Beauty online: Our most-read stories on the online beauty market

1 – Popularity of J-beauty products fuelling @cosme expansion in APAC market​

Japanese company istyle Inc. is capitalising on the popularity of Japanese cosmetic products by expanding its @cosme stores across Asia Pacific and targeting greater online sales in China​

In recent years, the company has expanded @cosme’s presence in several APAC countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and China.

Expanding further into China​

Most recently, the company launched an official flagship store on Tmall specifically for the domestic China market, to capitalise on general trade sales in the country.

Prior to this, it conducted cross-border e-commerce sales to China through its official international flagship store on Tmall.

Senior vice president Hajime Endo said the new ‘general trade’ flagship store minimised the risk of being impacted by China’s constantly changing e-commerce laws.

2 – China’s consumption upgrade pushing e-commerce giant Tmall to bring in more beauty

China’s growing appetite for cosmetic products is pushing e-commerce platform Tmall to bring in more beauty products​ to satisfy its consumers' demands.

Chen Xi, the general manager of Tmall Cosmetics, told CosmeticsDesign-Asia that Tmall’s beauty sales did exceedingly well last year.

“Tmall’s sales of beauty products jumped over 60% last year, surpassing the industry’s average growth rate of 37%. Online sales of cosmetics and personal care products rose 37% and 36% respectively in China. This is also ahead of the whole fast-moving consumer goods sector average of 32%.”                                             ​

The company announced at its annual beauty summit in March that it expected international and domestic cosmetics brands to open 1,000 shops this year on its platform.

It revealed brands such as Tom Ford, Glamglow, Oriental Therapy, d-program, Primera and Barnangen have signed agreements to open flagship stores on Tmall this year.         

3 – Direct-to-Consumer beauty marketing is key, shows Yotpo survey data

The commerce marketing solutions firm recently published findings that illustrate what motivates cosmetics and personal care consumers​ to buy directly from brands via e-commerce or social media rather than shop for beauty at conventional retail stores. Cosmetics Design dropped by the Yotpo offices in New York City this week to learn more.

E-commerce is powering a huge direct-to-consumer shift, explains Erin Twyman, head of beauty at Yotpo. And this observation led the company to conduct a survey of nearly 2,000 women in the US and UK who do at least half their shopping online and prefer to buy directly from brands: “We really wanted to understand what makes a consumer purchase directly from a brand instead of going to a third-party retailer,”​ Twyman tells Cosmetics Design.

To put a few numbers on those findings: 84% of Yotpo’s survey respondents “prefer brands whose ads show women of different body types.”​ And over 75% “prefer brands whose ads feature a variety of ethnicities.”

4 – 5 digital beauty retail developments that just changed everything

In recent weeks, major technology companies, social media platforms, and personal care makers have made a handful of announcements that definitively change the way consumers buy​ makeup, personal care, fragrance, and more.

Here, Cosmetics Design takes a look at what’s new and now in the digital beauty retail space.

Nearly everyone in beauty is digital now: Over the past several months ingredient suppliers like Croda, distributors like Univar, and packaging companies like Qosmedix and Aptar have all made headlines here on Cosmetic Design for their new site launches.

But these latest digital developments aren’t on the supply side of beauty; they are instead changing the way everyday consumers buy beauty and how brands can reach them.

5 – L’Oréal India boss reveals his appetite for local acquisitions

India’s cosmetics industry has been buzzing since the press revealed that head of L’Oréal’s local operation was looking to acquire skincare and makeup businesses​ there.

Managing director Amit Jain said he is looking for brands that meet the specific needs of Indian consumers.

“What’s of great interest to us is skin and make-up. These are two areas that are still nascent in India, where we believe there are a lot of opportunities,"​ Jain said in an interview.

Beauty boom in India​

India’s beauty and personal care market was worth INR971bn (US$14bn) last year. Of this, cosmetics accounted for an estimated INR80bn ($1.5bn), while the skincare market was valued at INR12.5bn ($180m), according to firm Euromonitor. Cosmetics are expected to grow at a rate of 17.4% annually through to 2022, while skincare is estimated to increase by 10.4%.