With only enough money to heat one room of his house in East Lothian, a shivering Tommy Crooks gathered up his hand-made soaps from his kitchen table and headed towards the Edinburgh Christmas market. That cold day in December 2010 would be the first step on a journey that today sees him run a seven-figure beauty brand called the Edinburgh Natural Skincare Company.

Today, much of that revenue is derived from China thanks to a chance encounter with a customer, who is now Crooks’ distributor and partner in the Mainland.

“I’d learned some Chinese from a cousin of mine, and when Wei and her husband walked up, I said ‘nihao’,” Crooks explains. That led to a friendship, which eventually became a very profitable partnership.

Before Crooks and Wei Fu went into business, Crooks was travelling the length and breadth of the country, selling his natural and organic skincare products at craft fairs and Christmas markets. The products – made with no additives, preservatives or even water – were a hit, and by 2014, he had his own small factory unit. “It was an old wreck of a place with a table in the middle, but we slowly built it up, and we got to the position of having a good distribution network,” says Crooks.

A happy customer who had picked up some products from Crooks at a market during the Edinburgh Festival in 2019 returned to their home in Japan and reached out to offer to distribute Edinburgh Natural Skincare products in Japan. Fast forward a few years, and today, they have nationwide distribution in Japan and can be found in the luxury department store Isetan. Crooks will be heading over to celebrate the launch of his product in the highly reputable store Hankyu Men’s Tokyo. “They’ve got a great business over there,” he says. “They run it as their entity as the Edinburgh Natural Skincare Company Japan, and we work hand in hand.”

Crooks has since opened two physical stores in Edinburgh and has three small factory units.  Following conversations with Wei, they decided to launch into the China market in October 2022.

“I had a 100% trust in Wei as I have known her for years and she is very smart. Part of being an entrepreneur is the fun of taking the risk. Entrepreneurs are people who jump off cliffs and then work out how to make a parachute,” he laughs.

The risk paid off. A year after launching, China made up 25% of the company’s total sales. And before their second year is even complete, sales have risen 400% on year one.

A selection of The Edinburgh Natural Skincare Company products

Wei Fu’s company, Commercial Cross, helps promote British brands in China, with a focus on selling via e-commerce channels like Tmall Global. “We do a full services for the brands,” says Wei. “They don’t need to hire anyone, just hire a service company like us for the whole China market.”

Commercial Cross has a team that operates brands’ online stores, markets them on social media platforms like Xiaohongshu, facilitates shipping from the UK via a bonded warehouse, and even manages a customer service team in China.

Covering sectors including food and drink, fashion, mother and baby and beauty, Wei’s team will first work out the most suitable strategy for a brand’s route to market and then ensure that all the steps are put into place.

Crooks, explains Wei, had initially tried with a traditional distributor but had limited success. So Wei took hold of the reins and launched on Tmall Global.

“I always try to make it easy for the brands I work with,” says Wei. “We need paperwork done, applications submitted, registrations processed – we do all of this. We send the brand a list of requirements needed for registration and trademarks and so on, and fill it in for them. Then we ship the product, get the team ready, do the design work for the listings, create videos and images for the site…” she goes on. But it’s not just Tmall. Wei’s team informed Crooks of the pros and cons of various sites. For example, it might be cheaper to start with a Xiaohongshu account, although this will grow much slower. For an e-commerce shop like Tmall, a whole team would be needed, and stock would be required.

“It’s a bigger investment, and we communicate with our clients that the first one or two years, an investment will be needed, and profit might not come until year three,” she says. However, the Edinburgh Natural Skincare Company wanted to break even from the start and so a structure was established that allowed Commercial Cross to take a commission on China sales, reducing the upfront cost for the Edinburgh Natural Skincare Company.

The Edinburgh Natural SKincare Company founder Tommy Crooks

Wei explained that whilst livestreaming is valuable, it can be expensive, and the return on investment (ROI) is not always obvious. Therefore, for the Edinburgh Natural Skincare Company, they focused on in-marketing promotion on Tmall and pay-per-click ads, which allows visible ROI to be monitored and adjusted accordingly. New products, says Wei, will have a lower ROI than established products and can take around two months before the market place has an awareness of the product and the break-even point is hit.

This strategy helped the Edinburgh Natural Skincare Company sell more than Molton Brown and Emma Hardie last year thanks, in part, to a real focus on customer service.

“We always ensure we have a response time of under 20 seconds, so we make sure we have enough team members who can answer quickly,” she says. Wei explains that a response time of under 30 seconds provides the company with a top 5-star rating on Tmall. And with a 30-day average response time of 12.19 seconds, they look likely to keep that rating.

Wei explains that she didn’t know if the brand would be popular in China or not. Without added artificial perfume and scents from natural essential oils, the unique fragrance was new to Chinese audiences. And with no added water, the hand cream is more like a bar of soap than a cream, which many customers weren’t used to.

“We did get some feedback from people who didn’t understand the product,” says Wei. “But we promoted the products to doctors and nurses who have to wash their hands a lot and explained it is totally natural and has no artificial properties.”

Wei and her team at Commercial Cross take care of the Chinese market, allowing Crooks and his team to focus on evolving the products. Whilst marketeers often discuss the fluctuations of interest in established international brands verses growing domestic brands among Chinese consumers, Wei says that ultimately, consumers are looking for quality and value. “For most people, made in the UK means good quality,” she says.

“A lot of brands are scared by a new market but Tommy was so certain of the Chinese market from the beginning,” says Wei. “If Tommy didn’t have the courage to do it, then there would be no story.”

The post Edinburgh Natural Skincare on the importance of the right China market partner appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

Skincare and cosmetics is a crowded market, but one segment that is still developing is products targeted at men. Many men struggle with finding products that they can relate to and can only identify suitable products through a lot of trial and error or asking shop assistants for help, which they may not feel comfortable doing because of the stigma against using cosmetic products as men.

After working with cosmetic beauty brands at their creative agency, twin brothers Jake Xu and Shane Carnell-Xu realised that they wanted to create a brand of their own that addressed these problems, and Shakeup Cosmetics was born. They worked on the formulation with a UK-based manufacturer and chemist team in 2018, and launched the brand in 2019. Currently in its second year, Shakeup Cosmetics is now growing quickly in both the UK and Chinese markets.

RedFern Digital spoke to Jake Xu in an interview originally published in issue five of China market-focused magazine, The RED Edition.

Has the stigma around men’s cosmetics and men’s skincare lessened over the past few years?

The stigma is fading, although not as fast as we would like. In the past couple of years, there has been a big shift among men when it comes to finding different ways to express themselves. One method is through using products that allow them to feel confident or good about themselves. A lot of this has to do with mental health, which is a big issue in both the West and in China.

There has been a social shift in how masculinity is defined by individual men. The #metoo movement has shaken many awake, changing the way they think of masculinity, and encouraging guys to start living their own truth. Many men are no longer buying into the previous blueprint of how a man should look or behave.

Another reason is the generational shift. Younger consumers want sustainable products, they want product variety, and they want inclusivity. Although some demand existed previously, its recent growth and popularity has caused brands and retailers to take notice. Additionally, among these newer generations, gender fluidity is more normalised, which is also driving consumer purchasing behaviour.

Are there any key differences between the men’s cosmetics industry in China and outside of China?

There is definitely a huge difference when it comes to men’s skincare in and outside of China. Countries such as China, Korea and Japan are light years ahead of the West in this category. I think this has been driven by phenomena such as K-pop, Mando-pop and the popularity of ‘xiaoxianrou’ (a term used to describe fresh-faced or young male KOLs in China). By comparison, in the UK, it’s still very much about the more aged-up look, with David Beckham as an example.

When it comes to demographics, Shakeup’s customer base in China tends to be younger than in the West, where a lot of our customers are 35 plus. In China, it is very much the young generation driving demand. Gen-Z consumers purchase more cosmetics and are much more likely to make purchases if they have seen it on Douyin (or it has been recommended by a friend) and it is within their price range.

What trends in men’s skincare are seeing a rise in popularity?

Shakeup Cosmetics focuses on providing products for men that are undetectable when used, so we are currently not looking into developing products such as blushes or eye shadows as we don’t see a demand. The majority of our customers are not looking for that, instead, they want a more natural look. They want to look healthy and have a good, even complexion. Our customers still need education and assistance when it comes to choosing and understanding the purpose of our products.

For our new product development, we focus on ensuring that our products are multifunctional, innovative, and have a great skincare base that provides both long-lasting skincare benefits and the coverage of cosmetics products. Our best product is definitely our BB cream, which is a base product and has been our hero since we launched. Most of our male customers are looking to even out their skin tone and complexion, so products that help with that while remaining undetectable and having a natural finish remain the most popular. Anti-ageing is also a huge concern among customers according to our survey, so it is a function that we are looking to explore.

Which are the most important commercial channels for cosmetics in China, and do you see this changing in the future?

Covid-19 has changed the answer to this question. Online is very important, both in the West and in China. China jumped from being a cash-only society straight to mobile commerce. With this jump, China has also digitised much quicker than other countries. Everybody in China shops online, and even more so since Covid-19 and the lockdown that occurred early on, which allowed online businesses to enjoy a huge boom in the last 18 months.

However, for the cosmetics industry, especially when it comes to skincare and colour, there is still something to be said for the experience of trying it out firsthand. Consumers want to make sure the product is suitable for them or matches their skin tone and are put off by the idea of buying products, having the colour shade be unsuitable for them, then needing to worry about whether the product can be returned. Once consumers have found their perfect product, then repurchasing online is very convenient, with the products delivered directly to the doorstep.  

What has been the impact of live streaming on the men’s cosmetics sector in China?

Live streaming has always been quite popular among Chinese consumers. In China, customers enjoy live streams as a form of entertainment and are more open to streamers promoting products or services during live streams, especially compared to customers in the West, who are more cynical and don’t like advertisements. From that perspective, I don’t think live streams will ever be as successful in the West as they currently are in China, because of the differences in culture and preferences.

We actually just did our first live stream for China with the Chinese actor, model and singer Hu Bing (胡兵). It was a great success commercially as we were in the top three best selling brands of the evening for a good part of the live stream, and we were able to learn a lot. Through this experience, it’s clear that live streaming has huge potential, and we will definitely explore this channel more in the future.

What mistakes have you seen other brands make when entering the China market?

One of the big mistakes that brands make has to do with finding the right partner for China market entry. A lot of brands choose to work with trade partners or distributors, and since there are so many of them, it can be difficult to choose the right one. Brands can very easily be dazzled by partners, especially ones that are already working with several big brands. Sometimes, brands may choose to work with a trade partner (TP) that is also handling massive global brands in the belief that the TP can elevate their own brand, but then end up having to end that relationship because their brand is too small for the TP to care about or focus on.

Moreover, the strategy for large established brands is very different to small brands, as these bigger brands already have huge demand from consumers. However, new brands need to be more strategic and careful with their market entry and with choosing the right partner. They should assess every aspect of the partnership and obtain references from previous brands that the TP has worked with before committing. Relationships with TPs can be difficult to sever, and the consequences of choosing the wrong one or of not carefully managing that relationship could include losing ownership of the brand’s online flagship store, or even losing the registration of the products in the China market. 

The post Is men’s skincare more popular in China? appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.