With a growth rate of more than 10 times, how do emerging domestic brands plan their overseas markets?

With a growth rate of more than 10 times, how do emerging domestic brands plan their overseas markets?

Based in Southeast Asia, it’s time for the brand to go overseas!

As one of the hottest markets for cosmetics in the world, Southeast Asia has become a blue ocean market that many domestic cosmetics brands focus on developing. From international big names to local newcomers, they are all scrambling to make money in the Southeast Asian market, and KIMUSE is one of them, and has already achieved some success in the region.

Growth exceeds 10 times! Chinese cosmetics are gaining popularity overseas

After years of rapid development, the growth rate of the domestic beauty market has slowed down, but the number of competitors is still increasing. As a result, many beauty companies have turned their attention to overseas markets. According to the 2021 Beauty Industry Trend Insight Report, the overall growth rate of the global beauty industry in 2020 was 23%, and the overseas sales of Chinese beauty products increased by more than 10 times.

Domestic brands are rapidly emerging around the world, breaking the inherent perception of consumers that the beauty market has long been occupied by foreign brands. KIMUSE, a brand affiliated to Guangdong Miuse Biotechnology Co., Ltd., is one of the successful domestic brands going overseas.

KIMUSE was founded in 2017. Its business focuses on a full range of cosmetics products, such as eyebrow pencils, eyeliners and other makeup tools . Eyebrow products are particularly popular and are mainly sold to Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States through platforms such as Amazon and Shopee.

As for KIMUSE , it initially tried its hand at cross-border platforms such as Aliexpress, mainly targeting the European and American markets , and launched relatively few products. But in 2019, KIMUSE saw the vast beauty market in Southeast Asia and the rapid development trend of e-commerce. At that time, Shopee had become a very popular e-commerce platform for people in Southeast Asia. Taking this opportunity, KIMUSE entered the Southeast Asian market from the Shopee platform in a timely manner.

After entering the Southeast Asian market, KIMUSE has made a series of product upgrades to meet the needs of local consumers. Take eyebrow and eyeliner products as an example. Considering the hot weather in Southeast Asian markets , oily skin and sweating have become a daily routine for locals. KIMUSE has specially enhanced the waterproof effect and makeup durability of the products to meet the needs of local consumers.

Compared with traditional makeup brands, KIMUSE has a faster speed of launching new products, and the team has a complete set of market-oriented product research and development mechanisms, which is the cornerstone of its new product launch speed. In order to cater to younger users, KIMUSE plans to launch many new products, including lip and face products . While maintaining the original high durability of the products, it also adds some surprise elements to present more dynamic products.

As for building a makeup brand, Viki, co-founder of KIMUSE, said: "Cosmetics are different from mobile phone digital products. Consumers have different functional preferences. Consumers of makeup products mainly rely on brand effects, and secondly, the product must have characteristics."

Of course, KIMUSE's overseas expansion was not smooth sailing. Common payment and logistics issues were obstacles to its overseas expansion. As for the platforms it had previously worked on, KIMUSE had not received logistics for three months, but after entering the Shopee platform, these problems have basically been solved.

In addition, KIMUSE has been using affiliate marketing since July 2021 and has been continuously investing in it , driving its overall investment-output ratio up to 12 times, and affiliate marketing has also brought it 15% of sales. It is understood that KIMUSE achieved good results through Shopee's official agency in the early stage, and then used the brand's self-operation method to invest, providing a series of exquisite promotional posters for alliance partners to promote.

Although KIMUSE is still in the early stages of brand expansion, it is already working towards becoming a top seller. In the future, KIMUSE will still focus on online e-commerce channels in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States , and make some innovations in quality and brand tone, while exploring customer needs and pain points.

Skin care products are in the blue ocean market, and Southeast Asia has become the first stop for beauty products to go overseas

In the domestic market, resources in the beauty industry are mainly concentrated in some leading brands , and the rise of emerging brands still requires the support of capital strength . In the overseas market , on the contrary, consumers are more receptive to new things , and with the strong domestic supply chain as a backing , it is undoubtedly strengthened the confidence of more beauty brands to go abroad .

When talking about the low recognition of Chinese cosmetics by overseas consumers, Viki of KIMUSE said: " Consumers still have certain stereotypes about Chinese products , such as poor quality and low appearance, but with the development of the times, this will slowly change. "

In the past, overseas consumers had low recognition of Chinese cosmetics, but now this has changed, and some domestic products have emerged in overseas markets, such as Huaxizi, Perfect Diary, and Collage, which are sold out overseas and often dominate the best-selling list. Among the top 26 domestic beauty brands compiled by Baijing Chuhai , nearly two-thirds chose Southeast Asia and Japan as their first overseas destinations.

In terms of the market, Southeast Asia has huge consumption potential. According to a survey by Global Web Index, 96% of women have purchased beauty and skin care products in the past six months. On TiKToK, Southeast Asian consumers are also particularly interested in makeup and skin care videos.

Viki of KIMUSE also believes that: "Skin care products are a very good overseas category and are currently in a blue ocean market." However, if sellers want to export this category, they need to pay attention to the fact that the liquid cream cannot exceed a certain number of milliliters, cannot contain alcohol or beeswax, and of course it must also be suitable for the usage needs of local people.

There is no doubt that in the blue ocean of Southeast Asia and Latin America, which is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, Chinese brands have already embraced a broad overseas market. However, due to cultural differences and unfamiliarity with the market, brands are also facing the challenge of "not adapting to the local environment". Adapting to local conditions has become the key to brand success.

As a leading e-commerce platform, Shopee attaches great importance to brand development and continues to increase resource investment to promote rapid growth. In 2021, most of the brands settled in Shopee Mall achieved a breakthrough of doubling their GMV. Chinese brands are riding the wind and "orange", and have strongly ranked among the best-selling brands in Southeast Asia during the big promotion.

In order to accelerate the overseas expansion of brands and help achieve all-round growth, Shopee will hold the first cross-border brand exclusive summit to analyze the growth points of brands from multiple angles. The conference will focus on topics such as platform brand strategic planning and precise layout of marketing matrix for in-depth analysis, and will also officially announce Shopee's brand-exclusive growth model. Whether it is a small or medium-sized brand that is just starting out, or a large brand waiting to break through the growth bottleneck, you can find the answers you want at the conference!

Event Highlights

1. Senior management shows up

Shopee Chief Commercial Officer explains the platform's brand strategy

2. Strategy decoding

Official announcement of Shopee’s exclusive growth model for cross-border brands, decoding the four key levers for brands to go global

3 Marketing Tips

The official marketing team and expert sellers work together with Sacelady, Shikemei, UGREEN, and Breylee to teach you how to layout the marketing matrix inside and outside the site, helping brands to easily attract traffic and expand growth

4. Dialogue with experts

Excellent brand representatives FOCALLURE, Baseus, Posee, and Xstorm share their secrets to success

5. Surprise Prize

Official free live broadcasts with a total value of tens of thousands of yuan, Shopee advertising funds, and other on-site and off-site traffic gift packages are given away for free, and there are also new mobile phones waiting for you.

Interested sellers can scan the QR code below to sign up for the 2022 Shopee Cross-border Brand Summit . The event will be held on June 21, 2022 (Tuesday) from 14:00 to 17:00 . You can also click the original link to complete the registration, lock in the live broadcast, and be the first to get in!

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