Cosmetics online shopping boom reaches Japan

The report published by the subsidiary of the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, revealed that Chinese online shoppers who usually prefer to buy from Europe and America, are now shifting their attention to the Japanese and South Korean markets, where growth is said to be highest.

Statistics revealed that cosmetics were most purchased by Chinese online shoppers in their 20s and 30s, from big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

In terms of volume overall purchases from overseas websites have tripled in the first half of the year in comparison to a rise of only 117 per cent recorded in 2012.

Drivers of the boom​

According to Alipay, the online purchase volume of Japanese commodities more than quadrupled to over 4.1 billion yuan ($661 million) in the first half of the year, partly due to the dramatic depreciation of the Japanese yen, whilst purchases from South Korea also leapt by 160 per cent.

Company sources expect purchases from the two countries to exceed 10 billion yuan for the whole year, and that e-commerce has developed rapidly in China in recent years and it is gaining more support from the authorities.

According to Chen Liang, a researcher at Alibaba, e-commerce has clearly stimulated overseas consumption; "The young generation has demonstrated their great potential for consumption, and more countries will take a keen interest in this."​

Digital platform is best​ 

By 2016, market researcher McKinsey & Company estimates that there will be 351 million online shoppers in China, ringing up 2.2 trillion renminbi (US $3.48 billion) in revenues. At that point, internet penetration will be 80 percent in the cities, and China will surpass the US as the world’s largest Internet retail market.

In this instance the market researcher says the key to growth for cosmetics brands on the region is to focus on digital platforms to reach existing and newly affluent Chinese consumers.

“Once Chinese consumers try online shopping, they tend to like it and become repeat customers; only 6.2 percent shop once and are then done.”​