Another overseas beauty brand had no choice but to "withdraw from the network". Just a few days ago, Benefit, LVMH's beauty brand and the world's No. 1 sales of eyebrow products, suddenly announced the closure of the three major online self-operated *** in China and ended all services related to online operations on January 28. According to the customer service reply, this is related to the adjustment of the brand's operation strategy in China, and in the future, if you want to buy Benefit brand products through official channels, you can only buy Benefit brand products through LVMH's Sephora beauty collection stores. 
Many people have received official closures. (Picture Weibo).**, the sales channel of this long-established beauty product is also shrinking further. Since 2021, Benefit's department stores have been delisted, and the official narrative at the time was the same as today – to "adjust the business model in China" in order to adapt to the current market environment. If we say that el.f, Revlon and a series of open-shelf beauty products have withdrawn from China, and it is only a "technical adjustment", so the announcement of Benefit Benefit's offline this time has made many people exclaim "so suddenly". At present, all of Benefit's official products on Douyin have been taken off the shelves, and two stores on Jingdong have hung out closure notices, but there are still people who find it difficult to accept and seek the truth in the "question area". 
Consumers are seeking confirmation of "store closure rumors". (Photo: Benefit's ** store).After all, as early as 2007, before officially entering China, Benefit had already become the mid-to-high-end beauty enlightenment of the post-90s generation through overseas ** and other channels. And its end will inevitably inspire the emotion of Mesozoic consumers, "time is gone", this top Internet celebrity in the former overseas shopping era is rapidly disappearing from the sight of domestic consumers. 
Success is also a girl, defeat is also a girlHow popular was Benefit back then? According to LVMH's official website, "an eyebrow product is sold in two seconds". According to official data, the sales of Benefit's "Anti-Hole Elite" primer once ranked first in Europe and the United States, with an average of one sold every 14 seconds. From the very beginning of its establishment, this brand has a strong youthful color. In 1976, twin sisters Jane Ford and Jean Ann Ford, Indiana, decided to start their own business and devote themselves to the real economy, and they decided to open a small cosmetics store by flipping a coin to serve the "girl next door" group, which was the starting point of the Benefit brand. 
Poster of the Benefit-branded movie "Glamouriety". (Photo: Women's Wear Daily).In 2007, Benefit entered the Chinese market through Sephora. In the era when there was no grass planting platform, Benefit entered the country first through the overseas shopping channel that was not smooth at that time, captured the hearts of young consumers, and made a name for herself with the "** pores" and "no makeup" lard primer, which was a proper top-class luxury in the eyes of junior high school girls in the county at that time. 
The "lard ointment", which was priced at 320 yuan that year, has now been discontinued and withdrawn from the market. (Photo: Little Red Book).Even at that time, no one knew that LVMH, the global leader in the luxury industry, was behind it, and consumers couldn't even tell whether it was "Buffeling" or "Benefit", but the lard primer, blush and eyebrow powder in the tin box still created a full sense of makeup ritual for the girls of that era. According to the total retail sales of world-renowned eyebrow products from January to December 2021, Benefit is the world's No. 1 eyebrow makeup brand, with more than 3,000 eyebrow salons and 85 boutiques around the world. According to NPD Group, Benefit trims more than 5 million customers every year, and through the brand's original "Brow Bar", Benefit brings beeswax eyebrow shaping, customized eyebrow shape and other services to the Chinese market, establishing its status as an "eyebrow makeup expert" in the hearts of Chinese people. 
In the only few stores at present, there is still Benefit's "eyebrow bar" eyebrow shaping service. (Photo Vogue).However, as the "delicate girly" aesthetic became a thing of the past, Benefit's brand positioning began to become awkward. Especially in the past few years, under the comparison of the catfish effect of domestic makeup, Benefit's retro packaging and color matching for more than ten years have made domestic consumers feel strong aesthetic fatigue. CBNData statistics in 2020 show that the growth rate of China's cutting-edge beauty is as high as 78%, far exceeding the growth rate of 23% of the overall beauty industry. It has been found that after so many years, Benefit, a brand aimed at young girls, has hardly been updated. There are only 40 official products on the shelves, and the housekeeping products that can be brought out are still the old ones - dandelion blush, "anti-hole elite" primer and eyebrow pencil, which are particularly sluggish against the backdrop of domestic beauty brands that are almost "daily" and "monthly". 
Benefit's eyebrow makeup products, the packaging that has not changed for thousands of years, I can't tell the difference when my mother comes. (Photo: LVMH official**).What's worse is the pricing that is extremely unequal to the minimalist retro packaging. The official price of Benefit's eyebrow pencil is 235 yuan, and the net content is only 034g, the converted unit price is even more outrageous than the well-known "eyebrow pencil assassin". After this "withdrawal from the network" trend, many loyal consumers expressed their happiness to see it and waited for a wave of wool. 
"Big data, please remember, Benefit Burnin cleared and pushed it to me. (Photo: Little Red Book).Of course, the new generation of girls also have a girlish heart, but the problem is that in front of Concubine Benefit, who has "cabbage-level texture and lady-level pricing", it is not easy to say "love". 
Concubine Benefit, who had no choice but to "withdraw from the network",Didn't you catch up with the good times? In recent years, Benefit has tried many times to "embrace the new generation", tried to cooperate with short ** talents, and also co-branded with Disney to launch the "Princess Gift Box", but in the end, it is difficult to change the fate of having no choice but to withdraw from the network. 
A co-branded gift box launched by Benefit and Disney. (Photo: Bei Lingfei's official Weibo).Many people call Benefit "early in the morning and late in the evening" in the Chinese market, which is a good example of a good hand played poorly. After all, Benefit, which has been stationed in China since 2007, has accumulated a good reputation after more than ten years of development, but missed the bonus period of the brand's online development at a critical time node. In 2011, Benefit entered Tmall for the first time, but quietly withdrew after only half a year. At the time, the reason given by the brand was "contract expiration", but more people thought it was exploring data. At that time, the way of online sales of luxury goods was not optimistic, and Benefit, as a more "people-friendly" brand of LVMH, used it to test the waters and explore the path of e-commerce, which was indeed the most appropriate. As for whether it will continue to cooperate with online e-commerce platforms, at that time, a person in charge of the Benefit brand said that "the data has been reported to the LVMH group, and it is still in the internal audit process, and it will take some time to draw conclusions".
LVMH's official website says that "a smile is the best cosmetic". (Photo LVMH).But only six years have passed since this "audit". It was 2017 for Benefit to enter Tmall again, and the time to try e-commerce live broadcast lagged behind in 2022. China News Weekly reported at the time that "in front of a pink set full of girlish hearts, the anchor tried a makeup spray ...... on the spot."In the comments of the quick swipe, occasionally some netizens asked: 'Is this an official store?' Obviously, in the six years of "appearing and ending", Benefit missed an important opportunity for online development. According to the data, from 2015 to 2022, the proportion of online channel sales of makeup products in China will increase from 1791% to 4536%, Benefit failed to complete the online layout before the wave, and now has to leave with regret.
After retreating to the line,Can "Benefit Everyone" continue to be "small and beautiful"? After returning to offline, Benefit still needs to face the double squeeze from online and offline. Some netizens said that when shopping, they found that "Benefit's position in Sephora is becoming more and more inconspicuous", and there are often incomplete color numbers. Although the current Benefit is only "withdrawing from the network" and has not really withdrawn from the Chinese market, many people are pessimistic when they think of the embarrassing position of Benefit in the entire LVMH group's beauty line, and perhaps one day, it will disappear from the sight of Chinese consumers.
Benefit products. (Photo LVMH).Not only Benefit, but in recent years, many overseas beauty products have entered the ebb period. In the face of poor sales of raw materials, many big-name makeup brands are trying to put down their bodies and save themselves by co-branding, "first rising and then falling", but they show signs of not adapting to the soil and water. In the last year alone, there have been Huda Beauty, El.F, Cezanne and many other overseas makeup brands announced their withdrawal.
According to incomplete statistics, in 2023, 10 international makeup brands announced their withdrawal from the Chinese market. (Photo: "Chinese Cosmetics").Taking LVMH Group, the parent company of Benefit, as an example, the financial report for the third quarter of 2023 shows that the group's operating income is 199600 million euros, up 9% year-on-year, which is lower than the 17% year-on-year growth in the previous two quarters and lower than the previous analyst's 11.1Expected growth rate of 2%. On the one hand, this shows that domestic consumers are disenchanting overseas brands, and the era of "Benefit" is like a fish in water has passed, and it is difficult for people to go crazy because of a certain ** promotion and endorsement of a celebrity, and they have also passed the period of philatelic purchase of beauty products, and the efficacy, formula ingredients and cost performance of the product are ......Anything that differentiates people will influence their decisions when it comes to buying beauty products.
There are more and more factors to consider before buying beauty products. (Photo LVMH).On the other hand, the ebb of overseas beauty brands does not mean that domestic beauty brands can "breathe a sigh of relief". Compared with overseas brands, although domestic brands are more familiar with consumers' consumption patterns and can respond to the call of the current market more quickly, they lack long-term momentum. After the tide recedes, a new round of "reshuffle" in the beauty industry will also begin. However, this may not be a bad thing for consumers.