First Stores and New Products Gather, 50 Pictures Showcase the Wuhan K11 Beauty Show!

A wind vane for offline beauty makeup retail.

On December 12, 2020, Wuhan K11 Shopping Art Center (hereinafter referred to as Wuhan K11) opened as scheduled. 

As the only large-scale commercial complex in Wuhan's inner ring that opened on time after the COVID-19 pandemic, Wuhan K11 welcomes guests with cordial hospitality. It is reported that more than 30% of brands have their first market entry in Wuhan, and even their first market entry for central China at the Wuhan K11. The K11 beauty and makeup sector has become the perfect stage to showcase for various major high-end brands/retail stores to make their debut.

Upon entering the first floor, at the most eye catching spots, there are dozens of international beauty makeup counters and beauty makeup integrated stores lined up. These include Chinese flagship stores, first stores in central China, first stores in Wuhan, and fashionable and new concepts. Let’s explore some highlighted stores.

△ Wuhan K11 Shopping Art Center | Photo: Chutian Metropolis Daily

01

A 600㎡ flagship store in China

Marionnaud Paris’s dazzling first appearance

Marionnaud Paris, a high-end beauty integrated brands retailer, this time opened a 600㎡ China flagship store in Wuhan K11, which is also the first store in China, after opening a time-limited store in Shanghai Grand Gateway 66 in September 2020.   

In Europe Marionnaud Paris is one of the three major integrated beauty brands retailers, together with Sephora and NOCIBE. The Marionnaud Paris stores are positioned as high end stores. Marionnaud Paris expanded to almost 1000 stores at its peak after they were acquired in 2005. The stores have always focused on three core areas of fragrance, facial/body care and exclusive brands since the founder of Marionnaud Paris started with perfume. 

The CBO reporter saw at the scene that the whole store adopts the glass zenith which extends the visual space and makes it more modern, transparent and luminous. There are various dedicated areas for skin care, perfume, makeup, hairdressing, instruments, beauty supplements and beauty makeup areas, respectively. In addition to the retail section, the store has also set up functional areas such as a DJ area, beverage area, and leisure area.

The skin care brands account for about 40% of the total products. Instead of only pursuing the big names that are represented in all market channels, Marionnaud Paris has selected niche high-end beauty brands from all over the world. This includes brands such as Swiss high-end skin care brand Cellcore, China Taiwan's original soap brand YUAN, German natural plant skin care brand Annemarie Borlind, Israel's Dead Sea mud skin care brand AHAVA, and Swiss original imported brand LES ALPAGES which focuses on anti-aging/repair and treatment. 

They may be trying differentiation strategy to compete with other makeup integrated stores; Marionnaud Paris presents fewer makeup products in the store, including Italian makeup NOUBA, a designated brand by Milan Fashion Week, and the makeup lines of Japanese niche high-end brand MARIANNEBOLLE. The reporter surprisingly found Chinese makeup brand YES!IC at the most prominent position at the store gate!

At the same time, due to Marionnaud Paris’s strong perfume backround, the store has set up dedicated makeup back cabinets, island cabinets and display stands to sell products of nearly 20 perfume brands, such as TRUSSARDI, ISSEY MIYAKE, GUCCI, BVLGARI, and NarcisoRodriguez, etc…

It has also established two care areas to provide customers with body and facial care by combining high-end skin care products and high-tech beauty instruments sold in the store , as well as professional techniques.

02

To have beauty and, more importantly, health?

  New retail store Health Planet debut in the comprehensive health industry

On the second floor of Wuhan K11, there is a new type retail store, Health Planet, which is completely different from other integrated stores.

As an innovative "unicorn" and new retail store in China's comprehensive health and new retail industry, Health Planet was founded by a new team in the national retail and FMCG industry, which received investments from famous venture capital institutions such as Banyan Capital and Shunwei Capital. It has opened the world's first store in Shanghai Global Harbor on September 30, 2020. The new store in Wuhan K11 is its second direct chain store.

The CBO reporter saw at the scene that the store implemented the concept of comprehensive health. With the decoration of large areas of white dotted with clear blue the store has a pure atmosphere and a sense of high tech.

The store has set up several major areas including health care, healthy food and nutrition, fashion personal care, scientific and technological sports and civilized IP(Intellectual Property). Interestingly, it has abandoned the traditional arrangement methods such as skin care, makeup and facial mask in the beauty makeup area. Instead, it presents products by interesting and clear classifications such as "Mask Planet" (facial mask), "Composition Research" (skin care), "Beauty Bonus" (hair products), and "Gentleman's Health" (men's products).

As for skin care brands, most of the brands selected are ingredient-focused brands with laboratory and medical backgrounds, and safer and more effective high-tech niche brands such as Dr.Ci:Labo, FILORGA, Mediplorer and Bloomage Biotech.

Meanwhile, Health Planet has also joined forces with top research and development teams in the fields of health and personal care domestically and abroad to jointly incubate many new brands and products in the field of comprehensive health. The reporter saw in the store that there is a special area for oriental health care and a nutrition bank for supplementing vitamins, probiotics, collagen, enzymes and other ingredients in addition to skin care products and daily necessities.

Even in the snack area, there are green, healthy and delicious snacks and substitute meals as well as green, healthy, convenient and instant beverages. There are also new and intriguing services to experience, such as leisure sports, light social activities and high tech health tests.

03

Nearly 20 of central China’s/Wuhan’s first beauty cosmetics counters

High-end, scenario-oriented development and category subdivision are the general trends

In addition to the integrated stores, the major high-end imported product counters opened on the first floor of K11 Wuhan this time are mostly brand-new upgraded image flagship stores. Many of them are central China’s/Wuhan’s first counters. 

First of all, CHANEL has opened a brand-new store for perfume and beauty products, setting up three major areas of makeup, perfume and skin care, together with its high-end perfume series.

LANCÔME has set up a new brand image store opposite CHANEL.

Next to LANCÔME’s store, ARMANI has opened Wuhan's first boutique which combines brand makeup, skin care and perfume.

Atelier Cologne, a high-end niche perfume specializing in refined Cologne, has opened the first concept store in central China. The store uses Venice Blue as the main color, decorated with various flowers and spices. It presents a full range of perfumes and has established a leather case lettering workshop.

Finally! NARS has come to Wuhan! This time its first store in Wuhan, which was bustling with consumers, presents a full range of bestselling makeup.

YA-MAN, a brand of high-end home beauty instruments, has opened the first direct store in central China demonstrating the aesthetics of scientific and technological skin care.

MOR, an Australian ladies' fragrance care brand acquired by Huanya Group, has opened its first store in central China.

French high-end skin care brand EISENBERG has opened its first store in central China.

The perfume craze soaring! Wuhan's first ISSEY MIYAKE & narciso rodriguez perfume flagship store debut!

Swiss high-end makeup and skin care brand La Colline has opened its first store in central China.

FANCL, the originator of Japan's "no additives", which is rumored to be purchased by JD.com for US $1 billion, has opened its latest upgraded image store in central China. 

Swiss high-end skin care brand JUVENA has opened its first store in central China.

ELIXIR, a brand under Shiseido Group, has opened the latest image store in China. It also placed small sample delivery machines outside K11 Wuhan, attracting consumers to line up for interaction.

ERNO LASZLO, an American high-end luxury skin care brand chosen by Hollywood celebrities, has opened its first concept store in central China.

STENDERS, a bath and skin care brand that has been adhering to the three environmental protection concepts of "purely handmade, freshest product and all natural", has also opened a brand-new image store in Wuhan.

It can be seen from bloom of "first stores" that the sub-categories, such as perfume and body care, are having explosive growth, and skin care and makeup products can no longer meet the needs of consumers. At the same time, high-end development continues to gain momentum. Products with higher quality have become the consistent choice of consumers while price plays a less important role compared to high quality. Finally, the scene-based design of products display, combined with high-tech display methods and the emphasis on space aesthetics, seems to be the key development direction of each brand. 

It can be predicted that the wind vane for the offline beauty retail segment will also be changed by this new generation of stores and brands.