Fawa Herb Beauty: Embrace Online Traffic with Open Arms

With a growing body of users accustomed to the "order online + experience offline" model, all brands are now undertaking the online operations.

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A year's plan starts with spring, and the industry changes at a fast clip. What new trends will emerge in 2023? Where do the new growth points lie in the market?

Based on the upcoming 6th Chinese Cosmetics Trend Conference on February 13, CHAILEEDO interviews the founders and industry personages of 50 + well-known companies at home and abroad to get the cosmetics industry off to a flying start with a fresh view. CHAILEEDO invited Fan Wenhua, the founder and CEO of Fawa Herb Beauty, to share with us the cosmetic trends in China.

CHAILEEDO: What changes within the industry have impressed you over the past year?

Fan Wenhua: First of all, the national confidence of consumers is gaining from strength to strength, and the products at home are rising, thus more and more domestic skin care brands are favored and chosen by consumers. Thanks to the trust and choice of the public, Fawa Herb Beauty has topped 5000 stores across the country for now.

At the same time, the development of the industry is more healthy and more benign. Now the laws and regulations on skincare products are more sound to further clarify strictly the quality and efficacy of products, thus enabling a standardized development.

With a growing body of users accustomed to the "order online + experience offline", all brands are now undertaking the online operations. Fawa Herb Beauty is no exception, both operating in Tiktok and Meituan. This year, the total GMV in Tiktok topped 20 million, with order numbers exceeding 20 million. And we boast the biggest sales in the national beauty industry and has become Titok's annual partner of the year.

CHAILEEDO: For 2023, do you have any plans for Fawa's development to share? What's your future exploration and innovation be like in the beauty industry?

Fan Wenhua: We will continue to expand offline stores to facilitate the process of deploying enough stores for every city. Next year Fawa Herb Beauty will continue to get more stores closer to our consumers and open them near places that is frequented by the consumers, so as to reduce their choice and time costs.

We will stay committed to product R&D and service, ensuring continuous investment in R&D. For now, Fawa Herb Beauty's products have been fully upgraded from previous plant formulations to biotech with 33 national patents gained. Next year, it will continue to work with leading institutions and experts around the world for more innovative and quality products. Service-wise, we will put own strength high on the agenda, and focus on professionism, "Always provide cream-of-the-top service of the same quality", that can we render a better skincare experience.

CHAILEEDO: Where do you see the Chinese beauty market's trend going in the year ahead?

Fan Wenhua: First, regulations and regulations will continue to be strengthened to promote sound development of the industry, and at the same time the restructuring of the industry will be accelerated.

Second, the online-offline integration will be more tightly combined. For consumers, a fragmented consumer environment requires a fragmented service model. Offline experience alone or online channel selling skin care product alone makes it already difficult to solve customers’ main problems and meet their need in skin care, therefore a mutually reinforcing force can then cater to the demand and bring forth benign circulation.

Third, technological empowerment will be further enhanced. Users will make their first choice due to the brand effect, but what keeps them coming back must be "efficacy and experience". So more and more brands start employing R&D, AR, AI and other advanced technologies to analyze skin problems and need for better solutions and experiences. Every store of Fawa Herb Beauty is equipped with a panoramic AI skin tester, which has in store hundreds of millions of user investigation reports and a great amount of data. By using high-definition restoration, five-spectrum skin check and other technologies, the tester can provide an in-depth skin visualization report in 10 seconds. Then accordingly, we will provide a targeted facial care plan for each user's actual skin problem, realizing a "one-to-one" skin improvement service.

CHAILEEDO: What are the chances of breaking the deadlock for the offline channels in 2023?

Fan Wenhua: Digital Uni Marketing, this is not the future, but the present continuous tense, and we will channel great effort into it. Fawa Herb Beauty has already set up the integrated retail platform covering payment collection, inventory, order, operation, and so on, to realize customer-centered cost reduction and efficiency improvement, empowering all-round capability of each store. At the same time, we should embrace online traffic with open arms, whether it be Tiktok, Kuaishou, WeChat channel, or Meituan. Operation should be strengthened in all these platforms to meet customers' diversified purchase and experience needs.

Dive deep into what we are good at and improve strength. For offline channel, better product performance, more professional skincare experience, more human service, is always part and parcel of keeping customers.

CHAILEEDO: What's the next breakthrough point in cosmetics?

Fan Wenhua: Product efficacy. Efficacy is always the demand of the most concern and of the most core requirement. Therefore, it is a good entry point and breakthrough point for the cosmetics industry to make continuous improvements on efficacy and user experience at any moment. The R&D strength will become the "moat" of the brand "castle".

Next is the segmented demand track. Customers need experts from each segmented area for their diversified needs. A more vertical and segmented demand indicates the trend going forward and a breakthrough point.