Sephora Bet High-end Guochao Brand Can Break Through Beauty Cosmetics Jihe Branch

　　Sephora has been in the news recently. Apart from the news that there will be personnel changes in the global CEO position, it has also made a series of high-profile appearances in China, intending to consolidate the new competitiveness in the high-end national fashion beauty retail field.

　　Does the change of Sephora’s global CEO affect China business?

　　According to foreign media reports, Sephora’s current global CEO Martin Brok will officially leave at the end of this month.

　　Martin Brok said at WWD Summit in May this year that Sephora’s opportunity is to integrate innovations from all over the world and make full use of Sephora’s operational strength in Europe, America and Asia. He said, "Sephora is a global brand", which will provide the same experience and growth drivers in North America, Asia and Europe. It is reported that Brok and Sephora’s key executives have differences on how to establish a global organizational structure.

　　Martin Brok’s departure comes at a critical time for Sephora. In Europe, Sephora is preparing to re-enter the physical retail market in the UK except London, while in China, it began to recover after the epidemic was closed.

　　Brok joined LVMH Group in September 2020 as the global CEO of Sephora. Previously, he was the president of Starbucks in Europe, Middle East and Africa. After Brok’s departure, the position will be held by Chris de Lapuente, Chairman and CEO of LVMH Group’s boutique retail business unit.

　　However, according to insiders of Sephora, the change of the global CEO of Sephora will not affect the related business in China.

　　Not affected by coaching change, Sephora Bets on high-end Guochao beauty cosmetics brand.

　　In recent years, Sephora has been introducing and incubating high-end beauty brands in China, such as CHA LING Tea Spirit, WEI Azure Beauty, Herborist TaiChi herborist Taiji, INOHERB TANG Appropriate Herbal Tang, MAOGEPING·LIGHT Mao Geping Guangyun, Yumei Yumei and COLOR STUDIO BY MARIE DALGAR Marie Daijia Color Studio.

　　The rising market demand of Guochao beauty brand is an important reason for Sephora’s continuous introduction of China brand. In this regard, Sina Beauty interviewed Ms. Chen Bing, the general manager of LVMH- Sephora Greater China, to talk about how beauty collection stores are coping with market changes in the rapidly changing digital age.

　　Exclusive interview: Ms. Chen Bing, General Manager of LVMH- Sephora Greater China.

　　Maggie Chan Chen Bing joined Sephora in 2019 and is currently the general manager of Sephora Greater China under LVMH Group.

　　Ms. Chen Bing has rich business management experience, keen business sense and profound insight into China consumers. During her career, she has participated in and successfully led the successful transformation of many multinational companies, including well-known multinational companies such as Unilever, Lijie and Johnson & Johnson.

　　Sina Beauty: What is the core competitiveness of Guochao Beauty compared with international brands?

　　Ms. Chen Bing:According to the data of "Beauty Leads the Future —— White Paper of Sephora’s High-end Beauty Industry in 2021" published by Sephora and CBN in 2021, in the past year, the sales of high-end national fashion brands in Sephora increased by 55%, the number of buyers increased by 32%, and the per capita consumption increased by 18%, showing great growth potential!

　　Guochao represents young people in China joining the world fashion trend, and their firm international vision makes us full of confidence in the development of Guochao beauty cosmetics; While taking China culture out, they also introduced western culture continuously, which further stimulated the development of national culture. In addition, many international brands are shouldering the heavy responsibility of pushing local culture to the global market, and China, as a country with profound cultural heritage, is firmly convinced that Guochao brand can develop into an international trend as more and more China consumers show strong recognition of cultural self-confidence and brand quality. Sephora should not only "bring in" good products, but also "take out" local brands and try its best to help these brands gain recognition from international consumers.

　　Sina Beauty: How many national brands are Sephora selling at present? Will you continue to explore new China brands in the future?

　　Ms. Chen Bing:In recent years, Sephora has continuously introduced and incubated high-end beauty brands in China, and continuously brought more high-quality national fashion beauty products into consumers’ field of vision. In the release of exclusive new products and global beauty trends in the summer of 2022, Sephora announced the "Made in China" China brand luminous plan, in which 11 international brands participated.

　　The national tide is gradually evolving from a design style to a more comprehensive and profound product idea. Sephora believes that the national tide is the prevailing trend, and only those that are suitable for Chinese people are the "true national tide", such as beauty brands that are suitable for Chinese’s skin and have the cultural connotation of China. The high-end image of Guochao beauty brand can be blessed by the formula or technology that combines China’s traditional skin care ingredients, the product concept and brand story with China elements, and the design sense enhanced by China’s traditional craftsmanship. In the future, Sephora will also continue to dig deep into the potential of Guochao brand based on its insight into consumers, incubate new categories with stories, and provide consumers with a unique shopping experience of Guochao beauty through constantly upgraded services.

　　The editor learned about these high-end national brands, such as the brand-new high-end brand of Yiyi Herbal Tang, which is owned by Sephora and sold only in Sephora channel. The brand focuses on the research of royal skin care products in the Tang Dynasty. The only Chinese herbal cosmetic research center in China and Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine jointly developed the products, and the amount of herbal medicine added in most products was as high as 60% or more. Pass the secret key of pleasing color and yourself by Tang Fang, and restore and sublimate Tang Fang to the greatest extent through modern science and technology.

　　The price of its royal motherwort series products ranges from 480 yuan to 680 yuan, while the price of the extravagant gold-nourishing energy series is higher, and the product price is around 780 yuan. The price of the Yujing soap bean series is lower than that of 300 yuan.

　　There is also the brand "MAOGEPING·LIGHT Mao Geping Guangyun", which is familiar to both beauty lovers and national fashion lovers. It is also an exclusive cooperative brand, which continues the aesthetic concept of beauty artist Mao Geping, integrates oriental aesthetic culture, shows the oriental charm with oriental culture, and creates exquisite faces with light and shadow changes to show the unique beauty of women.

　　Blue Beauty is a brand that settled in Sephora, China in early 2013. It mainly focuses on young and mature skin people, and deeply repairs and balances women’s skin problems.

　　Inheriting the 5,000-year-old theory of the balance of Yin and Yang in traditional Chinese medicine, we created a "blue beauty" beauty system-dividing products according to skin needs. The product series includes four series: Xuanqi, Chunyang, Yanyin and Zen. Anyone who has been to Sephora’s shop must have been exposed to this brand.

　　Talking aboutWhat specific measures does Sephora take to incubate high-end national fashion beauty cosmetics?At that time, Ms. Chen Bing replied: "In order to further accelerate the growth of a new generation of China beauty cosmetics and show the strength of the national beauty cosmetics, Sephora officially launched the" Made in China "China brand lighting plan, expecting to support five local brands to become high-end beauty representatives with sales exceeding 100 million in three years, and support these brands to land in international retail channels through Sephora’s strong global network, loyal user community and rich experience in high-end retail creation."

　　As for the specific cooperation measures formulated for incubating the China brand, Ms. Chen Bing also answered them one by one:

　　1. Share consumer insights with cooperative brands: For example, the White Paper of Sephora’s High-end Beauty Industry is published authoritatively every year to help them formulate the best brand strategy and channel play, and jointly explore future development paths such as international’ going out to sea’ strategy.

　　2. Provide an opportunity for brands to contact with the media and industry celebrities: The biannual release of Sephora exclusive new products and global beauty trends will help brands have a close dialogue with the public in China and get practical feedback.

　　3. Give direct access to consumers and convey brand ideas and product highlights: Sephora has long customized multi-file theme promotion and content output for hot topics of consumers, and continues to bring the latest beauty information to consumers.

　　4. Join hands with brands to provide exclusive beauty experience in stores: let consumers really get in touch with products, and plant grass star items while feeling professional beauty service. For example, the high-end skin care experience provided in offline stores and the unique experience such as artistic makeup created by the founders of the brand.

　　5. Actively help brands to explore more business opportunities in online channels: for example, empower brands to operate Tmall flagship stores efficiently or tap the potential of private communities, provide them with marketing strategies tailored to local conditions, successfully improve their visibility and exposure in China market, and realize sales increment.

　　Beauty collection store The competition in offline beauty shops is fierce.

　　Do you still remember the online celebrity punch card communication marketing model built by the colorful beauty egg wall by the first batch of brands, represented by colorists and Wow Colour, in the wave of beauty collection shops that rose in 2020? Those local beauty brands that have sold at a low price have become popular.

　　However, the performance of these collective stores seems to be unsatisfactory in the later period. According to Wow Colour official website, as of January 2022, the total number of stores recorded in China was about 135, which was half of the peak of 300, and the number of stores in the north, Guangzhou and Shenzhen was 3, 4, 11 and 3. The HAYDON Black Hole Beauty Collection Store, which opened in Hangzhou in September 2021, has also closed. According to the original plan, HAYDON Black Hole will open more than 20 stores in several key cities in China in 2021, and achieve the goal of more than 100 stores in 2023.

　　It can be said that HAYDON black hole, the local beauty collection store of standard Sephora, has completely fallen into a "black hole".

　　As an old-fashioned beauty retailer that entered China as early as 2005, Sephora has developed in China market for 17 years, and gained a relatively stable popularity and status in China. However, it is not uncommon for established giants to be upstarts in the fashion industry, and Sephora is no exception. The retail sales of emerging beauty products such as WOW COLOUR, THE COLORIST and HARMAY are hot. On the surface, these "online celebrity" seem to dilute the flow of established beauty products. Emerging retailers mostly introduce domestic products and Japanese and Korean make-up products, attracting the attention of many consumers, especially young people, with low prices and trendy shop designs.

　　According to the China Beauty Collection Store Industry Report, the following points are summarized. 73.5% consumers go to the new beauty collection store because they can buy brands and products that traditional beauty collection stores don’t have; 66.3% and 49.5% of consumers think that on-the-spot trial and shopping samples are important reasons to drive them to the place, and another 52.7% of consumers put forward the’ light BA’ mode, which is the gospel of social phobia patients for the younger generation.

　　The biggest difference between Sephora and Xinxing Beauty Collection Store is that the groups it serves are not the same. If you want to buy big brands and niche new overseas brands, you can only choose Sephora. Although offline emerging retailers are diversified and younger, it seems that it is still difficult to shake the status of established retailers in a short time.