Export value of China's cosmetics to overseas markets reached $4.2 billion in 2020

Chinese major color makeup brand Carslan said it is developing more mid-end and high-end products in the hope of becoming one of the top global makeup brands to sell more products in Europe and the United States in the future.

Founded in 2001 in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Carslan recently launched a research and development center in Milan, Italy. The company said it pays particular attention to R&D, and it cooperates with top designer teams at home and abroad to strengthen brand impact and stand out from the crowd.

Earlier this year, Carslan acquired an Italian cosmetics brand to enrich its portfolio. The company did not disclose more details on the acquisition. Carslan's main products include foundation, eye makeup and lipstick.

Carslan also invited designers from renowned studios and those who previously designed products for Hermes and Dior to design special packaging for its lipstick, lip gloss and foundation. Such products were showcased at an exhibition in Paris in July.

In 2020, the export value of China's cosmetics reached $4.2 billion, which was about one-fifth of the import value in the sector. But the export value is on the rise, said the General Administration of Customs.

"Different from the cheap labor advantage in the past, Chinese-made products have gained an increasingly better reputation globally in quality, packaging and design. With constant growth of China's national strength, more foreign consumers are showing interest in Chinese culture and buying Chinese products," said Tang Xilong, president of Carslan.

"The competition of the domestic cosmetics market has been fierce, and Chinese consumers have shown a high requirement on the quality, rational price and diversification of makeup. If we can provide good services to domestic consumers, our international competence will become stronger," Tang said.

"We focus on developing high-quality makeup and continuously upgrading our products and packaging. Carslan's main consumer groups are office employees who pursue a quality lifestyle," he said.

Tmall, the e-commerce platform of Alibaba Group, has also launched a series of favorable policies to help domestically made makeup products to sell in overseas markets. For consumers in some Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia, they can purchase makeup of Chinese brands with complimentary cross-border delivery.

In the past few years, China's cosmetics industry has seen booming growth, and a number of trendy domestic brands such as Perfect Diary and Huaxizi have emerged and gained popularity, driven by the increasing pursuit by Chinese women of maintaining beauty and staying young, and the ongoing consumption upgrade trend in the country.

Last year, sales of cosmetics such as makeup, skincare, perfume and personal care products in China hit 862 billion yuan ($133 billion).Between 2015 and 2020, the compound annual growth rate of the market in China reached 16 percent, said the Shenzhen, Guangdong province-based Qianzhan Industry Research Institute.

Carslan said it has been constantly expanding its sales channels abroad, and for now, it mainly relies on online sales channels in overseas markets. The brand hopes to further promote its products through cooperation with foreign online celebrities and key opinion leaders and generate more discussion on social media.

In China, the company's online sales account for 40 percent of its total revenues. The company said it also expects significant sales growth potential at its brick-and-mortar stores, and it is making more investments in professional training and marketing. So far, it has more than 8,000 offline sales outlets nationwide.

In 2020, Carslan launched a series of makeup with packaging featuring designs of traditional thousand-year Dunhuang fresco elements. Those products include eye shadow compact and foundation, and they were sought after by consumers.

To meet the increasing demand of young consumers, Carslan has built a new factory that occupies 100,000 square meters of land in Guangzhou. It is expected to be put into operation next year.

In the next five years, Carslan said it would further complete the categories of color makeup products and continue its expansion overseas. It will learn more from multinational corporations in aspects such as the process of procurement, the retailer said.

Carslan said it has divided its products into classical and trendy categories. For classical products such as a kind of lipstick it developed, it spends several years in R&D.For trendy products, the development period tends to be shorter.

"The burgeoning cosmetics industry in China has raised higher requirements for enterprises. Facing increasingly sophisticated consumers, we have to speed up the development of new products. Previously, we launched new trendy products every quarter or every six months. Now, the new product launch period has been shortened to one or two months," Tang said.