BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua Silk Road) -- Chinese beauty brands have accelerated their overseas expansion this year, moving into both emerging markets and European and North American markets through online channels and offline outlets.
In late August, Proya Cosmetics Co., Ltd., a Chinese beauty enterprise, partnered with Ulta Beauty, a leading U.S. beauty retailer, to enter 400 Ulta Beauty stores and the retailer's online platform this November.
The partnership with Ulta Beauty marked Proya's entry into mainstream U.S. beauty retail channels, following its cooperation with Malaysian beauty retailer Guardian in April, and is likely to further accelerate its global expansion.
Another Chinese cosmetic brand, Winona, the core brand of Yunnan Botanee Bio-Technology Group Co., Ltd., formally entered the Middle East market in January and its first offline counter in the region opened in Doha, Qatar.
Others such as Shanghai Chicmax Cosmetic Co., Ltd. (Chicmax) chose to accelerate the building of overseas production capacity. In Indonesia, Chicmax recently broke ground on a local factory scheduled to be completed in July 2027 to support its product supply for the Southeast Asian market.
On the capital market, Chinese beauty brands have also turned to investment, financing and equity acquisitions to facilitate overseas distribution channel expansion, R&D and global business expansion.
In January, Mao Geping Cosmetics Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with private equity firm L Catterton, under which L Catterton would leverage its global investment network and strategic partners to help the brand expand premium retail channels overseas.
In March, Yatsen Holding Limited, owner of the Chinese beauty brand Perfect Diary, secured 120 million U.S. dollars in financing to fund mainly its R&D and global expansion.
In May, Proya acquired, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, part of the equity in Shenzhen Flower Knows E-commerce Co., Ltd., expecting Flower Knows, a girls' cosmetics brand under the latter's subsidiary and an early mover in overseas expansion, to help accelerate Proya's international expansion.
In general, the acceleration of Chinese beauty brands' global expansion is a natural choice for them at the current stage of development.
Emerging overseas markets such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East have strong growth potential, while the mature European and North American markets offer opportunities for differentiated development.
According to a rough survey, more than 16 major Chinese beauty brands had leveraged offline channels abroad to boost sales by the end of June, with their business networks covering Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, Europe, North America and other regions. (Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
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