Beiersdorf x Tmall Partnership to Co-incubate Chinese Startups
GCI | 17 June 2021
Beiersdorf has signed a partnership agreement with China’s largest B2C platform, Tmall from the Alibaba Group, to co-incubate Chinese startups. Tmall also recently established a rapid fragrance development partnership for the Chinese market with Givaudan. Beiersdorf is expanding its NX NIVEA Accelerator to Shanghai and has now selected the top five startups for the first batch. The accelerator program, which originally launched in South Korea, supports and develops indie brands and beauty tech startups which share Beiersdorf’s ambition to shape, create and deliver the future of skin care to consumers. For the NX program in Shanghai, Beiersdorf is focusing on collaborating with beauty startups from the areas of indie brands, beauty technology, personalization, and platform business models with a high degree of digitalization. Beiersdorf is open to global indie brands in the skin care sector that want to enter the Chinese market and build their own local teams in Shanghai. The selected beauty startups will benefit for six months from the company’s global network of over 160 affiliates, more than 20,000 employees, and nearly 140 years of leading skin care expertise.
What can DTCs gain from online marketplaces?
Retail Dive | 17 June 2021
As more online marketplaces and companies seek to grow direct-to-consumer brands, DTCs must weigh the benefits of joining each platform with the added costs and potential disconnect between their brands and their customers, sources told Retail Dive. But, if they take customer service cues from online marketplaces, digitally native brands can still attract shoppers to their platform, according to new research. Consumers are likely to shop directly with brands if they’re able to provide a similar shopping experience as online marketplaces that house products from a variety of retailers, according to a March report from Linnworks, an enterprise commerce automation company. Per the survey, if a brand can offer the same seamless browsing experience and flexible payment options as online marketplaces, then 76% of respondents said they would prefer to shop on a branded site and 85% said they’re more likely to shop directly with brands. Linnworks’ report also noted that 60% of millennial and Gen Z respondents said they bought more from DTC brands in 2020 than they had in previous years.
L’Oréal Canada hosts three-day livestream shopping festival
Glossy | 17 June 2021
From June 15 to June 17, L’Oréal Canada hosted its first virtual beauty festival using its portfolio of luxury brands to deepen the company’s efforts in livestream shopping. Featured L’Oréal Canada brands included It Cosmetics, Valentino Beauty, YSL Beauty, Kiehl’s and Atelier Cologne. The first day of the festival was focused on fragrance, in partnership with Sephora Canada. That was followed by a skin-care focus on Wednesday and a makeup theme on Thursday. Canadian television personality and influencer Liz Trinnear hosted the event. Though livestream shopping has taken off in the last year, its adoption in North America, compared to markets like China, is still nascent. Promising sales results from companies like Beekman 1802 and The Avon Company have shown livestream shopping can be a bonafide new revenue channel, but this is not proven across the board for the industry. According to Beredo, L’Oréal Canada brands have seen that over 50% of product purchases through livestream shopping events are from new customers.
Hyram Yarbro on his new beauty brand: ‘The primary intent is social change’
Glossy | 17 June 2021
With the release of his own skin-care brand, Selfless By Hyram, in partnership with The Inkey List, Yarbro is living proof of the benefits of staying true to one’s own philosophy in what can be a cutthroat industry. When looking at his options for launching his own brand, Yarbro “didn’t want the purpose and entire philosophy of the brand to be swept away by corporate semantics.” The philosophy in question for Yarbro is about social change, specifically through reforestation and clean drinking water efforts, which he found to be perfectly aligned with The Inkey List, founded by Mark Curry and Colette Laxton. “I think it’s amazing, and it’s definitely not something that fell into our laps. Mark and Colette can attest to the sheer workload that is involved,” said Yarbro. “But it’s a testament to the power that we as a collective can have when everyone is aligned on the same philosophy.
What’s Behind Unilever’s Choice Of Paula’s Choice?
Beauty Independent | 15 June 2021
There’s also plenty of room to expand Paula’s Choice’s distribution. In February, it launched online at Sephora with 27 products prior to rolling out chain-wide in the United States to the beauty specialty retailer’s some 455 stores with six hero products in April. The launch catapulted the brand into the stratosphere of top-performing skincare brand premieres at Sephora. Preceding its Sephora launch, Paula’s Choice built a retail presence at Nordstrom and Selfridges, but DTC revenues accounted for the overwhelming majority of its business. Although DTC-born Dollar Shave Club is in mass distribution rather than Paula’s Choice’s prestige distribution, Unilever’s experience spreading it from screens to stores demonstrates its capacity to broaden a DTC brand. Paula’s Choice will undoubtedly elevate its international profile with Unilever’s assistance. Upon its Sephora debut, Paula’s Choice CMO Erika Kussmann told WWD that the brand already has substantial exposure internationally, and that 50% of its sales come from international markets, notably Europe and Asia. She mentioned the brand owns its Korean and European operations. The U.S. is Unilever’s heftiest market followed by India, China, Brazil and Indonesia, but its slate of prestige skincare brands could help its penetration in China, a country where skincare has historically been dominant.