The retail trade revenue of cosmetics in China grew from 74 billion yuan in 2009 to more than 340 billion yuan in 2020. Forecasts showed that more than half of cosmetics retail sales will be from e-commerce channels by 2024. Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com accounted for the majority of cosmetic products sold online. Besides rapidly growing online distribution, channels such as specialty cosmetics stores, supermarkets, and hypermarkets dominated offline sales. Multi-level direct selling of beauty products has decreased dramatically since 2008 due to new direct sales regulations.
China’s appetite for cosmetic products has a distinctly global flavor. More than half of Chinese cosmetics consumers preferred foreign brands over local ones. Nearly half of China’s imported cosmetic products come from Japan and South Korea, while brands from France, Singapore, and the U.S. account for more than 30 percent of cosmetics imports. Not surprisingly, four out of five leading cosmetics market players in China are foreign brands such as L’Oréal Paris, Lancôme, and Estée Lauder. Among domestic labels, mid-segment skincare and makeup brand Chando and long-established skincare brand Pechoin were the most popular as of 2019.
In terms of product segments, skincare products dominate the cosmetics market in China. The size of the skincare market amounted to almost 245 billion yuan in 2019. In comparison, haircare was valued at around 55 billion yuan. While colored cosmetics account for the largest proportion of cosmetics sales globally, makeup is still a relatively new beauty category in China. Colored or decorative cosmetics, which largely include face makeup, started to emerge and gain popularity among younger consumers.
