August 2020, Kaola.com was upgraded to a CBEC membership platform, equivalent to an online “Sam’s Club.” The new ecosystem worked well. In the past six months, Kaola’s Black Card membership has increased by more than 150%. The consumer profile shows that these members have high consumption power and are willing to follow the global trends. In the just-concluded Koala Black Card Day, the sales of luxury goods increased by 334% year-on-year. The T-shirts jointly developed by Kaola and LV designers were sold out in minutes.
Kaola’s New Plan
Kaola launched six self-owned brands this time, Karla, Kaola’s Choice, Slythlab, Liber Nature, Imforme, and ROCI, covering nine categories, including makeup, skincare, clothing, food, etc. Karla produces makeup and personal care products using plant ingredients. Kaola’s Choice mainly sells smart household products. ORCI is a healthy snack brand.
After the epidemic, female consumers’ demands for healthy, natural, and personalized products increase quickly. On Kaola.com, where female consumers are the main users, niche products such as Israeli bathing tools, Turkish almonds, Cuban juice perfumes, and Australian honey from virgin frosts have all grown at a rate of over 135% in the past year.
Based on this situation, Kaola further promoted its plan to nurture own brands, by relying more on CBEC’s global supply chain capabilities to do precise research and development. It plans to launch 500 new products in 2021.
Kaola has been exploring this new business since three years ago. For example, Imforme is a skincare brand jointly developed by Kaola and Kolmar, a Japanese century-old cosmetic manufacturer, based on female’s demand for sensitive skin care. In the past three years, it achieved a 200% annual growth rate and a 98% praise rate. As the top three cosmetic manufactories globally in terms of R&D level, Kolmar is a partner of Shiseido, Kose, Carbona, and other famous cosmetic brands.
