Another Entry of Anti-animal Experiment Brand into China
- Chaileedo Press
- Aug 2, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 25, 2022
Abstract: Brazilian cosmetics giant Natura&CO's anti-animal experiment skincare brand Aesop opened its first store in Dongping Road, Shanghai, signaling the brand's official entry into the Chinese market and maybe more anti-animal experiment brands for China in the future.
On July 30, Brazilian cosmetics giant Natura&CO's anti-animal experiment skincare brand Aesop announced to open its first store in Dongping Road, Shanghai.
Aesop, founded in Australia in 1987, is known for its combination of "scientific development + herbal formula". According to figures from Natura&Co's financial report, the combined net income of the Group is $ 1.627 billion, down by 12.7% year on year. Among its four brands, apart from Aesop's net income rising by 9.6%, the net income of Natura, Avon and The Body Shop all registered negative growth, down by 8.4%, 22.1% and 22.9% respectively.
Over the last three years, Aesop has doubled its sales under operation of Natura&CO. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, its sales grew by 23%, 50% and 33.4% respectively, reaching $ 503 million by 2021. Aesop boasts 269 offline stores worldwide, an increase of 22 in 2021 with total offline sales accounting for 76.5% of the total, showcasing the great importance of its offline channels.
Aesop entered Tmall Global in 2018 and opened its Tmall overseas flagship store in March of the same year. As of July, its Tmall Global flagship store enjoys nearly 700 thousand followers.In fact, Aesop has already been popular in the market of buying agents in China, with Aesop Parsley Seed Antioxidant Serum as a hit item.
The long-awaited offline in China has something to do with the standards of companies banning animal testing. In the past, mainland China imposed strict laws requiring imported beauty products to be tested on animals. As early as July 2018, CFI launched a new scheme with consultancy Knudsen&Co and Fengpu Industrial Park in Fengxian, Shanghai to take steps to exempt animal testing for imported cosmetics from in China, which was backed by parties involved including the Chinese government. This is a material signal of "some cruelty-free import cosmetics brands will be expected to enter China" across the industry. Bulldog, a men's skincare brand selected by CFI in the new scheme, has entered the Chinese market through this approach, available in stores of Watsons in Shanghai. The pilot is a positive sign for brands opposed to animal testing.
Until last March, the National Medical Products Administration noted in the interpretation of The Provisions for the Administration of the Registration and Recordation of New Cosmetic Raw Materials: "Take full account of and adopt the suggestion that some countries and regions shall impose a ban on the brands using animal testing and allow no submission of documents of animal testing, and accept the toxicological test data of animal alternatives conditionally. "This has enabled Aesop featured by "ardently opposed to animal testing since inception" to enter the Chinese market.
According to National Medical Products Administration, in the past three months, Aesop has filed a number of imported general cosmetics such as body cleanser, shampoo, cleanser, essence and so on. showing that its active preparation for the opening of its Shanghai store. The chief executive of Natura&Co Holding SA also said China has a market of huge potential, thus the company has been seeking ways of business expansion within the country.
Many brands have suffered in the Chinese market due to the recurrence of the pandemic and the squeezed offline channels under the rapid development of Chinese e-commerce. In recent years, brands canceled their counter operation in China in succession, including Maybelline, which has been in China for 2 decades. According to Euromonitor, the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 has boosted the speedy development of online channels of global cosmetics, accounting for 74.4% compared to 24.8% of the offline ones. Amore Pacific Group's Innisfree withdraws over 80% of its stores and HERA of the same group also chooses to close down offline counters in China orderly. The growing online marketing competition, coupled with consumers’ increasingly prudent choice of cosmetics, is no small challenge for Aesop to enter China this time.
Unlike brands with large-scale store layouts, Aesop's offline stores are more than just for product display, more of a channel for conveying its brand idea with all stores decorated in line with local conditions. The new store is more like a trial in the Chinese market. Unlike most of the local beauty brands in China focusing on online channels, Aesop lays more emphasis on the interaction with consumers offline.
For the cosmetics industry, an offline store is best for users to reach the products directly. It's a time of dynamic change, Aesop relies on specialty stores to shape brands and create value, a slow but more solid method. Whether the brand can fit in going forward, is the what Aesop needs to figure out by itself. For the Chinese cosmetics market, the arrival of Aesop is also indicating more anti-animal experiments brands for China in the future.
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