One-stop Oral Care Brand Canban Dips Toes in Watsons

Abstract: Chinese oral care brand Canban stepped into Watsons aiming to expand their offline scale and also improve their brand image. According to CHAILEEDO, Watsons, which has more than 4,100 offline stores in China, enjoys a huge "attraction" for beauty brands.

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In the past six months, a group of online high-profile beauty brands have put "being in Watsons" on their task list. Last October, WIS launched the Watsons exclusive series, which is the first time WIS joint offline channels to launch exclusive series of products. In November last year, P&G and Watsons jointly developed and launched the skincare brand aio, which is also the first time P&G and retailers to research and create skin care brands. Undeniably, Watsons, which has over 4,100 stores in mainland China, has always been an important territory for many cosmetic brands to compete for.

Watsons has quasi-attributed its new O+O (online combined with offline) model to the "O+O (online combined with offline) model". If the O2O (offline to online or online to offline) strategy in the past brought customers from one platform to another in a one-way manner, the O+O model, represented by the small mini program (cloud store) and enterprise WeChat, seamlessly connects physical stores with online platforms. With data analysis and AI technology to gain insight into consumer preferences, retailers are able to stay close to customers' needs, which makes consumers to reach Watsons' products and services at any time and on different platforms.

In current situation, despite of the effect of sales and product promotion scale, brands see more possibilities from Watsons that are different from traditional cosmetic retailers. For example, when Winona entered Watsons in June 2020, the head of the brand said that part of the reason for entering Watsons was to fill the gap in its new retail segment.

In recent years, many international and Chinese beauty brands have been stationed in various beauty collection stores, which has also led to the booming market of beauty collection stores. According to a survey by iResearch, new beauty collection stores will account for 7.6% of China's beauty collection stores in 2020. With the transition of the new beauty collection store industry from the budding period to the stable development period, its market share is expected to increase to 15.8% in 2023, and the market size is expected to reach $1.9 billion. This shows that there is still potential for development for new beauty collection stores. In the past two years, new beauty collection stores led by colorist, wow color, and HARMAY have sprung up in China and are listed as direct competitors of Watsons.

Likewise, Sephora, which is owned by LVMH, is also a beauty retailer, with more than 310 Sephora stores in China as of now. According to the financial report released by LVMH, Sephora achieved excellent results in the quarter, mainly driven by the recovery of fragrances and cosmetics. It is reported that Sephora is positioned in the mid-to-high end, and the stores are basically dominated by international mid-to-high end brands such as Dior, Estee Lauder, Givenchy and Guerlain. Its categories are all beauty related. In comparison, Watsons positioning affordable and cost-effective brands such as OLAY, Maybelline, Revlon, etc. The categories of the store are broader than Sephora, involving daily necessities, beauty and health products, specialty goods, etc.

It is reported that Canban is a Chinese oral care brand specializing in providing one-stop solutions for oral care, and the category includes all products related to oral care scenarios, including mouthwash, toothpaste, oral spray, dental stickers, tooth flosser, etc. The brand concept is to create oral care products that are "more suitable for Chinese people".

In 2021, Canban began its omni-channel sales. By December 2021, Canban had entered more than 100,000 offline stores covering channels including Wal-Mart, He Ma, Vanguard, Biavo, Mannings, Lawson, FamilyMart, 7-11, Bianlifeng, Nepstar, etc. In June 2021, Canban achieved single-month omni-channel sales exceeding $15 million. Canban's star product, Probiotic Mouthwash exceeded 20 million bottles in 2021 annual sales volume.

Nowadays, with the cost of online traffic becoming more and more expensive, brands like Canban, which emerged from online channels, also need offline channels to help them broaden their brand breadth, deepen their brand depth and increased their brand influence.