China’s soap, bath, and shower (SBS) product market value reached RMB20.1 billion, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.6% from 2007-12. The market growth is driven by the shower and liquid/gel soap categories as consumers increasingly shift from the basic soap bar to the more convenient format of liquid soap/shower gel.
The growing sophistication in consumer usage regimes including applying products that complement each other and using products with different fragrances for different times of the day opens new opportunities for brands to meet the demand of increasingly sophisticated users.
Online is becoming an important sales channel for SBS products, currently third behind supermarkets and hypermarkets. The growth in online penetration and the rise in the popularity of online shopping are fuelling e-commerce growth. Women, consumers with mid-to-high income, and to some extent the 20-39-year-olds are the key drivers of SBS purchases online.
ARE BATH PRODUCTS POPULAR IN CHINA?
According to CBNData research, due to the growing number of Chinese consumers, we can notice the rapid growth of many industries as well. The bath products industry is not an exclusion. The consumption power of consumers has increased, and the annual consumption per capita has increased year by year.
The average amount of money spent per consumption by 42% of consumers is about 20-50 RMB per transaction. However, the number of 50-100 RMB and 100-200 RMB per consumption has exceeded 50% in 2019.
CBNData research data (2019 year)
Statistics also show us the number of SKUs increased twice in 2019 compared to the 2018 year. Top-10 bath products companies’ sales turnover has increased by 10% during this period of time.
In the past years, the functions of the products in the bath market have become more and more subdivided: into functional consumption such as moisturizing, fragrance, and hydrating. Even whitening and removing acne effects for bath product market influence Chinese consumer’s choices.
Bath products from Latvia selling on tmall.com
As the bath products industry is pretty new in China, however fast-growing beauty sector here, a big part of Chinese consumers haven’t used bath products like bath bombs, bubble baths, body lotion, and other bath products before, the first step for any bath product brand is being visible among the target audience and explaining how this product can make you daily routine enjoyable.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION FOR BATH PRODUCTS BRANDS?
A CHINESE LOCALIZED WEBSITE + SEO = GOOD VISIBILITY
It is not a secret, Google and other internet resources popular in the west are blocked in China, instead of Google, Chinese people use Baidu’s search engine covering 68,5% of the search market.
Developing a Chinese website with Chinese hosting and only in the Chinese language gives the opportunity to be found by potential consumers by surfing the internet. One of the reasons why foreign sites not hosted in China have difficulty ranking on Baidu is that connections and speeds to overseas servers from Mainland China can be very unreliable due to the China Firewall.
BAIDU BAIKE (CHINESE WIKIPEDIA) FOR A STRONG BRAND NAME
Baidu Baike, otherwise known as “Baidu Encyclopaedia” is China’s answer to Wikipedia.
A typical Baidu search query will often display around two Baike results with sub-links to related articles on the very first SERP. Therefore, you should create and upload brand or product-related articles on Baidu Baike so that when users search for relevant keywords, Baidu Baike can bring them up. This is helpful considering the great priority Baidu gives to its own sub-products.
You can get our white paper about the problems of new brands in China (contact me on Linkedin)
CHINESE FORUMS FOR E-REPUTATION
Chinese people are heavily influenced by branding due to a long history of being scammed and cheated. They are cautious about new brands. Therefore, establishing e-reputation is key to your success in this market.
Being present and mentioned by official media channels, prestigious websites or popular forums contribute significantly to your brand credibility. In the maze of China’s media landscape, it takes a great deal of understanding and experience to select the right media to maximize your budget.
The most popular Q&A forums as Baidu Zhidao and Zhihu are commonly used by Chinese people for asking for recommendations about products and services. Spreading positive information about the brand’s products helps the brand to have a strong reputation among potential Chinese consumers.
These forums are well ranked in Baidu and will be easy to find by potential Chinese consumers.
KOL FOR ENGAGEMENT
The power of word of mouth is another reason for blogger success from a cultural perspective. Chinese customers have very deep trust in KOLs (Key Opinion Leader) and this psychological bond can partially be explained by the pseudo-intimacy created by social media. In another word, social media make you feel like influencers are friends as you know who they are in real life, thanks to the details of their daily lives shared through Weibo, WeChat, and live streaming apps.
Chinese followers usually believe that bloggers’ recommendations are trustworthy because they assume that KOL has put his or her reputation in line with that product. It somehow makes Chinese customers feel at ease and are willing to at least give the product a try.
5 GOOD REASONS TO CONTACT GMA
- GMA is a team of an international-Chinese team who can understand client’s needs and adapt them to the Chinese market.
- We have a secret strategy to market bath products in China.
- We are ROI oriented agency with more than 7-year experience in Chinese marketing
- We will help you to enter the Chinese market by building an effective plan considering the client’s product’s unique features.
- We will help to develop and implement the best solution for your brand in China.
Read also: