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

1 – Drunk Elephant furthers Asian expansion with Tmall launch in China

Clean beauty brand Drunk Elephant is set to debut in the Chinese market via cross-border e-commerce platform Tmall.​

Entering the burgeoning Chinese market is a strategic move for the US-based skin care brand, where the brand already enjoys a strong following.

“We have been overwhelmed already by the enthusiasm and interest of the Chinese people. We have been getting many requests from our fan base in China asking when we will launch,​” said Tiffany Masterson, founder of Drunk Elephant.

She added: “At our recent House of Drunk pop-up in New York last June, we were delighted to see visiting Chinese shoppers stocking up on Drunk Elephant to bring home, which was such an encouraging sign. It’s going to be a thrilling experience to launch in China and we hope we are well-received.” ​

Drunk Elephant is still relatively new to the Asian market. The brand first expanded into Asia last November with a launch in Singapore via Sephora SEA.

2 – VIDEO: Redefining retail – How beauty retailers are engaging consumers in a changing landscape

The retail industry has undergone a significant transformation over the past decade and it is continuing to change rapidly​ with the rise of new technology and shifting consumer behaviours.

To adapt to a competitive and ever evolving new reality, beauty retailers are finding new and innovative ways to attract consumers to click through or step into their stores.

We sat down with Christabel Chee, head of communications for Individual Collective, an indie brand, which chose to begin its journey with a physical retail outlet in downtown Singapore.

This, said Chee, was all part of the brand’s consumer-centric approach which she believes has served them well. However, the brand is working on building its online presence to help scale its business internationally.

Later we caught up with Xueli Wong, content producer for BeLive, a Singapore-based live streaming tech start-up. Wong discusses how beauty consumer’s behaviours and priorities are changing and later reveals how beauty brands are pushing themselves to attract consumers with innovative and interactive online content.

3 – Prestige plan: Japanese brand RMK eyes ‘huge’ potential for luxury products in China

Japanese colour cosmetics brand RMK believes it can capture China’s prestige beauty segment​ with its bestselling make-up base products.

The brand recently marked its entry into China with the launch of its official flagship on e-commerce platform Tmall Global.

Following Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea, China is the fourth overseas market for RMK.

Hiroka Satou, a public relations representative from RMK said the brand’s popularity among Chinese consumers have been steadily increasing over the last few years thanks to Chinese tourists in Japan and diagou shoppers.

The Tmall flagship will consists of 178 SKUs, including bestselling products such the RMK Liquid Foundation, RMK Make-up Base and RMK Creamy Foundation.

4 – SUQQU launches on Tmall Global to reach Chinese beauty consumers and boost international sales

Luxury Japanese beauty brand SUQQU is stepping up its international presence​ by launching its flagship on Tmall Global capitalise on the demand from Chinese beauty consumers.

SUQQU is a beauty brand under Équipe, a member of the Kanebo Cosmetics family. Expanding into China via the country’s largest cross-border e-commerce platform is part of the firm’s strategy to boost its international sales.

“The new SUQQU online space marks a full-scale launch of cross-border e-commerce operations to be staged in step with the strong growth in domestic inbound demand for SUQQU products. Beyond Équipe’s current business operations in five countries and regions, the company will be scaling up international sales by establishing its first official sales channels in mainland China,” ​said the company in a statement.

SUQQU’s Tmall entry follows the launch of its Weibo social media account in 2017, when the company began to notice the rapid increase of inbound demand from Chinese tourists in Japan.

Since then, Équipe has been preparing for a full-scale brand launch in China by steadily releasing SUQQU content to its’s 490,000 Weibo followers.

5 – Blogging to business: How Malaysian skin care ‘pioneer’ is now leading the way in make-up

When Fame Cosmetics was established in December 2015 by two Malaysian bloggers​ its skin care products sold instantly sold out – and now it is scoring success in the colour cosmetics space too.

Its founders, Raja Elly Yusnita and Nur Hafiza Burhanuddin, were prominent Malaysian skincare and beauty bloggers who had built up a sizeable audience. Their thousands of followers respected their opinions, so they reasoned why not turn all this trust into a brand that ticked all the right boxes.

At the time, there were only a handful of Malaysian beauty companies, guaranteeing Fame an explosion when it launched its skincare range. Its entire stock was sold out in three days and the brand quickly became a full-time business for the founders.

Soon, though, they were forced to revisit their business model. Though Fame’s skincare products had been shown to be popular, the response to them had dwindled after a few months because skincare was seen as an occasional purchase. Instead, they turned to beauty cosmetics, which they saw as more sustainable because consumers were willing to buy lipsticks and the like more often.