Beauty products show strong growth

Chinese brands are among the fastest growing in the skincare and makeup sector in terms of consumer penetration and purchasing frequency, according to a  study from Kantar Worldpanel.

Last year, Chinese consumers' expenditure on skincare products and cosmetics rose 13 percent and 17 percent respectively.

This was strong growth compared to total sales of expendable consumer goods which was only 4.3 percent.

The consumer reach point index which combines the number of buyers and the frequency of shopping for a certain brand in one year, put Pechoin, L'Oreal Paris and Dabao as top skincare brands while Maybelline New York, Carslan and Dior were top makeup brands.

Pechoin is the only local brand chosen more than 10 million times and tops the ranking for the third year.

Innovative product, upgrading brand image and pursuit of younger consumers are key elements to maintaining market dominance .

Upgrading the product and brand image have also helped many local brands like Pechoin and Inoherb to find further growth opportunities.

Another strategy for brands to gain new and repeated customers is to leverage online and offline channels to build product popularity and extend their reach. For example P&G's skincare brand Olay gained wide popularity among young consumers through their whitening essence product.

Six makeup brands more than tripled their consumer reach in the past year.

Consumers have changed their perception of Chinese brands with qualified products, strong word-of-mouth endorsement and efficacy.

Many of these brands have invested heavily to demonstrate their product efficacy through social media and opinion leader endorsement.