The suncare market in China is one of the fastest-growing globally. This market is dominated by whitening products since consumers pay attention to fairer skin.
- Sun Protection is the leading value category with a 91.6% share by value in the Chinese Sunscreen market.
- Today Chinese Beauty Market is one of the most promising fields of business in China.
- Sunscreen Market growth in China was driven by increased awareness related to a healthy lifestyle and the prevention of skin cancer.
In 2015 the sales of cosmetics in online shops in Chinese had hit 124 billion yuan, which in comparison with the previous year, reflected 25% of growth and it continues to grow steadily day by day. Moreover, it showed that Chinese consumers are putting a growing emphasis on online retailing channels.
TOP TRENDS OF SUNSCREEN PRODUCTS IN CHINA
- Nowadays the demand for skin care products by Chinese consumers is constantly increasing.
- Urbanization has changed and improved the lifestyles and living standards of people.
- It is not a secret that recently sun care products became highly popular among Chinese consumers.
UNDERSTAND THE DEMAND
In comparison with Western markets, Chinese consumers have different product perceptions due to different skin types, and cultural and consumption habit differences. European consumers usually use sunscreen products on sunny days in order to prevent sunburn and skin cancer.
However, UV protection is highly important nowadays for Chinese beauty. It became a top priority for Chinese ladies in their daily routine. In this sense, skin type plays a vital role. European and American consumers have Caucasian skin (type I), which is prone to sunburnt but not that easy to be tanned. In contrast, Asians usually have II & III skin types, including Chinese consumers, this skin type is more prone to sunburn and getting tanned. As a result, Sunscreen products in China are perceived more like skincare products that Chinese consumers use in order to prevent photo-aging, and tanning, and save white noble skin tone.
In addition, in China, many sunscreen products contain whiteners and skin-brightening chemicals. Pale skin has become such a giant trait of beauty that the phrase “白富美 (bái fù měi) or “white, rich beautiful” is jokingly used to describe the ideal Chinese woman. For the past three or four years, it has remained one of the most frequently used cyber-words in China.
SUNSCREEN MARKET TRENDS
Sunscreen products that have the feature of long-lasting protection are in high demand among Chinese customers. Consumers’ needs and demands are hyper-segmented and sophisticated. As a result, it drives brands to develop more products with innovative textures and features such as high SPFs and a ‘light’ feel on the skin.
Long-lasting sunscreens usually are waterproof and sweat-proof. Then, it requires more sophisticated cleansing when removing the product at the end of the day. At the same time, it creates a new market opportunity for brands to launch the facial care category that features sunscreen-removal functions.
Today most cosmetics and skincare companies are developing products with UV filters to meet the demand of Chinese consumers. While you are in China, you may notice that most of the skincare products involve UV filters.
Foreign Brands are dominating in Chinese Sunscreen market. There are several successful brands on the market such as Anessa, Clarins, Lancome, SK-II, Pola, Bioré, Mantholatum, Eau Thermale Avene, Innisfree, and Vichy brand.
CONSUMERS’ SUNSCREEN EXPECTATIONS
When it comes to sunscreens Chinese consumers have their own expectations for market trends, which could be reflected in 5 aspects:
- Easy-to-use formats such as sprays, sun gels, essences, and transparent sunscreen sticks;
- Multifunctional sunscreens that in addition to sun protection have benefits such as anti-pollution, anti-aging, and moisturizing;
- Improved and effective Sun protection;
- Long-lasting sun protection;
- Lighter innovative textures;
BRANDING IS A KEY
No branding = no sales.
The ‘face’ culture is really important in China; Chinese beauties always want to look the best at any time. Reputation is crucial; therefore, customers attach great importance to the brand and its image.
Chinese society is more likely fixed on reputation or let’s say the notion of “face”, due to that issue it is clear to understand that in order to express their “face” the most typical way of it is purchasing brands. In a society, which is definitely led by consumer needs, when it comes to branding you need to consider this individual expression’s new-found desire.
One of the advantages is that the byword for quality in China is usually perceived as ‘international’ products, due to the fact establishing your own High-quality foreign brand can allow you to get paid dividends in the long run.
ONLINE REPUTATION – PR – ADVERTISING – SOCIAL MEDIA
Having a great and innovative product in China is wonderful. However, as long as there is no E-reputation for your product that’s the time when you start wondering yourself what is wrong with your product or what can you do to market it wisely and in the end hit sales. right?
In China, you will need to start building your reputation from scratch, simply due to the reason that English content and positive reviews from western media platforms will not be visible on the Chinese net. Mandarin Chinese Characters are used in the vast majority of internet research (over 97,5%).
It is recommended to remember that the Chinese web is a unique ecosystem that requires a fresh and creative approach, right Chinese platforms should be chosen to build your Sunscreen product’s visibility & reputation in order to target your consumers.
MARKETING CAMPAIGN IN CHINA
Our Online Reputation Management services are built to enable us to customize our services according to the need of your company. Our main goal is to enhance your E-reputation and protect your company from false comments and negative remarks.
Our E-reputation management service is guaranteed to remove all negative messages, promote positive messages and proactively monitor your online reputation.
GMA experts will continuously monitor the search engine algorithms and broadcast positive and trust-building materials and build trust towards your brand and service.
Our target is to increase your online presence by posting materials and articles specifically intended to enhance and endorse your company’s online presence.
We use our highly efficient innovative search engine optimization techniques on search engine platforms such as Baidu, and Google as well as Chinese social networks, to ensure you the best ranked and most visible information about your company.
LITTLE RED BOOK CAMPAIGN
Little Red Book nowadays is a game changer and it’s an extremely popular app in the Chinese market in terms of Skincare and Cosmetics. The platform allows reaching trendsetters and Chinese beauties with international purchasing behavior. The app works perfectly for International Brands. Simply because the competition is not that high and the whole app of Little Red Book is based on real girls’ community already used to share Cosmetics reviews.
Having a presence on Little Red Book gives you an opportunity not only to increase your brand awareness but also to use a feature of E-Commerce cross-border.
You can get our little Red book Report for free (just send us an email )
In Chinese 防晒 «Fangshai» means «prevent from the sun». As we know, Chinese women love white, perfect skin, and therefore are very interested in loads of products protecting their skin from tanning or burning.
For this keyword, the number on the right means that there are more than 940K posts related to this topic. It shows that there is a huge demand for Sunscreen products.
HOW TO SELL YOUR PRODUCTS IN CHINA?
E-BROCHURE IS ESSENTIAL
WeChat H5 is absolutely a game changer nowadays, it is the latest and the most improved version of HTML language. This is the most popular campaign type on WeChat with many brands incorporating H5 pages into their posts and official accounts. WeChat H5 reflects the mobile version of the websites created on WeChat.
In this sense, interaction and creativity are the most important factors to WeChat H5 – it can include games, invites, video ads, animations, and many other interactive platforms. H5 projects can help achieve a higher conversion rate. It should be mentioned that JD’s WeChat H5 campaigns for 618 were really successful this year. Hence, it shows that WeChat H5 has become a useful tool for social commerce, especially in WeChat. Rather than catching on to a trend and showing off, brands are relying on these WeChat H5 to grow conversion.
Most H5 Campaigns revolve around:
- Event Promotion
- Brand Promotion
- Product Introduction
- Market Feedback & Analysis
HOW TO START SELLING YOUR PRODUCT?
To start selling your product in China is not as easy as it might seem at the beginning. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to hit the sales. As they say, great things always take time, right?
Therefore, it is highly recommended to engage your customers in your product’s awareness before selling. Build a good relationship with them, communicate with them, and understand their expectations and demands.
The Chinese market is led by social media and the daily use of apps. Consequently, to win the choice of your consumers you will need to use digital channels, it will be the best solution in this sense.
Further reading on how to market Cosmetics Brands in China.
WISE DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
To drag the attention of a Distributor you will need to make sure that there is a demand for your products. Make sure that Chinese consumers are really interested in your Brand. Hence, you will need to increase your Brand’s awareness via Chinese social media Campaigns and having a Chinese website, this will allow consumers to learn more about your products. Being present on E-commerce platforms will let consumers find and try your product.
Marketing to Chinese Distributors can involve various approaches which can be quite experimental. To attract Distributors, you can be creative and try various things without worrying that you will lose a large amount of money or damage your reputation. Some of those approaches:
- Optimize your website for Chinese search Engines
- Make use of pay-per-click advertising
- Develop a Chinese website
- Create engaging content and media that ranks well
- Create social media profiles
- Make it easy for potential customers to contact you.
Most of the time to manage your business only having a good network of contacts sometimes is not enough. There are several key factors that will play a role in finding and choosing a distributor:
- Contact distributors
- Trade Fair
- Follow Contact
- Sale Solution
- Animation Distributors
- Lead generation Distributors
WHO IS BEHIND MARKETING TO CHINA?
With our Digital Lead Agency in China and Account Management services, we can guide you through the entire process. We are your eyes in China. We are a specialist in the Chinese market with seven years of experience.
If you want to know the secrets to creating a great Campaign in China with the chance to reach nearly 600 million online consumers in China, GMA could help and offer you inspiration.
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Contact me today if
- You want to receive a full overview of our services
- If you want a free consultation
- If you want to see our case studies in the beauty industry
You can also read our full guide on The Skincare Market in China