China’s 618 Shopping Festival on Tmall Saw a Resurgence in the Beauty Brands

Chinese Mid-Year Shopping Festival, 618, known as the mid-year beauty exam, is underway. The fluctuating numbers not only affect the market’s nerves but also serve as an indicator of brand development and industry trends.

As we all know, this year during the China’s 618 Shopping Festival, all e-commerce platforms have canceled pre-sales in order to provide consumers with the cheapest prices and the best quality service. Although some people believe that this may affect the performance of the China’s 618 Shopping Festival, it doesn’t seem to be the case so far. Taking Tmall as an example, according to CHAILEEDO data, the sales of beauty products on Tmall in May (after deducting the final transaction amount with returns) increased by 69.2% compared to the same period last year and increased by 40.9% compared to the previous month. Tmall’s growth rate surpassed other mainstream e-commerce platforms by a large margin. What has restored confidence in beauty brands on Tmall?

(Tmall: Tmall, formerly Taobao Mall, is a Chinese-language website for business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail, spun off from Taobao, operated in China by Alibaba Group. )

This year, China’s 618 Shopping Festival on Tmall saw a resurgence in the beauty brand.

On June 17th, the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the total retail sales of cosmetics in May reached 40.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.7%. This growth rate set a new monthly record for this year and also reached a nearly 10-year high for the same period. The release of this official data instantly uplifted the spirits of the entire beauty industry and injected a strong boost into the bustling 618 promotion.

The 69.2% year-on-year growth in May also indirectly indicates the driving force of Tmall’s beauty products on the overall cosmetics retail market.

Undoubtedly, Tmall has always been the main battlefield for beauty brands, both in the past and at present. This can be seen from the performance of various brands during the Tmall 618 promotion.

The data shows that on the evening of May 20th, within less than 20 minutes of the start of sales on Tmall, both Proya and Lancome exceeded 100 million yuan in sales. Within 26 minutes, L’Oreal also reached 100 million yuan. Within 28 minutes, Estee Lauder joined the hundred million club. Within 40 minutes, Kefumei and SkinCeuticals also surpassed 100 million yuan. As of June 2nd, the number of brands exceeding 100 million yuan had reached 43. Looking at the entire month of May, there were 48 brands on Tmall that exceeded 100 million yuan in sales, which is a 220% increase compared to the same period last year.

Moreover, many beauty brands achieved performance far surpassing the same period last year during this year’s China’s 618 Shopping Festival. For example, as of June 2nd, Lancome’s sales increased by over 20% compared to last year, Helena Rubinstein increased by over 30%, LA MER increased by over 40%, SkinCeuticals increased by nearly 50%, and MARUBI increased by over 400%. Furthermore, the sales of Kefumei, Forest Cabin, and MARUBI have already surpassed last year’s Singles’ Day full-cycle sales.

At the same time, there were frequent appearances of popular beauty products. Within 47 minutes of the event’s start, Kefumei Recombinant Collagen Restoration Single Use Essence exceeded 100 million yuan in sales. Within the first hour, 46 individual products, including Clarins Double Serum, SkinCeuticals A.G.E. Interrupter, L’Oreal Revitalift Filler Pro-Xylane Pro Facial Mask, Helena Rubinstein Replasty Age Recovery Facial Cream, Proya Advanced Firming Nourishing Facial Cream, Lancome Absolue Revitalizing Eye Cream, Shiseido Vital Perfection Lotion and Cream, Proya Morning C Night A, and LA MER The Essence, all achieved sales exceeding tens of millions of yuan.

Not only did international brands and traditional Chinese brands experience explosive growth on the Tmall platform, but the “rising stars” also showed strong momentum during this year’s China’s 618 Shopping Festival. For example, during the first wave of sales on Tmall 618, Timage achieved nearly 60% year-on-year growth compared to the same period last year, jumping to the top spot in the cosmetics category. This marks the first time a Chinese cosmetics brand has become the category champion. Z:SEA, which focuses on men’s cleansing needs, became one of the top five brands in the men’s category, with a year-on-year growth of over 150%. Its Prism Cleansing Foam became the number one bestseller and received top reviews in the men’s cleansing category. In terms of international brands, Kao’s high-end brand Sensai was selected for the trend list in the Tmall Treasure New Brand event and received multi-point and full-chain resource support. In the first wave of Tmall 618 sales, Sensai topped the Essence Powder Cream category with a sales growth of over 1800% for the entire store.

Multiple sets of data have shown that international brands, traditional Chinese brands, emerging brands, and international niche brands have all experienced strong growth on Tmall during the China’s 618 Shopping Festival. It is worth mentioning that considering the overall sluggishness of the cosmetics industry in the first quarter, many industry insiders were not optimistic about this year’s China’s 618 Shopping Festival. However, such concerns have not materialized based on the current situation.

For brands, the 618 promotion is not only the most important battle of the first half of the year but also the beginning of confidence for the second half of the year. Different types and stages of beauty brands have been able to achieve growth on Tmall, which fully demonstrates that the beauty market is “recovering.”

The Long-Term Path of Beauty Branding

Undoubtedly, the 618 promotion is an indicator of brand confidence for the second half of the year. However, for the long-term development of a brand, it is not just about short-term traffic but requires a long-term approach.

It is evident that in the current consumer market, consumers tend to pursue more cost-effective ways to obtain high-quality products in the shortest time and at the lowest cost while enjoying a shopping experience that respects their personal choices. It can be seen that as the market becomes more rational, consumers are inclined to spend less time and seek more favorable prices to purchase their desired products. Therefore, the return to traditional shelf-based e-commerce has become the mainstream in consumer behavior.

At the same time, from an industry perspective, as the beauty industry increasingly emphasizes brand value construction, the advantages of traditional shelf-based e-commerce have gradually become apparent. Consequently, Tmall has also achieved good growth in this year’s 618 promotion.

In fact, Tmall’s position as the main battlefield for beauty brands is not limited to the short-term business explosion it brings to brands and merchants during major promotions. More importantly, it has always been committed to growing together with brands.

It can be seen that from the early stages with brands like AFU and UNIFON to Perfect Diary, Tmall Beauty has been constantly seeking innovation, providing diversified marketing strategies and tools to help brands maintain a leading position in the fiercely competitive market. In this process, many unknown beauty brands have gradually grown on this “soil” and become outstanding players in the Chinese cosmetics field.

The person in charge of the Z:SEA brand stated that the reason for choosing Tmall as the main battlefield is based on Tmall’s mature e-commerce platform and strong brand influence. They also hope to leverage Tmall’s advanced data analysis tools and marketing techniques to better understand consumer behavior, optimize marketing strategies, and improve conversion rates. Moreover, Tmall offers abundant marketing resources, innovative business models, and diversified marketing tools and activities. For example, during major promotions like Singles’ Day and 618, Tmall can effectively help brands attract traffic and increase sales. “Moreover, Tmall continuously introduces new business models and marketing tactics, such as live-streaming sales and short-video marketing, which can help our brand explore innovative marketing approaches and achieve rapid growth.”

Furthermore, from another perspective, the pursuit of high-end positioning has always been a key point for Chinese brands to break through development bottlenecks, and in this regard, Tmall also provides support for the development of beauty brands. Mao Geping, Forest Cabin, and other Chinese brands’ high-end strategies have been validated on Tmall. “Through Tmall’s data tools, we can make more accurate investments across all channels,” said the person in charge of Forest Cabin’s e-commerce. “During this year’s China’s 618 Shopping Festival, our brand’s average order value increased by over 60% compared to the previous year, and the GMV growth exceeded the industry average, with our core product, the essence oil, maintaining a top-three position.”

Overall, in the ever-changing market of e-commerce and the beauty industry, mature operational strategies, a strong brand ecosystem, and investment in innovation are key factors for maintaining a competitive advantage. As the main battlefield for beauty brands, Tmall Beauty not only helps brands achieve explosive growth during major promotions but more importantly, it provides powerful market insights and data capabilities, a comprehensive display platform, and resources support including traffic, funds, and technical support, all of which can help brands transition from sales growth to brand value accumulation. It truly empowers brands’ long-term strategic development.

Therefore, whether in terms of short-term performance during 618 or long-term operations, it is crucial for beauty brands to pay attention to the layout and operation on the Tmall platform. It can be said that this is the necessary path for emerging Chinese beauty brands to transform into influential Chinese brands.

The Incremental Market for Beauty Brands Still Exists

It is worth noting that the current e-commerce market in China has gradually reached a saturation point after rapid development, and the beauty industry is also facing the same dilemma. Therefore, “where to find incremental growth” is one of the common concerns for beauty brands. In response to this, beauty brands have come up with various strategies, such as expanding product categories, widening distribution channels, or going global.

Many industries believe that the incremental market in the beauty industry lies within diversified consumer groups. As Generation Z becomes the main consumer force, they have higher expectations for personalized and customized beauty products. At the same time, with the development of technologies such as virtual try-on and AI skin analysis, the new retail model for beauty enhances the shopping experience for consumers and opens up new sales channels and market growth opportunities for beauty brands.

Therefore, major e-commerce platforms are actively promoting new opportunities in the incremental market for beauty. Taking Tmall as an example, at the 2024 TopTalk conference, Mu Shan, General Manager of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Division of Alibaba’s Taobao, stated that Tmall’s fast-moving consumer goods sector will upgrade its “daily sales + major promotions” dual-core operational system, expanding daily sales based on major promotions and finding new ecosystem increments beyond the shelves.

Specific measures include more refined operation based on targeted audience labels to achieve growth in valuable users, creating a hierarchical operational system for product matrices to accelerate product growth and explosiveness, and focusing on developing 20 billion-yuan-level new products and promoting 2,000 super new products, continuously enriching the lineup of new products in the tens of millions and millions range. It also involves more vertical marketing communication with new target audiences, including over 100 annual marketing events, trend marketing, content marketing, and more.

Data shows that in the whole year of 2023, Tmall witnessed the emergence of over 4,100 billion-yuan brands, and over 5,000 brands achieved sales of over ten million within three years of opening stores. Among the new products launched in 2023, 688,000 achieved sales of over one million, and over 1,800 exceeded one billion. According to data disclosed by Tmall, in the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, Tmall Beauty’s new and emerging brands led the overall growth of the beauty industry in China, with a 26% year-on-year growth in the number of new brands joining, and over 4,000 new brands experienced business growth. Meanwhile, Alibaba Group’s latest financial report also revealed that the number of 88VIP members has exceeded 35 million, with double-digit year-on-year growth. From this perspective, the incremental market for beauty still exists, and Tmall Beauty, as a pioneer, is already leading the way.

Undoubtedly, in today’s complex and ever-changing e-commerce landscape, platforms with deep user trust, mature operational strategies, and strong brand ecosystems are more likely to achieve sustained success. For Tmall Beauty, the mid-year major promotion is not only a reconfirmation of its industry-leading position but also a cornerstone for achieving new victories.