Today, China represents the second-largest market for cosmetics, and the growth is far from finished. Furthermore, a huge part of the sales come from online channels. It’s important if you want to succeed in this field, to know some local factors, and here we are going to give you some advice in order to make you more efficient in your digital marketing for your cosmetic brand in China.
First step is to develop your Chinese website
The first thing to do if you want to succeed in China is to create your Chinese website. Remember that translating your website in many cases might won’t work, as Chinese consumers have different taste and shopping habits, and sites in China differ a lot from Western ones.
Then it’s important for you to make your website hosted in China because Chinese people don’t all read foreign websites and they are more trustful when they see a website with .cn. In addition, website in China gets a better ranking in Baidu SEO, so it’s easier for internet users to find you.
How to promote your products and bring traffic to your website?
The important thing to understand is that a website in China is not meant to sell. We are used to buying products through official websites from brands we like, but Chinese e-commerce doesn’t work like that. Chinese consumers are ‘spoiled’ in a way, that they are used to having everything available in one place. Therefore, they won’t buy products on separate websites, but rather go to Taobao, Tmall or other e-commerce platforms.
Website in China is your hallmark on the market and it’s purpose is mainly to provide information about products and company, so that Chinese consumers can check all the relevant news and available products and services on your site.
So how to drive traffic to your website and what to do to make it a great hallmark of your brand? Let’s take a look.
Adapt your website to the needs of Chinese people
To grab the attention of Chinese customers, simply translating your content will not suffice. You may need to customize it specifically for them by altering or creating new pieces and omitting any that are illegal in China due to their censoring policies on internet usage (also known as The Great Firewall).
When creating a website for Chinese audiences, remember to inject your own brand of vibrancy and color. Aim to make it as practicality-oriented as possible by keeping all the key pages visible on one page – just like having everything within easy reach! If you want extra attention from visitors, then be sure not forget about prominently displaying contact information such as links to your social media profiles.
Chinese Internet users prefer pages with a lot of links and subpages visible from the homepage. They are also used to convenience, so it’s advisable to include a chatbox or customer representative that will be available on the chat.
Collaborate with Chinese influencers to promote your website on social media
Whether your brand is already famous or not, for your digital marketing strategy we strongly recommend you to engage a KOL. A Key Opinion leader is usually someone really famous who has a huge community behind him and who has the power to influence them in their way of life.
They are used as brand ambassadors and their messages are spread really quickly. It’s always good to associate your brand with one of them especially in China, where people really like this kind of initiative. But it’s important to know that KOLs are expensive and not suitable for all the brands. If you’re a small brand with a small presence, it’s better to work with smaller influencers.
Good Baidu SEO is a must for your website visibility
To have a good website in Chinese and hosted in China is far to be enough to succeed in this competitive market. You also have to promote it on local search engines. The problem is that Google doesn’t exist so you will have to adapt your SEO strategy to Baidu, the main important search engine in China.
If you are viewable on Baidu, it will improve your chances of success and it is one of the most important things to include in your digital marketing in China for your cosmetics e-business website. Apart from working on Baidu SEO on your website, you can also engage in Baidu’s ecosystem. There are many forums and communities where you can talk about your products and brand, which will also increase your visibility and e-reputation.
Use your website as a showroom for online shopping
Even if in your country your e-business website is really efficient, we advise you to set up a different strategy in China. There 88% revenues of online sales come from e-commerce platforms. People are used to buying products via websites like Tmall which is the biggest in his category. Furthermore, people already know how to use it and trust those platforms better than other websites.
Cross border shopping: a new trend in China !
If unfortunately, you are not able to settle down in China, there is still an efficient solution to sell your product via the internet: cross borders platforms. With good communication on social media, you can easily promote a product and then sell it on Tmall Global or JD Worldwide, the most popular cross-border e-commerce platforms in China.
Learn about the differences (Payments, communication channels…)
The Chinese market presents an optimal opportunity to grow your company. But it’s not easy to enter it, especially due to the fact that many sites that we are used to in the West, like Facebook, Google or Twitter are blocked in Mainland China, and are available only in Hong Kong.
There are a lot of differences between the Chinese way of consumption and the Western ones. For example, communications are absolutely not the same, forget about e-mail newsletters and start to learn about WeChat! You also have to know what are the payment habits, as almost all Chinese netizens use mobile payments instead of cash or debit cards.
Use Chinese social media platforms
People are really sensitive about promotions and consumer opinions. In order to attract them, you have to be present on the local social media in order to communicate with them and let them give their opinion about your products. You also have to be part of the conversation. The most used social media in China are WeChat, Weibo, RED and Douyin, you need to have an official account in both of them to succeed in your digital marketing campaign.
Quality visuals are key to promote cosmetics
It’s a fact, a beautiful picture will attract our eyes better than everything but Chinese customers pay special attention to refined products and the physical appearances of these so if you want to improve your sales you will have to take care to your visuals. Furthermore, the Chinese estimate that a beautiful picture is a sign of a quality product.
Be aware of the types of product preferred by Chinese
Like everywhere, there is some best sellers products and you have to be aware of which kind of product it is to arrange your campaign around these products. Chinese will prefer to buy skincare perfecters and specific products to fight against the effect of humidity which is a big issue in China. For make-up the best-sellers are eyeliner. And of course, almost all skincare in China is whitening, as Chinese prefer white skin and are aiming to stay the whitest possible.
Give a lot of attention to your e-reputation
If you consider all this advice, you will improve your e-reputation. Chinese strongly care about that because they need to trust you. You will need to control information about your website on social media and with public relations. Your KOL will make people assimilate your brand to their idol and your SEO strategy will allow them to find you quickly.
We can help you with your digital strategy in China
We are a China digital agency with more than 10 years of experience. We helped over 600 brands, many of them from cosmetics industry. Our team of Chinese and foreign specialists has the experience and know-how needed for your succees in China.
We offer various services, adapted to your brands’ budget, values and needs.
Don’t hesitate to leave us a comment or contact us to learn about the Chinese market and see the possibilities for your China entry. Let’s keep in touch!
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