Domestic-made cosmetics on 40 percent of Chinese Gen Zer's dressing tables

China's domestically-produced beauty products, ranging from lipsticks with exquisite carving patterns to mini-sized oral irrigators, are gaining increasing popularity among young Chinese consumers born after 1995.

"Forty percent of Gen Zer's cosmetic products are manufactured by Chinese brands," said Xiao Lan, an executive for Tmall, one of the marketplaces of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

The e-commerce titan has 800 million active users that spend an average of 9,000 yuan ($1,391) each annually on its retail platforms. One fourth of these users were born after 1995 and are more willing to try new stuff than previous generations of consumers, statistics showed.

Compared with those born in the 1970s and 1980s, Gen Z consumers place a greater value on cost performance and the packaging of products, rather than brand impact, reflecting the fact that they were raised amid China's period of rapid economic development, Xiao said.

A number of beauty startups have sprouted up over the past two years in China. In 2020, around 3,000 cosmetic brands opened up official online stores on e-commerce platforms, and more than 2,000 of these were Chinese, accounting for nearly 80 percent of the total.

Meanwhile, 30 new beauty brands have stood out from the crowd on e-commerce platforms, where fierce competition is played out among a growing field of major renowned cosmetic companies, with these brands reporting annual sales revenues of over 100 million yuan each.

Chinese cosmetic brands are not only popular among Chinese consumers, but also highly sought after by female consumers in West Asia, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and Canada.

More than 30 Chinese brands have launched free global shipping plans, and 25 have developed overseas marketing strategies, with Southeast Asia and Japan being the hottest destinations for exports. Lipstick, eye shadow, and blushers are the most popular categories of Chinese cosmetics among foreign consumers.

It is noteworthy that a broad number of Chinese cosmetic brands, including Perfect Diary, Florasis and Zhuben, made their presence felt at a major beauty award ceremony recently held by Tmall.

"I think the era of domestic beauty products has arrived," said Li Jiaqi, a top-tier Chinese influencer, at the Tmall beauty award ceremony.