The nearly month-long “Double 11” frenzy is finally coming to an end, and major beauty brands have also handed in their own answer sheets.
From the perspective of brands, international big names and top Chinese domestic brands are still leading the way, with many new faces emerging. From the platform side, according to CHAILEEDO data, Taobao has a clear advantage, accounting for 50.6% of the GMV in the beauty category on the “Double 11” online platform, with Douyin and JD accounting for 26.6% and 11.8% respectively. In addition, Taobao’s GMV increased by 25.8% year-on-year, leading the online beauty sector.
So, how was this year’s Double 11? Where is the main battleground for beauty growth? How will brands deepen their strategic layout?
Tmall remains the main platform for consumers to buy beauty products, with international brands leading the way.
From the platform perspective, all major platforms have undoubtedly gone all out for this year’s Double 11, providing maximum support for brands and consumers, with almost all platforms achieving double-digit growth.
According to CHAILEEDO data, Taobao’s platform saw a 25.8% year-on-year growth, while Douyin and JD saw growth of 21.6% and 10.5% respectively. In terms of the share of GMV in beauty, Taobao leads significantly with a 50.6% share, surpassing other platforms by a wide margin, making it the main transaction battleground for beauty on Double 11.
Furthermore, official Tmall data shows that as of midnight on November 11th, Tmall’s beauty brands experienced explosive growth, with 79 brands surpassing one billion in sales. Stimulated by the Double 11 promotions, total sales in the skincare category on Tmall in October increased by 208.8% year-on-year, with 45 skincare brands exceeding one billion in sales, 23 brands exceeding two billion, and 2 brands exceeding ten billion. Even in the current market downturn, Tmall continues to support the growth of beauty categories.
In fact, the performance of brands on the Taobao platform to some extent reflects the consumption trends of the Double 11 beauty market. CHAILEEDO’s analysis of the top 10 brands at five major points since the first day of Tmall’s pre-sale found that international brands led the way in the Double 11 promotions.
In all rankings, international brands still occupy 80% to 90% of the market share. As the promotion period lengthens, top foreign brands like L’Oréal, Lancôme, and Estée Lauder have seen their rankings steadily rise. Tmall’s official data also shows that international brands such as Valentino and EviDenS saw growth rates exceeding 100%; La Mer, Helena Rubinstein, and SK-II saw growth rates exceeding 50%.
In terms of sales volume, among the 13 brands that surpassed one billion in sales within 10 minutes on Tmall’s Double 11 pre-sale night, 10 were top international brands including L’Oréal, SkinCeuticals, Lancôme, Guerlain, Estée Lauder, Helena Rubinstein, Olay, La Mer, Clarins, and CPB.
Additionally, during the “Pre-Purchase” on the 21st, international brands such as L’Oréal, Lancôme, SkinCeuticals, Estée Lauder, Helena Rubinstein, and La Mer all surpassed one billion in sales within 10 minutes, with SK-II achieving this in 5 minutes, and showing an increase of nearly 70% compared to last year within 4 hours of sales.
Beyond sales data, CHAILEEDO has observed that international brands are increasingly investing in the Tmall platform. For example, looking at the pre-sale products from Li Jiaqi’s live stream for Double 11, links for products from L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, Helena Rubinstein, Kiehl’s, La Roche-Posay, Shiseido, and CPB have all shown growth in numbers.
From this perspective, high-quality international brands still rank at the forefront of consumers’ “stocking up” lists during major promotions, with Tmall remaining a key battleground for international brands seeking growth in China.
Chinese domestic brands are erupting together, and the advantages of mature brands are evident.
Of course, apart from international big brands, the momentum of Chinese domestic brands is also not to be underestimated.
In the Tmall “Double 11” major promotion rankings, Proya has consistently ranked TOP1 from the first day of pre-sale to the present, becoming the strongest “leader” among Chinese domestic brands. Public data shows that on the first day of Tmall Beauty’s Pre-Purchase on the 21st, Proya achieved over a billion in sales in 3 minutes, with transactions exceeding 10 billion in 4 hours, and member transactions accounting for as high as 72% of the entire store.
In this year’s Double 11 promotion, the “super dark horse” Kefumei, in Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room, also achieved over a billion in GMV in the first 10 minutes of the “Pre-Purchase” sales, and the brand-new focus product, the facial cream, which just launched this year, surpassed tens of millions in GMV in 15 minutes, exceeding the total sales of this year’s 618 shopping festival on the first day, becoming a new driving force for the brand’s growth.
In addition, many Chinese domestic brands have achieved exponential growth in this year’s Tmall “Double 11”, some even making a leap in brand scale.
For example, Dr. DH’s full-cycle sales during the Pre-Purchase phase increased by 843% compared to the same period last year, with member sales accounting for as high as 80.36% on the first day; Co-Signal Sub-throwing Essence launched with the same frequency was sold out in Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast on the first day of Double 11 in 3 seconds, and during the Pre-Purchase phase, this new brand even briefly entered the TOP10 of the Chinese domestic new brand transaction rankings; Jumiya’s overall sales during the Pre-Purchase phase increased by 779% compared to last year, with member sales accounting for 49%, and the sample repurchase rate was 11%.
From this perspective, Tmall’s “Double 11” remains the preferred platform for the concentrated eruption of Chinese domestic brands, and the platform users have strong stickiness. As long as the product strength is solid enough, it can continuously attract new customers, create real repurchases, and gradually transition the brand from traffic operation to product operation.
CHAILEEDO also noticed that this year’s explosive Chinese domestic brands on Tmall’s “Double 11” have two characteristics: first, there are no extremely low-priced traffic-driving products; second, whether they are new or old brands, the products all have strong competitive barriers.
This also means that in a Tmall where users value product quality, R&D capabilities, and ingredient innovation, it is actually difficult for the rapidly-growing “white-label” brands to achieve long-term high-speed growth. On the other hand, brands that focus on products and consumer needs are more likely to obtain natural traffic through solid word-of-mouth and repurchases, making the brand’s growth more certain and lasting.
It can be said that for brands, Tmall is still the best platform to accumulate brand assets and acquire long-term customers, as well as the inevitable choice for the deep development and refined operation of brands.
The ebb of traffic dividends, the long-term operation of brands still needs to look at Tmall.
Based on current data, although the overall market growth rate is slowing down and consumer demand is starting to weaken, “Double 11” is still the best opportunity for the beauty market to seek incremental gains. Taobao, which has an absolute market share advantage, can still bring more stable growth to brands.
However, in this “fast” era, it seems that traffic is becoming the sole factor defining the success or failure of brands. But it is important to note that when the tide of traffic dividends recedes, growth based on quality and certainty is the core support for brand development.
The most typical example is that during this year’s “Double 11,” the sales in the live broadcast room of top anchor Li Jiaqi, which focuses on “quality live streaming,” increased instead of decreasing. CHAILEEDO intelligence data shows that on the day the pre-sale started, the number of products in Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room with a GMV exceeding tens of millions reached 259, an increase of 21.6% compared to last year. At the same time, the number of brands with a GMV exceeding one billion also reached 21, achieving a growth of 16.7%.
At the 2024 Tmall “Double 11” conference, the general manager of Taobao Livestreaming Store, Yuan Yuan, clearly stated that live e-commerce has transitioned from the entertainment influencer model to a new stage of quality live streaming, where professional anchors, branded products, and platform quality service guarantees have become the mainstream of quality live streaming.
Of course, emphasizing “quality” does not mean neglecting “traffic.” CHAILEEDO has noticed that part of the reason why Tmall’s “Double 11” promotion was able to achieve such growth this year is also due to its ample traffic support.
Firstly, direct traffic investment to boost growth. This year, on Double 11, Tmall invested 30 billion yuan in consumer vouchers and red envelopes to subsidize consumers and stimulate transactions. At the same time, they invested billions in buying traffic to help brands expand their customer base. Just before the big promotion, the Taobao platform officially announced its integration with WeChat, a move that also drove Taobao to its highest peak of new user acquisition in four years.
It is this series of traffic support policies that led Taobao to experience its strongest outbreak on this year’s “Double 11,” becoming the fastest-growing platform in the beauty sector.
Secondly, at the Tmall TopTalk conference held in April this year, Tmall FMCG clearly stated: expand daily sales on the basis of major promotions, and find new ecological increments beyond the shelves. Specifically, the FMCG industry upgrades precise matching of target groups to find new growth points in the “billions of faces” FMCG market; at the same time, they promote merchants to create explosive product matrices, creating 1000 super flagship products beyond the top tier, transforming the brand product matrix from “a top tier” to “multiple strong tiers”.
From the performance of this year’s “Double 11,” there are both rapidly growing new brands and explosive new products such as La Mer Rejuvenating Night Cream and the Collgene Gel Mask Cream. Public data shows that in the Tmall “Pre-Purchase” beauty transactions TOP1000, there are 395 new products, a 72% increase compared to last year. It can be said that Tmall has become an important platform for introducing new products and explosive growth.
In other words, Tmall’s traffic support is mainly used to match the growth of quality products and to deeply explore product strength. This not only provides longer explosive growth opportunities for major products but also provides more long-term continuous empowerment for brand growth. Based on this, the beauty market will inevitably move towards quality consumption.
