As a Big Difference Occurs in Makeup Industry,What Is the Trend?

Xu Liyu

Guangzhou Zhuangzhuhui Information Technology Co.,Ltd.,China

In 2020,the seemingly promising makeup market was impacted by the “mask” and the original sustained and significant growth was interrupted.For many offline channels in particular,the makeup category has suffered a devastating blow,with performance falling by more than 50% or even 90% year-on-year.However,at the same time,the enthusiasm of both capital and enterprise for makeup does not diminish.As a big difference occurs in makeup industry,what is the trend in 2021?

As offline channel takes beatings,online strength is enhanced

At the 2020 Colour Glamour Women’s Festival,several distributors talked about the serious decline in the system’s colour cosmetics performance from February-September 2020.Industry insiders who have served more than 4,000 CS outlets even said that the performance of colour cosmetics in the CS channel in 2020 could be described as disastrous.It was originally thought that makeup was the only category reserved for physical shops,but this perception was broken in 2020,partly due to the impact of the mask and partly due to the fact that some of the consumption that was originally offline was transferred to online.Data from ECDataway verifies this,with total sales of colour cosmetics on Taobao,Tmall and Jingdong in 2020 showing a slight increase compared to 2019.But as some industry insiders have said,the overall makeup market is definitely down in 2020,and while on the surface makeup sales on several major e-commerce platforms continue to gain momentum,this is largely thanks to absorbing some of the share migrating from offline.The decline in makeup in the offline CS channel is not all about masks,as the first signs of this were seen at the end of 2019 when major makeup brands cut staff.2020 accelerated this decline and also led to a significant loss of makeup artists in shops.Although he still believes that make-up is a big market,offline make-up is not easy to recover in a short time.

As to cosmetics dilemma for CS channel,the author also believes that not all “masks” and online take the blame,the root cause or the market,the brand of consumer demand for products grasp insufficient,such as over-promotion of lipstick,eye shadow and other fashion attributes of strong colour bar code,in the base makeup and other gray bar code lack of expressive products,lack of stable flow,seriously Underestimating the mining space of primer.2019-2020 Top 20 categories of cosmetic filings show that lipstick,lip glaze and eye shadow are the top three sub-categories of colour cosmetics filings,far exceeding foundation and isolation/pre-makeup.Consumers,on the other hand,have a serious taste for new and old when it comes to coloured barcodes,and are driven by social attributes,preferring to choose big international brands when making purchases.

Considering all this,domestic brands cannot compete with the big international brands in colour barcodes,and lose stable traffic due to the lack of emphasis on grey barcodes.In his opinion,the fashion barcode of colour cosmetics is important,but the most fundamental thing is to get the grey barcode right,otherwise the colour barcode will also lose its value.

How to make the best use of co-brands?

In 2020,cross-border co-branding in the cosmetics sector is increasingly piling up,and the content and forms are further enriched,broadening the image boundary and reach boundary of brands,becoming a powerful tool for brands’ social media marketing and breaking the circle.

In the first place,the most prominent is the cobranding craze with museums,which has set off a wave of national makeup craze,such as the Dunhuang Museum co-branding series launched by K?rtsil?,interpreting the “colour without fear,awakening Dunhuang” .Kevlar joined hands with the Russian Hermitage Museum to launch the Hermitage cobranded collection,tapping into the new aesthetic dividend and further enriching its hipster genes.Mary Kay and the Louvre Museum in Paris launched a limited art collection,bringing new surprises once again.Lancer,in collaboration with the V＆A Museum(Victoria and Albert Museum),launched the new Mussa collection,giving the market a new confidence.Tangerine launched an Egyptian adventure makeup collection in collaboration with the “HelloKitty x British Museum” double IPs.In addition,a number of domestic brands have also launched various Forbidden City co-branded make-ups.Before 2020,the most popular crossover co-branding with museums is the cross-border cooperation of Perfect Diary X British Museum,which has since ignited the museum cobranding craze.

In the second place,brands are taking advantage of different IPs such as characters,popular dramas and games to launch co-branded products,such as branding X “You Fei” to launch co-branded makeup,colorkey together with Doraemon to launch cobranded makeup,Luhuano X Wonder Woman to launch co-branded makeup,Katine and TV series“Qing Ping Yue” to launch co-branded models,and Wizzy UQ to launch co-branded limited edition models with spokespersons...

The third is the collaboration between brands and other types of brands to launch co-branded models,such as the launch of co-branded makeup by Itchy House and Flavours,and the co-branding between Perfect Diary and Oreo.Star Picker.

The crossover co-branding with soul fit,creative burst and hardcore products can certainly win both exposure and word of mouth,and broaden the brand’s influence in the circle,but the key to not playing the good card of crossover co-branding lies in the precise insight of the target consumer group,the creative excavation of the crossover joint IP,and the polishing of the product itself,rather than harvesting a wave of traffic for a short time in the name of crossover.

More investments mean more opportunities for new products

Makeup booming,in the face of the “mask”suppression,still released an unparalleled charm,one of the performance is the profit-seeking all kinds of capital and non-color cosmetics enterprises,still increase the entry of color cosmetics; perfect diary for 2 years in a row on the Tmall double 11 color cosmetics first,and perfect diary,flower Xizi,Cazlan,COLORKEY,small Orting,and so on.The new makeup is still promising.

In March 2020,the national style scene makeup brand technology announced that it had received 20 million yuan Pre-A round of financing from Plum Blossom Venture Capital.

In April 2020,COLORKEY belongs to Meishang shares announced the completion of nearly 200 million yuan of Series A financing.And at its inception,it received an angel round investment fund of nearly 100 million yuan from “Sequoia Capital”and Liu Qiangdong’s associated Suqian Tianqiang Investment Company.This is also the month that Perfect Diary was revealed to have acquired another up-and-coming makeup brand,Little Orting.

In June 2020,VENUSMARBLE,which has created several eyeshadow pop-ups,received a 10 million Series A funding round,and its GMV is close to 100 million yuan since its start-up in 2017 to 2020,with three consecutive years of profitability.

In July 2020,Chinese girl makeup brand Hua Zhi Xiao received tens of millions of RMB Pre-A round of funding from Tiantu Investment.

In October 2020,Xinba,a Chinese celebrity,launched his own makeup brand MRSIMBA,which debuted in the live broadcast and exploded to 278 million in 14 days.

In November 2020,Perfect Diary,the parent company of Yixian E-Commerce,which has repeatedly received capital investment,rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange,becoming the first Chinese makeup stock to land in the US; Lafontaine acquired VNK,an up-and-coming makeup brand founded in 2016,cutting into the makeup track from the original wash and care sector; the big daily chemical giant Libai Group announced the incubation of a makeup brand Half Moon Floating,crossing over into the makeup market.

In January 2021,COLORKEY’s subsidiary,Meishang,announced the completion of a 400 million yuan Series B financing round,led by Jin Yi Capital and followed by three major capitals,including Goldman Sachs and Jun Chuan.

More new makeup brands,relying on the advantages of explosive products in niche areas,continue to come out of the circle with the help of new channels and new marketing,gaining more attention and recognition.

New retailing brands enrich customers’experience

With the emergence of new makeup retailing species such as WOWCOLOUR,Colorist,XiYan and NOISYBeauty,leading the upgrade of the makeup experience while also giving new opportunities to many national trendy makeup brands originally born online.Among them,kk Group,the parent company of Colorist,has completed five rounds of financing totaling over RMB 600 million as of 2020; WOWCOLOUR’s parent company,Color World (Guangdong) Beauty Co Ltd,received RMB 1 billion in strategic financing from Saiman Fund on January 5,2020.

Go out for the international market

In recent years,while national trend makeup is becoming more and more popular with domestic consumers,some brands have set their sights on overseas markets.For example,Perfect Diary launched its overseas official website,taking the Southeast Asian market as the beginning of its exploration of overseas markets.

Tmall overseas data shows that from November 1st to 3rd,2020,from more than 200 countries and regions around the world,more than 7 million overseas Chinese purchased national beauty products through the e-commerce platform.Among them,Hua Xizi occupies the top of the TOP list of Chinese beauty products going abroad,becoming the biggest dark horse of the 2020 Double 11 going abroad,with makeup brands such as Perfect Diary,Hua Xizi,Xiao Aotin and Mao Geping on the list.

In 2021,short video and live channels are getting hotter and hotter,and the competition of new channels has escalated.It is expected that more new ways of playing to emerge and bring more surprises to the makeup market.