L'Oreal sees beautiful year for sales growth in China market

French beauty and cosmetics giant L'Oreal recorded its highest annual sales growth in China for the last 14 years.

Sales growth for 2018 was 33 percent, showing that Chinese consumers are "enthusiastic for innovative skincare and makeup products."

Stephane Rinderknech, CEO of L'Oreal China, said he has confidence in China and that he hopes China will become the largest market for the Paris-based group worldwide. 

L'Oreal said the Asia Pacific region has now overtaken North America with sales exceeding 7 billion euros, according to its earnings released earlier this month. 

Global sales posted the best growth in more than 10 years, climbing 7.1 percent to 26.9 billion euros. 

So far, China is the second largest beauty market for the group worldwide, after the US.

Rinderknech added that he has seen "no sign of consumption downgrading" for the Chinese consumer market and that there's strong momentum in spending increases from lower tier cities. 

In 2018, e-commerce accounted for more than 35 percent of its total sales in China, rising from about 10 percent in 2014 — of the 23 brands L'Oreal operates in China, 22 have e-commerce presence.

At the same time it will also strengthen its online-to-offline strategy to drive new initiatives. 

"E-commerce has provided us with tremendous support for bringing in sales and to allows us to reach deeper markets in the country," Rinderknech noted. 

For example, consumers can book for offline hair salon services at Kerastase stores through websites and social networking sites. 

Last year L'Oreal acquired Canada-based Modiface, a company that offers augmented reality beauty apps that help users visualize makeup and hair coloration on themselves.

The acquisition of Korean fashion lifestyle and cosmetics brand Stylenanda in May last year is also expected to strengthen the group’s performance in the future. 

New York-listed Estée Lauder Companies said its global sales in the fourth quarter last year increased 7 percent to US$4.01 billion.