The revelation of Huaxizi’s global expansion: What should Chinese DTC brands learn from going overseas?

In recent years, thanks to their excellent product quality and localized marketing, Chinese beauty brands have continued to rise in the global beauty market, squeezing out a large amount of market share from Korean and Japanese cosmetics brands.

Previously, the famous Japanese actress Satomi Ishihara appeared on the cover of Japan's VoCE magazine with Chinese-style makeup. The Chinese-style makeup quickly became popular on Japanese YouTube, and Cosme, the authoritative Japanese beauty consumption organization, even launched an exclusive ranking of Chinese cosmetics brands.

Taking advantage of this trend, Chinese beauty brand Florasis quickly targeted the Japanese market and opened an official store on Amazon Japan in March 2021. Soon, Florasis quickly became popular in the Japanese market with its brand concept of focusing on creating Chinese-style makeup, soaring to the top three of the site's Best Cosmetics Sales Ranking (BSR).

In addition, as Chinese-style makeup began to gain popularity around the world, Florasis also began to expand into the global market. According to data from Tmall International's 2020 Double 11 Shopping Festival, consumers from more than 100 countries and regions purchased Florasis products during the event, and the brand ranked first in overseas sales among all Chinese beauty brands during the same period.

Foreign media magazine Jing Daily analyzed how Florasis established brand awareness in overseas markets and competed with top cosmetics brands with localized marketing strategies. This will also provide a reference for Chinese DTC brands to go overseas.

Leveraging TikTok to expand globally

For most brands, opening up the market through Amazon is the first step to go global, because a powerful third-party platform like Amazon can help brands quickly gain a foothold in overseas markets. However, after a large-scale "store closure" broke out on Amazon in April this year, a large number of Chinese cross-border sellers started the road of DTC transformation.

TikTok, which has become the world's most downloaded social application, has attracted the attention of Chinese DTC brand sellers. Compared with more mature but traditional social platforms, TikTok uses its advantage as an emerging force to provide more traffic support for brands. At the same time, it is accelerating its e-commerce business deployment.

Florasis' ambitions are certainly not limited to the Japanese market. In August 2020, Florasis entered TikTok and became one of the first Chinese brands to expand overseas markets through the platform. To optimize its business, Florasis has created localized marketing strategies in many countries.

At the same time, Florasis does not intend to put all its eggs in one basket. As early as July 2019, Florasis also established a connection with Shopify.

Omnichannel Strategy for DTC Brands

While Florasis has accelerated its global expansion, traffic to its independent website remains a headache. On the homepage of its TikTok account, Florasis has replaced the link to its Instagram page with a link to its independent website.

For DTC brands, social media remains a core way to increase awareness and interact with consumers.

At the same time, physical stores also play an important role in showcasing the brand image and core values. Florasis has also developed their offline stores and distribution channels, which also helps to build brand credibility.

A great brand story

Florasis created a unique brand image by incorporating oriental aesthetic elements into its short advertising videos, which made it stand out from the hundreds of new brands emerging on social media. This feature was formed thanks to the brand's many years of experience in the Chinese market.

Currently, Florasis has 763,400 followers and 3.9 million likes on TikTok, and the influencers it collaborates with are all million-level big Vs, including @jeffreestar (2 million followers), @Jonysios (2.4 million followers) and @nadina_ioana (8.6 million followers).

It can be seen that adopting strong marketing methods on social media is a necessary condition for increasing beauty brand awareness, gaining word of mouth and generating sales in Europe and the United States.

Behind the powerful marketing capabilities

According to Florasis' overseas website, the brand now offers free shipping to several countries, including Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Ukraine, but it is still expanding its global footprint.

Although Florasis has strong marketing and promotion capabilities, it still needs to develop localized marketing strategies for many countries as its target markets increase.

Furthermore, to gain lasting customer loyalty and build a brand with long-termism, it all comes back to the product. If customers are not satisfied with the product, the brand will decline at a rate proportional to its rise. If the product does not live up to the hype, the brand will lose existing customers and will need to constantly look for new ones.

Florasis' products are often criticized for being too greasy. Although it has won a place in the Japanese market, it remains to be seen whether this product feature can meet consumer demand in other markets.

Therefore, in addition to using celebrity publicity and marketing packaging, brands cannot ignore the importance of product quality and consumer demand for products. For example, as young consumers pay more attention to environmental issues, brands' product strategies must also be adjusted accordingly.

Editor ✎ Xiao Zhu/

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