China Cosmetic Market Data in May

The GMV of cosmetics across leading e-commerce platforms showed promising growth trends International brands are already beginning to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some domestic brands, especially Dr. Yu, performed excellently despite the impact of COVID-19. Brands started their 618 pre-sale promotions in May and have recorded excellent sales results.

Overall data

In May 2020, the GMV of the skincare category increased by 32.01% while the GMV of the makeup category grew by 9.02%.

As for leading e-commerce platforms:

On platforms from Alibaba Group (Tmall and Taobao), the skincare category and makeup category increased by 34.6% (YOY) and 9.6%, respectively.
On JD, the cosmetic category (skincare + makeup) increased by 9.20% YOY.
On Pinduoduo, the cosmetic category dropped by 2.7% year on year ^[1].

International brands recovering from COVID-19 economic hit

The sales performance of some international brands has already rebounded in May. As famous brands that have a good reputation among Chinese consumers, these global brands still have a winning edge over other brands in China.

Some domestic brands had an excellent performance.

Dr. Yu is a brand from Jahwa Group. Its main selling point is the functions of the active ingredients used in its formulations, e.g., repairing skin. It also uses official endorsements from renowned dermatologists. These two attributes satisfy consumer demand from two aspects:

People are suffering from skin problems caused by wearing masks, such as skin allergies, acne, and enlarged pores.
In the post-epidemic era, people are putting greater trust in the advice of dermatologists and experts compared to advice from beauty advisors and beauty bloggers.

During the epidemic, people’s needs for facial masks also increased, which also explains the good performance of Dr. Yu and UNIFON. The former one’s best-selling product is Dr. Yu Centella Repair Mask, while the latter mainly sells facial masks. As for makeup brands, Florasis was still fast-growing, while Perfect Diary’s growth rate declined slightly.

Brands started 618 pre-sale in May.

The 618 pre-sale financial results of domestic brands were still much lower than international brands. The pre-sale sales value recorded by L’Oreal was even three times higher than HFP’s. The 618 pre-sale data shows there is still a long way for domestic brands to go before they catch up with international brands.