Are Chinese Abandoning Sunscreen This Year?
- Chaileedo Press
- Jun 14, 2022
- 3 min read
June is often the peak sales period of sunscreen products. As early as March and April, most beauty brands have already begun to warm up sunscreen products. However, from February to April this year, sunscreen cosmetics fell by 22.52%, 3.46% and 9.12% year-on-year. This led to a drop in the overall size of sunscreen cosmetics to $471 million in the first four months of 2022, a drop of 8.21%.
As the public's awareness of skin care increases, concepts such as "sunscreen is anti-aging" and "sunscreen is necessary for all seasons" are gradually gaining popularity, and the market demand for sunscreen cosmetics in China is also growing. According to data from China's mainstream e-commerce data analysis platform MarketIDX, in China's mainstream e-commerce platform Tmall Taobao, the market size of sunscreen cosmetics in 2019 and 2020 was $1.071 billion and $1.314 billion respectively, and the market size in 2020 increased by 22.73% year-on-year. In 2021, the market size of sunscreen cosmetics reached $1.644 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25.11%.
However, the sales of sunscreen cosmetics in China are not ideal at the beginning of this year. From January to April 2022, in addition to a year-on-year increase of 6.12% in the sunscreen cosmetics market in January, the data from February to April fell by 22.52%, 3.46%, and 9.12% year-on-year respectively. This also led to the overall scale of sunscreen cosmetics dropping to $471 million from January to April 2022, a drop of 8.21%.
As for sunscreen brands, from January to April 2022, the top 5 sunscreen sales on Tmall Taobao platform are Mistine, ANESSA, Lancome, L'Oreal and Winona. Among them, the sales of ANESSA and L'Oreal brands were $32 million and $21 million respectively, with year-on-year growth rates down 25.30% and 12.47% separately.
In the past two years, under the influence of the concepts of "sunscreen comes first in anti-aging" and "be fully armed to be white", sunscreen has gradually extended from outdoor scenes to daily commuting and travel. Because sunscreen clothing can provide all-round, all-weather sun protection, it is more and more loved after by consumers.
Ultraviolet rays are too strong in summer, so no matter how many layers of sunscreen you apply, people will still subconsciously block the sun. Therefore, sunglasses, hats and sun protection clothing must be worn when going out. Some consumers believe that in addition to psychological comfort, hard sunscreens are more cost-effective. Generally speaking, hats and sunscreen clothing of professional sunscreen brands can be worn for several years. Compared with applying sunscreen, it saves more money and causes less trouble.
From January to April 2022, the market size of Tmall and Taobao sun protection clothing reached 171 million US dollars and continued to grow with a year-on-year increase of 8.9%. It can be seen that the sales of sunscreen clothing as a substitute have affected the sales of sunscreen cosmetics to a certain extent.
In addition, due to the repeated epidemics in China and internationally, people’s time for outdoor activities and travel has been significantly reduced; and due to the need for epidemic prevention and control, areas with severe epidemics such as Shanghai and Guangdong in China have implemented home isolation policies, which have limited the usage scenarios of sunscreens to a large extent.
From January to April 2022, the sales of sunscreen cosmetics in Shanghai and Guangdong have dropped by more than 20% and nearly 50% respectively. In addition, in areas affected by the epidemic, such as Beijing and Jiangsu, the sales of sunscreen cosmetics also declined.
Although, from January to April 2022, the overall size of the sunscreen cosmetics market is lower than in the same period last year. However, the size of China's sunscreen cosmetics market has been steadily increasing in recent years. In addition, June has always been a hot season for sunscreen cosmetics, and it is the month with the highest sales of the year. In June 2019, June 2020, and June 2021, the sales of sunscreen cosmetics reached $182 million, $234 million, and $363 million respectively, all of which were the highest levels during the year.
With the rising temperature in summer and the blessing of big promotion activities such as 618 in Chinese mainstream e-commerce platforms, the sales growth of sunscreen products is expected to pick up again.
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