The long-dormant offline channels have shown signs of revival. At the beginning of this year, many brands that have previously dominated the online market have started to expand or enter the offline market. Some brands are even determined to “heavily invest” in offline channels. Undoubtedly, offline is the best sales scene to directly engage with consumers, as well as an effective channel for brands to deeply connect with users’ minds and acquire new customers.
However, the question remains: How can brands effectively develop the offline business growth path from brand to market terminals?
Recently, Xi’an, a city blending ancient and modern elements, welcomed the first beauty exhibition of the year – the 2024 BeautyLink National Tour Exhibition organized by BeautyLink. Held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Xi’an, this exhibition, focusing on touring 25 provinces and regions, not only provides brands and distributors with opportunities for face-to-face and precise communication but also explores the winning path for offline development for all participants.
“A brand without offline presence is incomplete”
Undoubtedly, the peak of online traffic exacerbated competition, and rising costs have all prompted brands to seek new business growth opportunities. Simultaneously, offline channels have entered a new development stage.
During the exhibition, Ding Lan, Director of CHAILEEDO Intelligence, presented the theme sharing of the “2024 China Cosmetics Store Insight Report.” According to CHAILEEDO Intelligence research data, the sales of cosmetics stores in 2023 ended the trend of continuous decline for the previous two years, with a year-on-year growth of 2.12% to reach 146.96 billion yuan. This indicates that offline channels still maintain strong competitiveness, and more and more beauty brands are seizing this opportunity.
From the scene, it was learned that the BeautyLink National Tour Exhibition (Xi’an Station) brought together over 100 new domestic and high-quality imported brands, including Hi!papa, RockingZoo, Simpcare, Dr.Alva, MdoC, MAJE STEPHANIE, ROYAL APOTHIC. These participating brands reflect the concentrated efforts of the beauty and cosmetics innovation force to occupy the offline channels.
“A brand without offline presence is incomplete,” said Chang Kai, founder of Hangzhou Huanxi Extreme, to CHAILEEDO. “Under the trend of omnichannel, offline channels can help brands form a more complete organization, a more integrated business model, and a more three-dimensional brand building. This is an essential refinement for enterprises to embark on a longer-term journey.” CHAILEEDO noticed that as a professional omnichannel brand operation service provider in China, Hangzhou Huanxi Extreme, together with brands like Hong Zhi and Dafuyan, participated in the BeautyLink exhibition in Xi’an.
“Apart from their high popularity online, we also want to recommend some star products of our brand to the stores,” a staff member from Huanxi Extreme told Qingyan. “Currently, offline stores are also implementing a screening mechanism, usually selecting the fastest-moving items to sell. For example, if a store adds a new category like makeup remover oil, there won’t be as many barcodes to manage, reducing their operational pressure and naturally instilling more confidence in the brand during stocking,” he explained.
“We aim to leverage some online traffic and then provide excellent offline services,” explained a staff member from the MedRepair booth under Bloomage Bio. Besides the brand’s basic series, they also brought a series suitable for sensitive skin and anti-aging to the exhibition, which garnered considerable inquiries from attendees. According to her, “Participating in regional exhibitions like the one in Xi’an allows us to reach more retailers, and face-to-face communication enables them to better understand the products more conveniently.”
“Like a matchmaking platform, it’s important to clarify information before hosting a mixer”
Every exhibition is like a bridge, facilitating efficient connections between supply and demand, and ultimately achieving precise matches. Unlike typical broad-spectrum exhibitions in the industry, BeautyLink, with its distinct “precision” characteristic, stands out.
“We don’t aim for breadth; we focus on specialization and innovation,” said Li Sheng, founder of BeautyLink, to CHAILEEDO. “On one hand, the brands we serve mainly consist of emerging brands, new national trend brands, and some imported brands. On the other hand, based on our high penetration rate in CS channels, our focus is on effectively matching real market demands from brands to stores.” In his view, the Chinese cosmetics market is vast, and there is a need for exhibitions to reach more provinces and cities to meet the unmet business needs of channel partners. Therefore, “We advocate for a national tour of exhibitions focusing on the offline channels in 25 provinces, and Xi’an is the first stop of our beauty tour this year,” he said.
So, in an industry where everyone is focused on precisely and effectively matching market demands, what advantages does the BeautyLink exhibition offer?
Li Sheng humorously remarked, “We’re like a matchmaking platform. We clarify the information of both parties before organizing the mixer.” According to him, before conducting beauty tours in each region, BeautyLink spends at least three months deeply researching the market to understand the real needs of brands, local agents, and stores. In his opinion, besides providing a platform, BeautyLink aims to get closer to the business needs of channel partners and help them solve key pain points in product selection.
Because of this approach, different from the “guessing game” of traditional exhibitions, to meet the efficient and precise matching needs between brands and channels, the BeautyLink national tour (Xi’an station) has specially set up sessions for agent networking and retail store networking.
CHAILEEDO learned from the scene that among the agents participating in the dedicated session were well-known regional companies in Xi’an, such as Xi’an Yide Cosmetics Co., Ltd., Xi’an Minxuan Cosmetics Co., Ltd., Xi’an Chengda Cosmetics Co., Ltd., and Xi’an Yangcong Cosmetics Co., Ltd. In addition to the agents, many well-known beauty stores in Xi’an, such as Junhui Beauty, Hongye Meizhuang, Huanyourself Collection Store, Wangmazi Beauty, and Hengli Trading Co., Ltd. in Yuyang District, Yulin City, also participated in the retail store dedicated session.
It is obvious that through this precisely dedicated session matchmaking, brands can efficiently find matching distributors, while distributors can also quickly identify the brands and products they want to take on. This allows all participants at the exhibition to maximize the value of their resources on-site.
Precision matching makes business collaboration easier
As the saying goes, “No investigation, no right to speak.” Whether it’s a mature brand or a new one, only with a clear understanding of the local beauty market can one provide strategic references for brands to enter specific regions through local exhibitions? It’s essential to facilitate in-depth exchanges between key figures on both the supply and demand sides on-site to achieve precise and efficient matching. Otherwise, more participation in exhibitions would merely be superficial, resulting in exchanging business cards without real business growth.
“The overall exhibition effect is quite good,” a brand representative at the event told us. “What the industry lacks isn’t exhibitions but exhibitions that truly understand the needs of brands and channel partners. A good exhibition should not only increase brand exposure but also provide business opportunities. Through face-to-face interactions, we can delve into local market demands and more easily facilitate business cooperation.” Xu Youyou, the North District Director of Jiali Bio, commented, “Because many local agents and stores are attending, this regional exhibition can quickly establish connections between brands and them, which is a significant advantage.”
According to Wang Chengwu, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Lanjing Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., with over 20 years of experience in opening stores, the underlying logic behind the dominance of physical stores over e-commerce lies in the competition between online and offline, which is essentially a competition of cost-effectiveness. He cited an example where the retail price of a certain brand’s spot-removing cream was 188 yuan, but after entering the live broadcast room of a top anchor, it became a “buy one get one free” offer for 188 yuan, with additional complimentary gifts. He believes that “the competition of cost-effectiveness ultimately boils down to the competition between supply chains, and the inefficiency of the supply chain is the root cause of the continuous decline of the CS channel. Only by building a more efficient supply chain, reducing procurement costs, and improving cost-effectiveness can we truly solve the problem.”
If a more efficient supply chain is the key to winning the offline market, then an exhibition that can cater to the needs of both supply and demand, conduct targeted buyer demand research, and achieve precise matching can undoubtedly shorten the supply chain and reduce customer procurement costs. It can be said that this is not only the desire of all beauty brands and channel partners at present but also the value that BeautyLink aims to provide through regional beauty exhibitions to help more exhibitors expand into broader markets.
