Amid Covid-19, International Brands Continue To Launch Stores on Alibaba’s Platforms

The launch on Tmall of cosmetics brand Huda Beauty—which sells eyeshadow palettes, liquid lipsticks, foundation and false lashes—came at an appropriate time, as demand for eye-makeup products in particular have been soaring in China. We have seen an ongoing trend on social media whereby influencers share makeup looks and tutorials that focus on eye makeup. Eyeshadow sales on Tmall increased 40% year over year between January and March 2020, according to the platform. Beauty has also proved to be a more resilient discretionary product category in China during Covid-19: Data provider ECdataway reported that sales of cosmetic and skincare products on Tmall jumped 89.5% during the International Women’s Day (March 8) promotion period.

According to Tmall Global, 300,000 people visited Huda Beauty’s flagship store on its opening day, March 25. Furthermore, KOL Austin Li featured the newly launched “Mercury Retrograde” eyeshadow palette during one livestreaming session, which accumulated over 12 million views.

KOL Austin Li recommends Huda Beauty’s eyeshadow palette during a livestreaming session

Source: Alizila

With brick-and-mortar stores having been temporarily shut down during the pandemic, international brands actively turned to digital channels to sell their products: Alibaba’s e-commerce sites remain the most-visited destinations for China’s shoppers—for instance, Tmall has more than 800 million monthly active users.