Japan's biggest beauty website launches Chinese-language service to conquer market

The website has acted as a platform for 6.2 million monthly Japanese visitors to look up cosmetics reviews, make comments themselves or indeed to buy products since 1999.

According to the Shanghai-based China Business News, the operator behind @cosme, iStyle is now looking to expand beyond the domestic market with cross-border e-commerce and wholesale that targets consumers in other countries.

The publication reports 5% of @cosme's users are already from China and that the new service could see the site stock up to 1,000 products over the next six months, with the price in China being marketed the same as in Japan.

The power of Tmall in China​

Digital retail platform, Tmall hosts more than 70,000 sellers, controlling just under half of China’s online sales.

Major international cosmetics players like L’Occitane have invested in the giant ecommerce platform to strengthen its position in the country.

The strong sales performance of Tmall has brought about a shift in attitudes from prestige brands: over the last three years, the site enjoyed a tenfold sales growth to 273.7 billion yuan (US$43.9 billion).

Burberry was the first high-end brand to take the plunge, opening its web store on Tmall in April 2013, where it retails its entire range, including its beauty products.

However, high-end brands have been cautious about opening up on the platform because of the site’s emphasis on discounting and its lack of exclusivity: indeed, Benefit Cosmetics lasted only a few months on the site in 2012.

Digital is the way to go​

Jumei, which stocks such brands as Calvin Klein, Estee Lauder, and Avon, has also profited well from the recent healthy growth in China’s beauty market.

According to a Forst & Sullivan report, it alongside Watsons and Sephora were the three largest beauty products retailers in China in terms of GMV in 2014.

Jumei attributes its growth over recent years to e-commerce, and looking forward, voices confidence that mobile sales will continue to drive this trend.

“We believe consumers will increasingly shop online through mobile internet. Therefore, we have invested substantial resources to build a mobile platform dedicated to providing a superior mobile shopping experience​,” the company has said.

“In the first quarter of 2014, approximately 49% of our GMV was generated through our mobile platform​,” it confirms.