The Shiseido Co is bulking up its e-commerce presence amid a “deep crisis” in the beauty business, with the Japanese company looking to its China strategy as a post-pandemic model for growth.
The 148-year-old beauty giant sees its online proportion of overall sales growing to 30 per cent in two or three years if current conditions continue, from about a fifth right now, according to CEO Masahiko Uotani.
“From a business standpoint, we’ve been trying to come up with solutions to the current situation and use this as an opportunity to go at a faster pace with some reforms,” Uotani said in an interview in Tokyo.
The reforms for Shiseido, which has relied heavily on department-store sales, involve training beauty consultants to use live streaming and social media, working more closely with retailers on the tech-enabled shopping experience, and investing in new marketing content for online, Uotani said. All strategies the company has implemented in China.
