A good hand of cards is sparsely played, and another beauty company is confused

作者 | Soror

Edit | Lu Yiming

Title Picture | benefit

Another overseas beauty brand had no choice but to "withdraw from the network".

Just a few days ago, LVMH's beauty brand and the world's No. 1 sales of eyebrow products Benefit, suddenly announced the closure of the three major online self-operated flagship stores in China, and ended all services related to online operations on January 28. According to the customer service reply, this is related to the adjustment of the brand's operation strategy in China, and in the future, the purchase of Benefit brand products through official channels can only be carried out through LVMH's Sephora beauty collection stores.

Many people have received official closures. (Photo/Weibo)

Offline, the sales channels of this long-established beauty product are also shrinking further. Since 2021, Benefit's department stores have been delisted, and the official narrative at the time was the same as today – to "adjust the business model in China" in order to adapt to the current market environment.

If the withdrawal of a series of open-shelf beauty products such as E.L.F, Revlon and other open-shelf beauty products from China since last year was only a "technical adjustment", then the announcement of Benefit's offline this time made many people exclaim "so suddenly". At present, all the products of Benefit Benefit in the official flagship store of Douyin have been taken off the shelves, and the two stores of Taobao and Jingdong have put out closure notices, but there are still people who find it difficult to accept and seek the truth in the "question area".

Consumers sought confirmation of "store closure rumors" on Taobao. (Photo/Benefit Taobao Store)

After all, as early as 2007, before officially entering China, Benefit had already become the mid-to-high-end beauty enlightenment of the post-90s generation through overseas purchasing agents and other channels. And its end will inevitably inspire the emotion of Mesozoic consumers, "time is gone", this top Internet celebrity in the former overseas shopping era is rapidly disappearing from the sight of domestic consumers.

Success is also a girl, defeat is also a girl

According to LVMH's official website, "an eyebrow product is sold in two seconds". According to official data, the sales of Benefit's "Anti-Hole Elite" primer once ranked first in Europe and the United States, with an average of one sold every 14 seconds.

From the very beginning of its establishment, this brand has a strong youthful color. In 1976, twin sisters Jane Ford and Jean Ann Ford, from Indiana, decided to start their own business and devote themselves to the real economy, and they decided to open a small cosmetics store by flipping a coin to serve the "girl next door" group, which was the starting point of the Benefit brand.

贝玲妃品牌电影《Glamouriety》海报。 （图/Women’s Wear Daily）

In 2007, Benefit entered the Chinese market through Sephora. In the era when there was no grass planting platform, Benefit entered the country first through the overseas shopping channel that was not smooth at that time, captured the hearts of young consumers, and became famous with the "invisible pores" and "no makeup" lard primer, which was a proper top-class luxury in the eyes of junior high school girls in the county at that time.

The "lard ointment", which was priced at 320 yuan that year, has now been discontinued and withdrawn from the market. (Photo/Little Red Book)

Even at that time, no one knew that it was behind LVMH, the leader of the global luxury industry, and consumers couldn't even figure out whether it was "Byfei" or "Benefit", but the lard primer, blush and eyebrow powder in the tin box still created a full sense of makeup ritual for the girls of that era.

According to the total retail sales of world-renowned eyebrow products from January to December 2021, Benefit is the world's No. 1 eyebrow makeup brand, with more than 3,000 eyebrow salons and 85 boutiques around the world.

In the only few stores at present, there is still Benefit's "eyebrow bar" eyebrow shaping service. (Photo/VOGUE)

However, as the "delicate girly" aesthetic became a thing of the past, Benefit's brand positioning began to become awkward. Especially in the past few years, under the comparison of the catfish effect of domestic makeup, Benefit's retro packaging and color matching for more than ten years have made domestic consumers feel strong aesthetic fatigue.

CBNData's statistics in 2020 show that the growth rate of cutting-edge beauty in mainland China is as high as 78%, far exceeding the growth rate of 23% of overall beauty.

It has been found that after so many years, Benefit, a brand aimed at young girls, has hardly been updated. There are only 40 products on the shelves of the official flagship store, and the products that can be brought out are still the old ones - dandelion blush, "anti-hole elite" primer and eyebrow pencil, which are particularly sluggish against the backdrop of domestic beauty brands that are almost "daily" and "monthly".

Benefit's eyebrow makeup products, the packaging that has not changed for thousands of years, I can't tell the difference when my mother comes. (Photo/LVMH official website)

What's worse is the pricing that is extremely unequal to the minimalist retro packaging. The official price of Benefit's eyebrow pencil is 235 yuan, and the net content is only 0.34g, which is even more outrageous than the well-known "eyebrow pencil assassin". After this "withdrawal from the network" trend, many loyal consumers expressed their happiness to see it, and they were waiting for a wave of wool.

"Big data, please remember, Benefit Burnin cleared and pushed it to me. (Photo/Little Red Book)

Of course, the new generation of girls also have a girlish heart, but the problem is that in front of Concubine Benefit, who has "cabbage-level texture and lady-level pricing", it is not easy to say "love".

Concubine Benefit, who had no choice but to "withdraw from the network",

Didn't you catch up with the good times?

In recent years, Benefit has tried many times to "embrace the new generation", tried to cooperate with short video talents, and also co-branded with Disney to launch the "Princess Gift Box", but in the end, it is difficult to change the fate of reluctance to withdraw from the Internet.

A co-branded gift box launched by Benefit and Disney. (Photo/Benefit's official Weibo)

Many people call Benefit in the Chinese market a "get up early in the morning and catch up in the evening", which is a good example of a good hand played poorly. After all, Benefit, which has been stationed in China since 2007, has accumulated a good reputation after more than ten years of development, but missed the bonus period of the brand's online development at a critical time node.

In 2011, Benefit entered Tmall for the first time, but quietly withdrew after only half a year. At the time, the reason given by the brand was "contract expiration", but more people thought it was exploring data. At that time, the way of online sales of luxury goods was not optimistic, and Benefit, as a more "people-friendly" brand of LVMH, was indeed the most suitable to test the waters and explore the path of e-commerce. As for whether it will continue to cooperate with online e-commerce platforms, at that time, a person in charge of the Benefit brand said that "the data has been reported to the LVMH group, and it is still in the internal audit process, and it will take some time to draw conclusions."

The LVMH website says that "a smile is the best cosmetic". (Photo/LVMH)

But only six years have passed since this "audit".

It was 2017 for Benefit to enter Tmall again, and the time to try e-commerce live broadcast lagged behind in 2022. China News Weekly reported at the time, "In front of a pink set full of girlish hearts, the anchor tried a makeup spray on the spot...... In the comments of the quick swiping screen, occasionally netizens ask: 'Is this an official store?'"

Obviously, in the 6 years of "appearing and leaving", Benefit missed an important opportunity for online development. According to the data, from 2015 to 2022, the proportion of online channel sales of makeup products in China increased from 17.91% to 45.36%.

After retreating to the line,

Can "Benefit Everyone" continue to be "small and beautiful"?

After returning to offline, Benefit still needs to face the double squeeze from online and offline.

Some netizens said that when shopping, they found that "Benefit's position in Sephora is becoming more and more inconspicuous", and there are often incomplete color numbers. Although the current Benefit is only "withdrawing from the network" and has not really withdrawn from the Chinese market, many people are pessimistic when they think of the embarrassing position of Benefit in the entire LVMH group's beauty line, and perhaps one day, it will disappear from the sight of Chinese consumers.

Benefit products. (Photo/LVMH)

Not only Benefit, but in recent years, many overseas beauty products have entered the ebb period. In the face of rising raw material prices and poor sales, many big-name makeup brands are trying to put down their bodies and save themselves through co-branding, promotions, and "first rising and then falling", but they show signs of adaptation. Last year alone, a number of overseas makeup brands such as Huda Beauty, e.l.f, and CEZANNE announced their withdrawal.

According to incomplete statistics, in 2023, 10 international makeup brands announced their withdrawal from the Chinese market. (Photo/"China Cosmetics")

Taking LVMH Group, the parent company of Benefit, as an example, the financial report for the third quarter of 2023 shows that the group's operating income was 19.96 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 9%, which is lower than the 17% year-on-year growth rate in the previous two quarters and lower than the previous analysts' expected growth rate of 11.2%.

On the one hand, this shows that domestic consumers are disenchanting overseas brands, and the era of "Benefit" is like a fish in water has passed, and it is difficult for people to go crazy because of the promotion of a certain purchasing agent and the endorsement of a celebrity...... Anything that differentiates people will influence their decisions when it comes to buying beauty products.

There are more and more factors to consider before buying beauty products. (Photo/LVMH)

On the other hand, the ebb of overseas beauty brands does not mean that domestic beauty brands can "breathe a sigh of relief". Compared with overseas brands, although domestic brands are more familiar with consumers' consumption patterns and can respond to the call of the current market more quickly, they lack long-term momentum. After the tide recedes, a new round of "reshuffle" in the beauty industry will also begin.

However, this may not be a bad thing for consumers.

 Proofreading: Yang Chao, Operation: Ono, Typesetting: Liang Ningyan