In March this year, as the former top of Korean makeup, Itie House announced the closure of all offline flagship stores Chinese mainland, and subsequently, there were relevant reports that following the closure of 90 stores in 2020, Innisfree will continue to close stores this year.
You know, an Itty's House eyebrow pencil and a box of Innisfree powder are college girls' favorite objects and Amway artifacts. Not only that, before 2016, because of the low price of Han cosmetics and the variety of products and the new fast, almost every young girl has loved it.
However, due to many factors, after 2016, the position of Korean makeup in the Chinese beauty market gradually declined, and we groped for signs of decline and found another new force, so that we found the key to the breakthrough of the Chinese beauty market.
01
Affordable Korean makeup fell into a wave of store closures
According to media reports, since the middle of 2020, Itti House has successively closed 85 stores in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan and other places. Not only that, in March this year, Itti House even closed all offline stores in China.
Looking back, as early as 2017, affordable Korean cosmetics represented by brands such as Fei Shi Shop, Nature Paradise, and Enigma have long been trapped in China's development dilemma. Among them, LG Life Health, the second largest cosmetics group in South Korea, took a sharp turn after the number of stores expanded to 360, and finally ended in the withdrawal of all offline stores in the Chinese market.
In the post-epidemic era, the situation in Korean makeup salons is even more severe. According to the survey of Winshang Cloud Think Tank, the ratio of switching stores to the beauty industry is 1, and when the ratio is less than 1, it means that the development of brand stores shows a state of contraction, and the smaller the value, the more serious the contraction, in 2020, the overall switch store ratio of Korean cosmetics will reach 0.28. Obviously, Korean makeup has shown a serious contraction in the Chinese market.
Behind the successive closures of various Korean cosmetics brands is the fact that they are no longer favored by Chinese girls. And when we look back at the development of Korean makeup, there are actually traces to follow.
Once, under the impetus of K-pop culture, the broadcast of a popular drama will drive the single products of offline stores to sell out of stock, such as the Korean drama "You from the Stars" with fire Lanzhi cushion BB, the same lipstick in "Thinking of You" suddenly became popular, and the crayon lipstick used in "Inheritors"...
This amazing ability to carry goods has also allowed many Korean cosmetics brands to pay high rents and occupy commercial areas with scarce land. For example, in the early days of Itie's House entering the Chinese market, it landed on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai and opened the world's No. 1 flagship store; Innisfree Fengyin blossomed everywhere in the lively pedestrian streets of the first and second lines with the image of a small fresh beauty shop... Infiltrating the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, selecting top-class business circles, and settling in large shopping malls have become the faces of Han Cosmetics to open stores.
However, after entering 2016, many factors affected the closure of Korean cosmetics stores. First of all, affected by the "THAAD incident", Korean TV dramas and variety shows have successively reduced the exposure of the Chinese market, lacking the support of Hallyu culture, and Korean makeup has lost an important way to "plant grass". Then some Korean makeup quality was not exposed, and the problem of exceeding the standard of a certain ingredient in the product occurred frequently. Cheap but not easy to use cosmetics have undoubtedly hit Chinese consumers' buying confidence.
At the same time, domestic cosmetics are suddenly emerging and are breaking into the public eye. A few years ago, recommended "love cosmetics", Chinese girls are likely to only think of Korean makeup, but in recent years, domestic products have begun to replace them. They are also cheaper, the quality of the product is more secure, and they actively launch a variety of eye-catching products. "Cost-effective" cards, not only Korean makeup will play.
02
Domestic beauty to accelerate the layout
After taking the baton from Han Makeup's hand, domestic beauty has a strong limelight. In social platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Station B, you can see local makeup brands such as Huaxizi, Perfect Diary, and Orange Everywhere. Traditional culture, patriotic feelings, is the basic point to support domestic beauty, domestic cosmetics mainly cover the Z generation of people, and Z generation is willing to consume and spend time to pursue, "affordable domestic goods", "the rise of domestic goods" to conquer the beauty market, but also become the beauty of the spread of the wind.
Domestic beauty is the way, perhaps, from the data can better reflect the power of the rise.
According to the "Baidu 2021 National Tide Pride Search Big Data" report released by Baidu, the attention of the national tide has risen by 528% in the past decade, and beauty has become one of the fastest growing categories in search popularity by virtue of the rapid improvement of research and development and production technology. In addition, according to the data of the Winshang Database, the ratio of chinese beauty business to store switch in 2020 is 0.79, and the impact of the epidemic has made the overall contraction trend. However, compared with the stalemate of Korean cosmetics, the domestic beauty 0.78 is not pessimistic, on the contrary, the domestic brands that actively expand stores are still not in the minority.
Obviously, the domestic beauty market has entered a reshuffle period, and domestic cosmetics have become a new force. So, what are the store opening strategies for domestic beauty? How do you speed up the layout?
From the perspective of the city, the acceleration of domestic beauty began from the penetration of the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and between 2020, 107 domestic beauty brand stores took root in Shanghai, and more than 80 also laid out Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
Once, first-tier cities were the main battlefield of Korean makeup, and now they have been occupied by domestic cosmetics. More than that, Changsha, Wuhan, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Nanjing and other new first-tier cities, each city more than 60 one-year coverage speed to complete the march, while Hefei, Zhengzhou, Kunming, Tianjin and other popular cities more than 30.
Secondly, entering the top business circle can help domestic cosmetics to achieve counterattack. The core business district can provide the advantage of maximizing traffic,
Domestic cosmetics take this opportunity to exert the "first store economy", covering a large number of consumer groups, accelerating to win attention, such as THE COLORIST national first store chose to settle in the core business district of Haizhu District, Guangzhou, after opening, instantly became popular, won high attention, high sales.
Domestic new species have a good sense of sight, beauty updates fast, high innovation, note the favor of the benchmark shopping center investment group, and domestic beauty Yi wants to take off the cheap label, after mutual attraction, domestic beauty is not selected in the high-end mall.
From the city to the business circle to the shopping mall, it is not difficult to find that behind the accelerated expansion is the occupation of offline traffic. The first to rush the golden zone, can efficiently complete the first round of layout.
03
How to grasp the 500 billion "money scene"
In the new era of consumption, what opportunities are there for China's beauty industry? What are the enlightenments for the rise of domestic beauty?
According to the public data of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, the domestic beauty market has moved towards the 500 billion club, and it is expected to expand by 200 billion yuan within 5 years, which can be described as a huge market scale.
In the face of such a large cake, there is still huge room for improvement in the makeup consumption of Chinese. According to Deloitte data, the average annual consumption of cosmetics in Chinese is only 39 yuan, while the per capita consumption of makeup in Japan, the United States and South Korea is 8-11 times that of China. Consumer demand needs to be further stimulated and upgraded.
Therefore, in the face of such a big money scene, beauty brands are bound to play a good combination of fists.
First, use social media to gain customers. The Internet traffic dividend has been continuously released, the way of customer acquisition has changed, and the consumer contact points have shifted from traditional TV advertising to new media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, and Xiaohongshu. The new domestic brand is seizing the opportunity to develop with the trend. As a result, the WeChat platform spread HFP, Xiaohongshu incubated the perfect diary, and Taobao Live achieved Huaxizi. Emerging beauty brands must first choose a suitable communication platform, use the platform attributes, and target consumer groups.
Second, research and development of high-end product lines. Relying only on price marketing and creating publicity topics, the brand will not go far. We found that the familiar domestic brands have moved, and perfect diary parent company Yixian E-commerce has acquired the high-end skin care brand Galénic to build a group layout. If you blindly pursue parity, you will repeat the mistakes of Korean makeup, strengthen the use experience of the product, and shape the reputation, so that the brand can last forever.
Third, expand diversified channels. Korean cosmetics brands often develop in a single-store model, with large stores and few products, which not only require high store rent operating costs, but also generate a large number of basic costs to support the daily management of stores. In the past two years, the one-stop makeup collection store that integrates different consumer experiences represented by THE COLORIST colorist and HARMAY talking plum is expanding rapidly. It is reported that Itti's House has been settled in one of them. If the single-store model is profitable and loss-making, it is better to change the way of thinking and diversify its development.
epilogue
China's beauty brand market is so huge, some people have entered the game with beautiful scenery, some people have stepped off the altar, whether it is a rising domestic brand or a defeated Korean cosmetics, change is the only way to break the game.
In the long run, domestic cosmetics still need to continue to attack, fill the gap in the high-end and other markets of domestic beauty, and realize the iteration and progress of ingredients and research and development technology.
For the "Itty House", what needs to be considered is that in addition to the operational layout of store management, there is also the reshaping of product differentiation competitiveness and the deep understanding of consumer psychology, which may be the key to Han Cosmetics' self-help in China.
In short, beauty forces from all walks of life still have a long way to go.