Overseas niche beauty, success is also Sephora, defeat is also Sephora?
Source | Poly beauty
Author | In the past few years, there have been many foreign beauty products that have withdrawn from China, and most of the reasons mentioned are clichés such as unlocalized operation and aging products. However, one of the things that has been overlooked is that niche overseas beauty brands that are plagued by channel simplification, especially some of them that are exclusively settled in Sephora or whose main channels are Sephora, Tmall, JD.com and other e-commerce platforms, such as Petrov and BY TERRY.
Recently, another overseas niche beauty brand is suspected of withdrawing from the Chinese market. Jumei learned from multiple notes in Xiaohongshu that the France beauty brand ESTHEDERM (note: English name ESTHEDERM) failed in China.
△ Source: Little Red Book
In response to this matter, Jumeili reporters found that Ashton had been reported by relevant media that the brand was exclusively settled in Sephora. However, as early as September 2022, the official flagship store of Tmall has been closed, and at present, there are no Aston products in the official flagship stores of JD.com and Tmall Sephora.
△ Source: WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Tmall and JD.com
Bedmar's sister brand folded in China?
It is reported that Ashton is a France high-tech beauty salon skin care brand founded in 1978 and belongs to NAOS Group, a professional dermatology beauty company. The brand mainly focuses on professional skin rejuvenation aesthetics, integrating the cell biotechnology system with the "real water cell" patent as the core into product development, including creams, essences, sunscreens and other categories, with prices ranging from a few hundred yuan to thousands of yuan.
△ Source: Screenshot from Ashton's official website
It is worth mentioning that NAOS Group, the parent company of Astoun, was founded by Dr. Jean-Noël Thorel in 1977 and is one of the four major professional dermatological beauty groups in France (the other three include Avène's parent company, Pierre Fabre Group, etc.), with three self-owned beauty brands Astrom, BIODERMA and ETAT PUR.
△ Source: NAOS Group's official website
According to public information, the founder of Ashton, Dr. Jean-Noël Thorel, is a well-known pharmacist and cell biologist who has focused on the research of skin care concepts based on the philosophy of cell survival for many years. Dr. Jean-Noël Thorel believes that the skin is an ecosystem, and advocates the innovative Skin Ecology concept, which means that when the skin is out of balance, it does not need to be over-cared for, but activates the self-healing ability of cells.
As a sister brand of BIODERMA, Aston entered the Chinese market in the same year (2011) and has been operating exclusively in the Chinese mainland market for many years with the exclusive sale of Sephora and the exclusive experience of Siyanli (domestic SPA chain organization).
UNTIL JULY 2021, NAOS GROUP COOPERATED WITH UCO GROUP, A DOMESTIC BEAUTY BRAND E-COMMERCE SERVICE PROVIDER, TO UPGRADE, FOLLOWING BEDMAR BIODERMA, IDAP ETAT PUR AND ASHDON WERE ALSO HANDED OVER TO ITS OPERATION, AND OPENED THE OFFICIAL FLAGSHIP STORE OF TMALL TO INCREASE THE CHINESE MARKET, BUT THE STORE WAS HASTILY CLOSED FOR MORE THAN A YEAR.
Although Astidol and BIODERMA entered the Chinese market in the same year, unlike BIODERMA, Aston has been tepid for many years.
△ Source: Little Red Book
Judging from the Little Red Book, there are only 6000+ related notes of Aston, while the BIODERMA related notes of Bedma BIODERMA, which became popular with makeup remover, reached 5w+.
The reporter also found that some consumers in the comment area of relevant notes gave feedback such as "Although Aston products are easy to use, the price is too high", "There are too few channels", "Where else can I buy in addition to Sephora".
Not only that, Ashton's marketing activities on social media are also rarely exposed, and the Xiaohongshu account has only published 14 notes since its opening in 2020, most of which are product introductions and popular science copywriting, but the attention is not high. Similarly, the brand's Weibo account has only updated 3 and 2 pieces of content in 2022 and 2023 respectively, and has stopped updating in the second half of 2023.
It can be seen that although Aston and BIODERMA entered the Chinese market at the same time, they are not the same mother, and the single channel, insufficient localized marketing, high customer unit price and lack of influential star products are all reasons for the mediocre performance in China for more than ten years.
Withdrawing one after another, overseas niche beauty is trapped in the channel?
Looking at the entire domestic beauty market, there are many overseas niche beauty products in a similar situation, such as Astishton, and the difficulty in channel expansion in China has also become the reason why some brands are stopping.
When communicating with the reporter of Jumei, foreign beauty agent A said that there are many niche overseas beauty products that we represent, and sometimes they are troubled by the conflict between channels and brand tonality.
"There are some niche overseas beauty products with high prices, which are quite stylish in positioning or backed by doctors, etc., so it is especially important to protect brand equity. The high price means that it is impossible to lay out mass retail channels such as Watsons, and can only enter Sephora, boutiques, etc., and the cost of opening a brand store is too high and there is a risk of profitability. "Agency A reflects the current channel dilemma of niche overseas beauty.
In fact, when entering the Chinese market, there are not a few overseas niche beauty products that have suffered setbacks in their channels, mediocre performance, and finally left the market, such as Petrov, Derma E, etc.
From the perspective of channel types, when overseas niche beauty is deployed in the Chinese market, the main channels are Tmall's self-operated official flagship stores or cross-border overseas flagship stores, as well as exclusive entry into Sephora.
Behind this, it reflects the channel dilemma of overseas niche beauty in China, first of all, the choice is too simple, and secondly, the mainstream Sephora and Tao e-commerce are competitive.
At the same time, judging from the figure below, many overseas niche beauty brands that have lost the Chinese market actually have dermatologists, biological experts and other backgrounds, but they have not been able to get a piece of the pie in the ingredient and efficacy market.
Among them, it is also related to the increasingly stringent domestic cosmetics regulations and regulations, and the difficulty of overseas beauty products to enter the Chinese market for filing/registration (human efficacy tests, safety assessment reports, etc.). In addition, some brands focus on the concept of cosmeceuticals when selling overseas, but there is only an effective skin care brand in China, which means that it is difficult to open up OTC channels.
In the category of makeup, due to the cold market in recent years, coupled with the rise of some domestic makeup, the living space of overseas niche and affordable makeup is getting smaller and smaller. Expensive makeup, affected by the economic situation, consumption downgrade, etc., is even more difficult to lay channels, even if it has the natural advantage of being good at marketing, it is not optimistic.
Among them, the tears shed by Benefit are a big case, although it was a smash hit in the past, there is still feedback from Sephora's offline sales, and the makeup track is too volatile to sell.
In addition, the decline in the market of beauty retail and Amoy TP merchants has further made the channels of overseas niche brands in China more difficult.
Taking Sephora as an example, it has been repeatedly criticized by the "mid-life crisis" in recent years, and has scribbled out of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Russia and other markets.
Not only that, Sephora China is also in crisis. It is learned from the financial report of Shanghai Jahwa that Sephora China (note: Shanghai Jahwa is a shareholder of many Sephora China companies) will have a revenue of 8.76 billion yuan in 2023, but a loss of 140 million yuan.
Among them, Sephora's official flagship store on JD.com shows that its exclusive brands include Guweijie, Jiefang Orange County, Aikemei, MIU Miu, etc., most of which are overseas niche beauty brands and luxury beauty, and the market performance is not optimistic compared with international brands.
△ Source: JD.com
In addition to Sephora's mid-life crisis, domestic Amoy beauty TP merchants are also limited by declining performance, difficult reproduction of popular models, and difficult transformation. (For details, see: "TP Dealers Invested by Proya Terminate IPO!") 》)
In the difficult Chinese market, how to go about overseas niche beauty?
It can be seen that the survival threshold of overseas niche beauty in the Chinese market has been raised. Although many brands choose to find another way to open single-brand stores with style and a sense of experience, it is not uncommon for them to withdraw quickly like BAUM.
But this does not mean that the Chinese beauty market is not fragrant. When Victoria Beckham introduced her beauty brand to the Chinese market in 2020, she said: "Now, you can't be a successful international brand without a solid presence in the Chinese market. ”
It's just that the Chinese market is far more "difficult" than imagined, and Victoria Beckham Beauty has left the market in just one year.
What's even more interesting behind the scenes is that although international brands have been ridiculed for entering middle age, overseas niche beauty brands have come and gone over the years, but they still have a place in China.
From the long-termism of international brands, it can also reflect that channels and influence are indeed the key to stabilizing the market in China, after all, consumers can pay for brand value.
It can be seen that in the future, if overseas niche beauty wants to bite the Chinese market, it needs to fish for a long time and lay out multiple channels, rather than copying the popular route according to the script - Sephora exclusive, Tmall official flagship store, etc.
Source: Xiaohongshu
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