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For now, Hangzhou-based cosmetics maker Florasis is looking to Japan, Southeast Asia and Europe, Gabby Chen, Florasis’ president for global markets, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday.
“There’s been huge political changes for the global markets,” Chen said. “We shifted our strategy from the US market to Southeast Asia, but prior to that, the US has remained very strong as our top global market.”
Hangzhou-based Florasis has in recent years been a top selling cosmetics brand on popular Chinese online marketplaces including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Tmall and TikTok’s Chinese app Douyin, and now ships to more than 100 countries.
Its products incorporate botanicals and ingredients drawn from traditional Chinese medicine. They’re wrapped in packaging inspired by classical Chinese aesthetics — including carvings on lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes — that have boosted its appeal among mainland consumers drawn to domestic labels over costlier Western names.
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Chinese consumer brands are continuing to push their global ambitions despite trade uncertainties. Companies from fashion retailer Urban Revivo Ltd. to Starbucks Corp. rival Luckin Coffee Inc. and Labubu maker Pop Mart International Group Ltd. are still pushing into the US. Online retail giants Shein Group Ltd. and PDD Holdings Inc.’s Temu continue to focus on driving US growth — despite losing a crucial tariff exemption that had helped them reach shoppers quickly and cheaply.
Florasis’ shift mirrors the broader changes emerging in China’s international trade. The country’s exports rose higher than expected in September, even as shipments to the US plunged 27 percent, while stronger demand from non-US markets including the European Union have help propped up growth.
Florasis has leveraged that momentum to court global customers, building a following of more than a million people on TikTok and partnering with roughly 1,500 US-based influencers per year. The company remains “stable” in the American market, Chen said.
The company’s digital foray into the US is laying the groundwork for it to expand into new markets, though its rate of investment in the country isn’t currently growing, she told Bloomberg.
Chen added the US remains the center of Florasis’ social media exposure. “We are still working with a lot of influencers, still doing social media engagement,” she said. “There are many many things still going on, but we just didn’t keep putting in more and more.”
By Bloomberg News, with assistance from Allen Wan
Learn more:
Can China’s Cosmetics Giant Florasis Crack America?
The brand known for its traditional and ornate Chinese aesthetic will be one of the first major C-beauty players to go global when it touches down in the US and Japan later this year.
