All you need to know about Asia's cosmetics business movements in 2015

1. P&G moves personal care leadership out of Singapore​

Earlier in the year, the company announced it was reverting to its brand-guardian leadership structure, ​with design oversight for cosmetics and skin care for the IMEA region.

The restructuring means that Singapore is now part of the company’s IMEA focus, made up principally of India, the Middle East and Africa, explains Byravee Iyer in a campaignasia.com article about the leadership move.

Leadership moves in the region have been underway since June when P&G eliminated the marketing director position company wide and instated a brand director role instead.

Then in July, India’s brand management was moved out of Singapore to the IMEA management center. And, the following month P&G “announced plans to divest, discontinue or merge about 90 to 100 brands around the globe over the next year or two to focus on the top 80 brands,” ​recalls Iyer. 

However, the tactic varies between brands, the “haircare brand Rejoice for example…will continue to operate out of Singapore,” ​wrote Iyer.

2. Shiseido collaborates with IBM​

Shiseido kicked off a year of developments by teaming up with IBM to enhance its customer experience by providing nearly 10,000 beauty consultants in Japan with mobile apps designed to aid new customer services, customer-centric product improvements and social innovations.

The Tokyo-headquartered firm selected the IBM 'MobileFirst' Platform​ to develop and secure an enterprise app for its ‘Beauty Tablet’, and has multiple modules and increasing capabilities for internal operations.

It has also been integrated to Shiseido's back end systems, and acts as a beauty consultant's one-stop mobile solution for communications, scheduling, reporting and other tasks that increase productivity, according to the technology and consulting company.

"With more consumers expecting personalized experiences across every channel, brands must empower their salespeople with the tools and insight to provide greater customer service,"​ says Phil Buckellew, vice president, enterprise mobile, IBM.

3. Jumei becomes first china e-commerce provider to stock Japanese giants​

As the holiday season loomed, this beauty retailer announced that it would be stocking Shiseido and Kose​ which it claims is the first time these Japanese beauty brands have authorized a cross-border e-commerce company in China to house their ranges.

According to company CEO Leo Chen, Chinese consumers will now be able to access international beauty trends as new products by both brands will be launched simultaneously in Japan and on Jumei Global, in addition to those already on offer on the firm's domestic platform.

Revenue has also increased for the ambitious firm by a reported "99.9% year-on-year to RMB1.9bn"​, driven by Jumei Global.

Chen attributes this growth to a shift in consumption patterns in China as consumers upgrade their tastes, preferences and expectations for products.

“We continue to strengthen our position as a leading import cross-boarder platform in China and are pleased to see both active customers and a number of orders grow rapidly while maintaining a high repeat purchase rate,”​ adds Chen.

Jumei expects total net revenues for the fourth quarter of 2015 to reach between RMB1.83bn and RMB1.93bn.

4. Fujifilm's astaxanthin 'breakthrough' in skin care...​

And last but not least, transferring its' expertise with antioxidant astaxanthin to cosmetics, Fujifilm revealed it had been making serious headway in Asia with the Astalift skin-care range.

The manufacturer broke into the cosmetics market nine years ago by taking its' expertise in camera film with the natural antioxidant extracted from algae, into the skin care field.

It all started with Fuji's scientists discovering a way to transfer their anti-oxidation technology​ that prevents the fading of colour photographs from ultraviolet rays, to treat ageing skin.

According to senior researcher Nakamura Yoshisada, who led the development of Astalift; the company's film technology made it possible to stabilize astaxanthin and penetrate the skin in a quicker and deeper way through cosmetics formulations.

“We spent many years pursuing beautiful skin in our film imaging business, and our accumulated technologies and perspective came in handy in our cosmetics efforts, too,” ​he said.