In the recent Chinese Double 11 shopping festival (Double 11), many leading domestic Chinese brands staged a comeback and showcased their strong resilience by emerging as champions. And in the latest Douyin(TikTok) beauty brand rankings for November, Chinese brand KANS secured the top spot with a monthly GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) of 540 million RMB.
As a well-known Chinese brand with a 20-year history, KANS has become the number one beauty brand on TikTok. What strategies and experiences can be learned from KANS’s success?
As the first year after the easing of the pandemic, the beauty industry was expected to experience a strong recovery. However, as the year is coming to an end, data from various sources indicate that the cosmetics industry as a whole is under pressure, and the beauty market has not seen the anticipated “springtime.”
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the total retail sales of cosmetics in October were 31.7 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 1.1%, which is lower than the overall market growth rate. Moreover, it declined by 2.8% compared to September.
In addition, the total sales volume of beauty products during this year’s Double 11 shopping festival also showed a downward trend. According to data from Xingtu, the total sales of beauty and personal care products on Double 11 reached 78.6 billion RMB, a 4.38% decrease compared to the previous year.
While the recovery of the beauty market has been slower than expected, Chinese brands have demonstrated resilient growth and achieved counter-trend performance. In the recent Double 11 event, Chinese brands occupied 9 out of the top 20 skincare brands on the TikTok platform. On Tmall’s beauty and body care instrument rankings for the entire Double 11 period, 4 out of the top 5 brands were Chinese brands.
The changes in the brand landscape on e-commerce platforms are a significant achievement in the transformation of local beauty companies and signify the beginning of a new market cycle, with domestic beauty brands gradually regaining their dominance in the Chinese market.
According to Feigua data, 55% of the top 20 skincare brands on TikTok in November were Chinese brands, and in terms of GMV, the GMV of Chinese brands on the list accounted for 42% of the total GMV of the top 20 brands. It is worth mentioning that KANS, with its sales of 540 million RMB and a growth rate of 579.47%, led by a significant margin, surpassing international brands such as L’Oreal, La Mer, and Helena Rubinstein.
Meanwhile, according to CHAILEEDO data, KANS achieved a GMV of 2.85 billion RMB with a growth rate of 705.55% in cumulative sales on TikTok from January to November, also securing the top spot in the beauty category on TikTok and consistently remaining in the top tier of TikTok beauty brands.
“Self-livestreaming(brand’s own live streaming) + short videos” combination linkage
Chinese brands have seized the channel traffic trend more keenly
As an emerging platform, compared to well-established platforms like Tmall and JD.com, Douyin’s e-commerce is still in the channel dividend phase. In the Douyin market, both the platform and the brands are experiencing high-speed growth.
According to third-party platform data, the overall GMV of beauty products on Douyin exceeded 113 billion RMB in the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year growth of 43.5%. Among the top 5 beauty brands on Douyin, KANS claimed the top spot, with 3 Chinese brands occupying the list. Additionally, there were 10 beauty brands with a GMV of over 1 billion RMB in the first three quarters.
It can be said that Douyin has become a new “incremental” battleground for beauty brands, which is an undeniable fact. For brands, how can they seize channel traffic and achieve rapid growth?
KANS is a typical example. According to publicly available information, as early as 2019, Shangmei Group started to establish a presence on Douyin and was one of the first beauty companies to enter the Douyin channel. In the first half of 2021, Shangmei heavily invested in live streaming channels and adjusted its organizational structure by establishing departments for Douyin live streaming and Kwai live streaming, accelerating the cultivation of anchors and the creation of anchor IPs.
CHAILEEDO has learned that KANS has already set up multiple live streaming rooms on Douyin, with its official flagship store having 7.023 million fans.
According to Feigua data, KANS has conducted 87 live streaming sessions in its Douyin flagship store in the past 30 days, with an average of 653,000 viewers per session and total live streaming sales exceeding 100 million RMB. It is understood that self-broadcasting by KANS accounts for a high proportion, while influencer promotion accounts for a smaller proportion. For example, during this year’s 618 shopping festival, KANS achieved sales of 100 million RMB solely through its own Douyin live streaming room.
In addition to the focus on live streaming, in the current rise of short video economy, starting from February this year, KANS began to pay attention to Douyin short dramas. By integrating the Hongmanyao series products into the storyline, KANS further conveys its brand concept to fans. So far, the total number of views for KANS and Jiang Shiqi’s custom-made short drama “More Than a Moment” has reached 1.17 billion, driving sales of over a million RMB.
Driven by the strategies of self-livestreaming and short drama placements, KANS has repeatedly secured the top spot in the Douyin beauty category this year and consistently ranks among the top 10 Chinese brands. Its parent company’s financial report clearly states that driven by the Douyin channel, KANS achieved a significant increase of 70.3% in performance in the first half of 2023.
In Douyin’s official disclosure of the Double 11 sales report, KANS was also presented as an important case. During the promotion period, KANS promoted its skincare product “Polypepide Collagen Softening” series in its Douyin official flagship store and sold over 260,000 sets in 12 days, a year-on-year growth of 550%.
Building the Core Strength of Chinese Brands from the Dimensions of Scientific Research, Supply Chain, and Brand Operations
In addition to seizing the Douyin channel trend with sharp instincts and flexible strategies, beauty brands need to have certain capabilities in scientific research, supply chain, and brand operations to achieve breakthrough growth in the Douyin e-commerce channel.
According to the “2022 Douyin E-commerce Emerging Beauty Brand White Paper,” beauty brands often achieve breakthrough growth through three strategies: track breakthrough, category breakthrough, and brand breakthrough. For breakthrough brands, they generally emphasize their own professional scientific and technological attributes and seize users’ minds by customizing popular science content related to the “efficacy ingredients.”
KANS has always spared no expense in strengthening its technological capabilities. In terms of research achievements, KANS already has 200 patented technologies and has published 20+ internationally influential papers. In terms of ingredient research, KANS has independently developed exclusive dual-bacterial fermentation ingredients and the latest hexapeptide-9 ingredient, creating the core competitiveness of its products.
According to the 2023 semi-annual report, R&D investment accounted for 3.4% of Shangmei Group’s revenue, ranking among the top in the industry. Continuous investment and accumulation in scientific research have become the engine driving KANS’ research and innovation, giving KANS more confidence in product development.
KANS’s star product, the Hongmanyao series, is a testament to KANS’ 20 years of understanding and research on “peptides.” Therefore, the popularity of the Hongmanyao series on the Douyin channel is not solely dependent on channel strategies but also on the user reputation and repurchase based on the accumulation of product quality.
In terms of the supply chain, with the emergence of a diversified channel landscape, higher requirements are placed on the beauty industry’s warehousing and transportation resource capabilities. Traditional rigid supply chains can no longer cope with the highly volatile channels of today. A flexible supply chain that spans platforms and encompasses all channels has become a rigid requirement for every beauty company.
It is understood that since its establishment, Shangmei Group, KANS’ parent company, has been establishing an independent supply chain and has established its first production base in Suzhou. Subsequently, it has built two major intelligent supply chain factories in China and abroad.
The advantage of 20 years of supply chain capability enables KANS to respond quickly to the large orders from the Douyin channel, maintain high turnover and low inventory internally, and achieve comprehensive control over rapid reordering, high on-time delivery rate, and high supply accuracy.
In addition, for beauty brands to convert the dividends of the Douyin channel into brand business increment, they also need corresponding brand operation capabilities.
Therefore, based on its 20-year development history, KANS has redefined its positioning as “scientific anti-aging,” communicates with users in a scientific manner, and finds the right direction for brand building. At the same time, it focuses on “KANS Red” this year, continuously consolidating the existing brand image in consumers’ minds. Moreover, in terms of pricing, KANS focuses on a unit price of 399 yuan, maintaining a stable price throughout the year, deepening user trust, and promoting quick decision-making and transactions.
As a Chinese brand that has been established for 20 years, KANS has gone through countless challenges and the growth cycle of a brand. At every critical juncture of market upheaval, KANS can quickly adjust and find its own model and strategies. However, in the increasingly competitive beauty industry, KANS still needs to invest more effort in brand power, making users reacquaint themselves with KANS and remember KANS.
For Chinese beauty brands, KANS’ dominance on Douyin is another victory achieved in the new era, once again confirming the resilience and strength of domestic beauty brands forged through countless trials and challenges.
