La Roche Posay Hot-Selling in China for One-To-One Solutions to Skin Problems

This one-to-one product logic has made La Roche Posay as a professional skincare product increasingly popular since its entry into the Chinese market. While the products focus on the efficacy of ingredients, the mid-range price is also considered cost-effective by many consumers.

In earlier time, European and American efficacious skincare brands entered the Chinese market and occupied most of the market share. Seeing this opportunity, Chinese brand actively entered the market. In 1998, VICHY of L'Oreal Group became the first "pharmaceutical" brand to enter the Chinese market. Later, Avène and La Roche Posay entered one after another. Until today, international brands still firmly occupy most of the pharmaceutical market share in China. The three major international brands of VICHY, Avène and La Roche Posay, account more than 50% of the market share in Chinese cosmetic market.

Among them, L'Oréal Group's La Roche Posay reached $196 million in retail sales in China in 2018 maintaining a relatively fast growth with a compound growth rate of 20% from 2009 to 2018.

According to EuroMonitor, La Roche Posay ranked third in global dermatological skincare achieving $1.3 billion in end retail sales in 2019. It became the ninth L'Oréal Group brand to join the global "billion-euro" club.

Not only did it achieve good performance in the global market, but also in the Chinese market La Roche Posay achieved double-digit growth. According to the monitoring data of VennData, sales of La Roche Posay in categories including cleansers, toners, lotions, creams, masks or kits ranked the front in the list from June 2019 to May 2020. Among them, Cicaplast Baume B5 Soothing Repairing Balm of La Roche Posay is highly popular in the market and it is often seen in the major list of face creams. In addition, products such as Effaclar K(+) and Prebiotic Thermal Spring Water were also highly popularized among consumers. La Roche Posay was once known as the "savior" of sensitive skin.

At the beginning of its landing in China, La Roche Posay pioneered the pharmacy cosmetic retail model by referring to the successful models of the European and American markets. During this period, pharmacies and professional medical channels became the main channels of sales for La Roche Posay. Later, with the transformation and upgrading of the consumer market, La Roche Posay gradually increased its investment in department store counters and personal care channels in the health and skin care category. In 2017, La Roche Posay opened the baby care channel and turned into the first brand of L'Oreal Group to extend the baby care market.

In recent years, La Roche Posay has been actively expanding its e-commerce channels and investing more resources in e-commerce. At present, La Roche Posay is available on Tmall, Jingdong, Vipshop and other mainstream e-commerce platforms in China. In Tmall, the brand official flagship store has more than 4.92 million followers with a price range of $10.50-$145.73 and a total of 168 SKUs. The highest-selling product, "Cicaplast Baume B5 Soothing Repairing Balm", was sold for $26.31 with monthly sales of 100,000+. Among them, there are 18 products in its flagship store with monthly sales of over 10,000 units.

Products of La Roche Posay have always been more precise and simple. Unlike some local Chinese brands that launch hundreds of simply products every year just to create a craze. There are currently only 4 series in the skin care flagship store, each of which addresses the corresponding skin problems. For example, the B5 series which focuses on repairing the skin barrier and Toleriane Ultra series which is used for sensitive skin and improves skin redness.

In addition to the meticulous improvement of its products, La Roche Posay has also actively accepted digital marketing and applied technology to serve consumers in recent years.

At the end of 2017, the spray "unmanned store" launched by La Roche Posay in cooperation with Alibaba made its debut in Hangzhou. In just two days, the vending machine sold hundreds of sprays, equivalent to several times the sales of offline stores in the same period.

In August 2019, the "La Roche Posay Efika Artificial Intelligence Acne Detection" smart app was launched on its official Tmall flagship store. After consumers follow the instructions to take a photo, the Efika Acne Detection will analyze their skin condition. Once the test is complete, the app will provide the consumer with an exclusive skin care plan based on their acne level.

Driven by social platforms and beauty vertical category apps, Chinese consumers are not only becoming more rational and professional, but more and more people are paying special attention to cosmetic ingredients. This has led to an increasing emergence of professional research skincare brands and will further drive the Chinese professional skincare market to see a spurt of growth.