Women’s Day Sales in China Reach New High

The Taobao/Tmall Women’s Day Shopping Campaign is the largest in the past four years and has been seen as a sign of consumption recovery in China. The number of participating shops doubled from last year, and the total number of participating brands and product lines increased by 60%. More than 20,000 brands achieved year-on-year growth of more than 100%.

2020 has been a turbulent year in China because of the unexpected impact of COVID-19, which has disrupted the original trajectory of all industries. Offline channels have been devastated. Despite these difficulties, online channels have performed well. The Taobao/Tmall Women’s Day Shopping Campaign is evidence that consumerism in China is on the mend. As the first nationwide promotion since the outbreak, it witnessed record-shattering sales. The beauty industry benefited the most. According to available data, the turnover of the beauty industry this year dwarfed last year’s sales figures ^[1].

General review

This year’s Women’s Day Sales Campaign is the largest in the past four years.

More than 20,000 brands achieved year-on-year growth of more than 100%.
From Mar 5 to 8, Taobao live-streaming saw a 264% year-on-year increase in transactions.
Orders for C2M (Customer-to-Manufacturer) goods increased by more than 370% year on year.
The number of participating shops doubled from last year, and the total number of participating brands and product lines increased by 60%.

Beauty industry’s performance

Top 10 cosmetic brands such as Estee Lauder and Clarins recorded their highest sales since their opening on Tmall;
Guerlain, Shiseido outperformed last year’s full-day performance in less than an hour;
China’s make up brand Perfect Diary almost sold out its "animal eye shadow plate." (monthly sales volume already exceeded 500,000);
The sales of China’s domestic skincare brand Forest Cabin were ten times higher than the same period last year, and the sales of its hot item camellia oil exceeded 10 million yuan in half an hour.

Many brands also chose to roll out their new products before Women’s Day ^[2] for a warm-up.

On Feb 20, Elizabeth Arden released the Vitamin C Ceramide Capsules Radiance Renewal Serum. Its official flagship store achieved sales of 73 million yuan within one day, obtaining 128,000 new customers, a record since it began selling on Tmall.

On Feb 27, Estee Lauder launched its new product, Perfectionist Pro Rapid Brightening Treatment, through Tmall’s new product release platform “Tmall Black Box” and sold nearly 30,000 bottles in one day. Its Tmall official flagship store sales exceeded 100 million yuan in a day.

On Feb 28, Shu Uemura launched its new foundation exclusively for Asian skin, with 35,000 bottles sold.

Consumption recovery

The strong performance of this year’s Women’s Day Shopping Campaign is very meaningful as it has been seen as an indicator that consumer confidence has returned to China. Data shows that 90% of all businesses on Tmall have resumed sales and 1 million new Taobao shops were opened in February. Cainiao, Alibaba's logistic platform operator, reported a 100% YOY increase in the handling of imported goods in February. Since March, average daily shipments from e-commerce warehouses across the country have tripled.