On December 13th, both the overseas flagship stores of Cezanne and BBIA released announcements stating that they would no longer accept new orders starting from December 13th. They mentioned that customer service would still be available to handle after-sales and other issues.
Regarding the removal of products from the stores and the suspension of operations, BBIA’s announcement stated it was due to operational adjustments, while Cezanne did not provide an explanation in their announcement. Some netizens speculated that the nuclear contamination incident had a significant impact on Japanese brands.
In response to this, CHAILEEDO contacted the customer service of the flagship stores, and they responded that they are only temporarily suspending the sale of products and not closing the stores. Regarding whether they will continue selling products in the future, they stated that they have not received any relevant notifications at the moment.
Public information shows that Cezanne is a popular Japanese affordable beauty brand founded in 1964. Their lipsticks, powders, blushes, and other products are well-loved by Chinese consumers. BBIA is an affordable cosmetics brand from South Korea, founded in 2004. Their eyeshadows, lipsticks, and other products are favored by young consumers due to their affordability.
Many netizens expressed their opinions on social media about the temporary suspension of operations by both stores, saying, “The brand’s operations are poor; they don’t even know they have flagship stores” and “Maybe the contract with the distributor expired; contracts usually last until the end of the year.” It is worth noting that the once-popular Chunya brand also recently announced the cessation of operations.
Whether it’s the brand’s choice to change distributors or operate independently, it is more or less related to the downturn of the Japanese and Korean beauty markets in China in the past two years.
In recent years, the value of imported Japanese and Korean cosmetics in China has been continuously declining. Customs data shows that the import value of cosmetics from South Korea to China has been declining year-on-year since 2018, reaching 12.974 billion yuan ($1.82 billion) from January to October this year, a decrease of 16.97% compared to the same period. The nuclear contaminated water incident in Japan has also affected Chinese consumers’ perception of Japanese cosmetics. Japanese cosmetics groups such as POLA, Kosé, and Shiseido have acknowledged the negative impact of nuclear-contaminated water on their performance in their financial reports. In addition, the rise of domestic Chinese beauty brands and the convenience of live-streaming e-commerce have provided more choices for Generation Z consumers.
