Vietnamese cosmetics “conquer” the beauty product market on Amazon

DNHN - Natural beauty products are increasingly attracting attention, which is an opportunity for Made-in-Vietnam cosmetics to affirm their position in this potential market on a global scale.

According to data from Statista, the global natural and organic cosmetics market is projected to reach $15.7 billion by 2025, marking a breakthrough growth in the beauty industry. In the United States alone, natural and organic skincare products have accounted for more than 40% of revenue, which is a clear testament to the popularity and undeniable potential of this market.

Vietnam has the advantage of abundant natural resources with high applicability such as coconut, grapefruit essential oil, aloe vera, turmeric, propolis, lemongrass, lemon, etc. These ingredients have been scientifically recognised for their effectiveness in personal care and beauty, becoming familiar and friendly essences to consumers, and receiving much positive feedback on both safety and effectiveness. This creates a significant advantage for Vietnamese businesses in the natural beauty industry, making a difference when entering the international market.

However, in reality, Vietnam’s key export industries have so far mainly focused on traditional manufacturing groups such as garments, footwear, and seafood. Meanwhile, despite the advantage of natural raw materials, Vietnamese beauty and cosmetic products have not yet made a mark on a global scale. The cosmetics and beauty industry seems to be the “home ground” of veteran names such as Korea, Japan, France, Germany, etc. with many leading brands creating new beauty trends, and breakthroughs from production technology, materials, packaging, etc.

A notable positive signal in 2023 - for the first time, beauty has entered the top 5 best-selling product categories of Vietnamese sellers on Amazon within 12 months to the end of August 31, 2023. In recent years, this product category has continuously shown promise when products such as beauty tools (false eyelashes, facial massage rollers), cosmetics, skincare and treatment products, etc. have received much attention, search, and popularity from international customers on Amazon.

Abera, a young Vietnamese brand, has made an impressive mark on the international cosmetics and beauty market through cross-border e-commerce. Beauty is the strength of women, but Abera was founded and developed by a male leadership team - Dong Thanh Son and Hoang Quoc Vinh. Abera’s products have made a positive impression on international customers on Amazon thanks to their sophistication, methodical brand building, and effective “pragmatic” speciality product strategy.

Understanding that cosmetics and personal care products are a special group of products closely related to aesthetics and even users’ health such as skin, hair, eyelashes, teeth, etc., Abera invests in market research and uses Amazon’s Product Opportunity Explorer to collect data, analyse, identify specific needs, and common problems that need to be solved by users such as dark spots, unsightly scars, stretch marks in pregnant women, dark circles and puffiness, sparse eyelashes and eyebrows, plaque on teeth, acne; thereby applying research on natural applications to support overcoming these conditions. Instead of being multifunctional with all-in-one, 2-in-1, 3-in-1 products, etc., Abera’s products are researched to solve problems in a specialised, targeted way, supporting each issue such as acne, dark spots, melasma, scars, etc.

Choosing a market gap, Abera continues to exploit the strength of benign natural raw materials in the country such as ginseng, turmeric, red pomegranate, green coffee beans, red lingzhi mushroom, shea butter, black ginger, pearl powder, pine essence, etc. The input is available in Vietnam, has high applicability, is scientifically proven to be effective, and has a reasonable price, which is a great advantage for Abera to develop a diverse product portfolio, from acne serum, moisturiser, eye care products, lips to oral care and hygiene. Thanks to that, the brand can both optimise product supply performance, and clear product strategy and impress users with its obvious effects and efficiency.

A Vietnamese cosmetic brand that achieved success in the European and American markets in its first year of launch through cross-border e-commerce has become the centre of attention of the start-up community and the domestic cosmetics industry. Sharing about Abera’s success formula, Mr Son and Mr Vinh both emphasised: “Our initial success was formed from building internal advantages from the product, constantly innovating based on in-depth customer data research, proactively taking advantage of external support resources from Amazon to operate, optimise cross-border business, and build a brand right from the beginning to conquer global customers.”

Thanks to its intelligent strategy and continuous innovation, Abera has reaped the rewards with revenue reaching the million-dollar mark in less than a year, recording remarkable growth in brand reputation on Amazon with a positive review rate of up to 95%. In particular, the product conversion rate increased by 5-6 times, affirming the ability to understand the need to persuade international customers on Amazon to click to buy from a young cosmetic brand from Vietnam.

P.V