Facing up to demand

It is the job of Song Yiwen, 29, a fashion blogger based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, to sell a fancy lifestyle. She cutely poses at posh coffee shops and restaurants with exquisite makeup and never wears the same dress twice in front of the camera.

Putting on makeup has become Song's daily routine since she was 19. "Makeup brings me confidence and joy," she says.

She relishes developing different types of makeup to match the season, the weather, the environment, and of course, her outfit.

"The spring is pink, the fall is gold; silver eyeliner is perfect for Halloween, vermilion is the color for the Chinese Valentine's Day,"Song says.

She already has a stack of more than 100 lipstick tubes and eye shadow compacts filling up two drawers.

During this "6.18 online shopping festival", Song spent more than 3,000 yuan ($443.7) on makeup products from local cosmetics brands.

Song claims that when she clicks the purchase button, she pictures herself wearing sunset-themed makeup and walking by the ocean in Sanya, Hainan province, where she will visit next month.

"The quality of the products from local brands is really excellent and the price is fair. There are often new and good-looking collections that I can't help buying and recommending to my friends and fans," she says.

According to Syntun, a leading big-data company in China, during this year's 6.18 promotion event, total online transactions amounted to 695.9 billion yuan, up 20 percent from last year's 578.48 billion yuan.

However, the performance of the beauty and personal care category defies optimism. During the promotion, its sales across all online platforms were 41 billion yuan, down 10.2 billion yuan or nearly 20 percent from 51.2 billion yuan in 2021.

The online sales of beauty and skin care products reached 30.7 billion yuan, ranking second in the list of popular sales categories in this 6.18 festival just after household electrical appliances; the sales of washing and cleaning products increased by 33.7 percent to reach 13.6 billion yuan, taking fourth place; and the sales of perfume and makeup were 10.3 billion yuan, ranking fifth.

However, compared to the number in 2021 (51.2 billion yuan), beauty category sales (skin care, perfume and makeup) declined significantly, while the sales of skin care decreased by 18.9 percent, and perfume and makeup showed a 22.1 percent fall.

It is expected that due to the impact of the pandemic, consumer travel was restricted, and makeup demand weakened in the short term.

Song reveals that her shopping frequency decreased due to the pandemic outbreak earlier this year, which ruined her traveling plans. "Now I have 12 dresses with their tags on and two brand-new eye shadow compacts packed in my suitcase, waiting to be tried out during my coming trip to Sanya," she says.

According to a report by Consulting Data Insider, international brands still dominated consumption on Tmall during the 6.18 festival which was held from 8 pm on May 31 to 12 pm on June 18.

Specifically, considering gross merchandise volume, international brands occupied eight of the top 10 skin care brands and nine of the top 10 cosmetics brands.

Two Chinese brands stormed into the top 10 list in the skin care category this time. Proya jumped from 15th to 6th, and Winona took the last seat climbing from 12th last year.

They broke the monopoly of international brands on the list with quality products.

Proya was the only Chinese brand with sales of more than 500 million.

More than 100,000 pieces of its Double Anti-Essence were sold.

Winona's leading position in efficacious skin care was secured with sales in excess of 100 million for its single product "Sensitive Moisturizing Advanced Repair Cream", plus facial essence and mask contributed to its growth.

Local brands still took three seats of the Top 5 bestsellers on traditional e-commerce platforms. It seems that the Chinese vibe won't stop shining.

Hua Xizi, the leading Chinese cosmetics brand, created sales of 146 million yuan and ranked second with the advantage of multiple categories; and Timage, which belongs to Proya group, performed well and made the top 10.

Also, local brands are taking control of social media platforms that support sales behavior through livestreaming.

According to data from Feigua, compared to the performance from last year, the total livestreaming hours during the 6.18 festival experienced an increase of 42 percent and reached 40.45 million. The number of participating merchants increased by 159 percent and the GMV of the beauty category reached 6.8 billion yuan, showing an increase of nearly 60 percent.

While an increasing number of international brands are entering the market, local brands never stopped growing and improving. It is not a surprise that all of the top 10 bestsellers on Douyin are from home.

Kong Jingjing, 33, from Beijing, bought a makeup set from Huaxizi during the 6.18 festival as a gift for his girlfriend.

"It's a stereotype that international brands perform better than the local ones. Sometimes the local brands know better about our needs," says Kong.