Interview: Offline Stores are Strong Endorsement for a Brand

Win in efficacy, welcome the future. On September 22, The 5th CHAILEEDO Conference on China’s Cosmetic Trends hosted by CHAILEEDO was held in Hangzhou.

Dr. Plant is a botanical skincare brand with 4,600 stores. We invited Mr. Xie Yong, Chairman of Beijing Dr. Plant Technology Company, to discuss the market trend of efficacy products in China with us.

Q:We are honored to invite Mr. Xie Yong, Chairman of Beijing Dr. Plant Technology Company to share with us the trends in cosmetics. We understand that Dr. Plant has over 4,600 physical stores, what do you think will be the characteristics and trends of beauty stores in China?

A:Now is the Internet era. Internet is the biggest influence in this era now. But beauty category does have a very different characteristic from other categories. It needs customer's trust. I firmly believe that simple brand offline brands is still difficult to survival because of the lack of endorsement.

In fact, we have studied several categories that must have offline stores, such as pharmacies, milk powder. Because we dare not imagine buying something so important just with some simple clicks. Then, after several days, I can't even find the buying link. This is a very scary thing. Skincare is an extremely important category for women. Women want beauty, but they want more safety. So the endorsement of offline stores is very important. This future trend is that offline stores should be more distinctive.

It will develop as a brand backing. That's why we as a brick-and-mortar store are still maintaining a growth (momentum) despite such a big impact from the Internet.

Q:We also know that Dr. Plant opened its first overseas flagship store in Osaka, Japan in 2019 and is moving towards globalization. What do you think are the opportunities for Chinese brands to go global?

A: The development of industry in all countries around the world follows a similar pattern, that is, with the development of economy, it will definitely bring cultural confidence. That cultural confidence is the development of the brand such as early British and Germany. Germany is also not confident in the beginning of creating brands. They all used products from British. Moreover, Germany was also synonymous with shoddy products in the pre-industrial Europe. However, with the development of its economy, it gradually produced a large number of very high quality brands, including now (as we know) car brands.

Japan is the same. Japan was also the original blind worship of European and American brands. When that industrialization came. After World War II, Japan gradually regained self-confidence, only to engage in a large number of private brands. And China, I think currently facing a huge opportunity. With our economic development to a certain extent, it is clear that China's economy will definitely exceed that of the United States in the next 10 to 20 years. The most important sign of an economic power is that there must be many global brands. This is the case with the United States today. The number one brand in the United States is often the number one in the world. Because the United States is the world's largest economy. Then in the future is China's number one is the world's number one. This is obvious.

The brands we know such as McDonald's, KFC, Tesla and Apple, etc. It's all premium American brands. Because he relies on a huge economic volume, then the brands can be generated. I believe that the era in China will also gradually come. Being that economy has several signs. First, when our economic development to a certain level, we will gradually have cultural confidence. This cultural confidence is not blindly begin to worship these so-called foreign brands. Another one is that our information is gradually symmetrical. Consumers will get more and more real information. For example, our skin is different from Westerners, our stratum corneum is very thin, our skin moisture content is higher than Westerners. This means that we need something more suitable for Chinese people themselves. Our whitening values are different from those of Westerners. Beauty values are different. They like brown skin. Chinese like white skin. Westerners like tanning, we are more focused on whitening. In this case, it is not appropriate for the Chinese to use Western brands to produce products for Westerners.

A large number of consumers gradually have to get a new perception. And the new generation has a different understanding of foreign countries. In our early age, we were so different from the West that we thought everything was wonderful in the West at that time. Now it's not necessarily so. The new generation will gradually feel that Chinese things are advanced. Chinese brands are advanced. That's the opportunity. This opportunity will breed the rise of a lot of Chinese brands.

Q: We would also like to ask you about the three major trends in the Chinese cosmetics market: natural, green and efficacy skincare. What are your thoughts on the market for botanical cosmetics in China

A: First of all, the trend of plant-based cosmetics is unstoppable. As the public's awareness level gets higher and higher, people feel that chemical ingredients are inherently risky. Another thing is that natural cosmetics mean safety. This is also the case in restaurants and other industries. People pay more and more attention to the purity of raw materials.

For example, people like to eat fresh fish, and even raw food, braised and stewed is not so popular, or not so desirable. Because these dishes add too much of a variety of other spices. That cosmetics is also the purity of raw materials is increasingly important. More and more will return to our traditional things.