China

In 2021, polishes recovered from its negative volume and current value performances in 2020, primarily due to consumers’ restored confidence in income stability and loosened home seclusion restrictions. While the impact of the pandemic still…

Habit persistence, coupled with population growth and the rejuvenated economy due to better control of the pandemic, underpinned the continued volume growth of liquid detergents in 2021, but growth slowed, mainly as a result of the competition from…

The pandemic boosted air care sales in 2020, as a result of increasing consumer awareness of hygienic and healthy indoor air quality due to more time spent at home. In 2021, the trend of solid growth continued, leading to mid single-digit current…

Due to pandemic restrictions and venue closures, deodorants recorded a current value decline in 2020, as a result of fewer outings and therefore less sweating, and less need for deodorants. In 2021, as businesses gradually returned to normal,…

Like other grocery retail channels, hypermarkets remained open during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The pandemic therefore had little impact on the channel, with sales remaining fairly stable throughout the review period, including in 2020 and 2021.…

Homeshopping saw a significant fall in its current value sales in 2020. All production lines had to shut down for almost two months, so homeshopping players could only sell existing inventory to consumers, with no novelties or additions. At the same…

In 2020, foodservice sales of tea saw a significant decline due to COVID-19. However, retail sales also declined. Instant tea saw the strongest fall in sales, which was mainly the result of stagnation in sales of gift-wrapped products during the…

The closure of workplaces and schools and the imposition of enforced home seclusion during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 resulted in an increase in at-home food consumption. This notably led to higher growth in retail, whilst negatively…

Down clothing brand Canada Goose launched fashion face masks in November 2021, which are available on the major e-commerce platform Tmall. The unit price of a single item exceeds CNY1,000 and they quickly sold out after launch. This face mask uses…

Premium skin care continued to outperform mass skin care in 2021, demonstrating that premiumisation is an ongoing trend in the Chinese market and consumers prefer to trade up in skin care to brands with a high-end positioning and products with better…

After seeing slower than average retail volume and current value growth in 2020, hair care showed a much stronger increase in 2021, with the normalisation of offline retailing as the pandemic was brought under control. Leading players in hair care in…

Although organic beverages performs well in overseas markets, this remained by far the smallest category within HW beverages in China in 2021, due to a lack of product availability and weak consumer awareness. The category returned to more dynamic…

Free from packaged food, which had been recording positive value growth throughout the earlier years of the review period, registered declining sales in 2020. Dairy products do not have such rigid demand as some of the other areas in free from, and…

Convenience stores continued to see solid although slower current value growth in 2021. The habit of buying groceries online stayed even after the pandemic was under control. However, convenience stores fared better from the shift online, as these…

In retail volume terms, hot drinks returned to low single-digit growth in 2021, after seeing a slow fall in sales in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In foodservice volume terms, however, a slight decline was seen, after already seeing a…

Online expansion and a digital strategy have gained unprecedented importance for apparel companies to maintain growth momentum in the market. A leading player in jeans in the Chinese market, Levi Strauss Asia Pacific, has been actively propelling…

Challenges in fiscal health and the judiciary have caused China to be ‘repressed’ for economic freedom. The state is gaining more power, whilst human rights are regularly infringed. Economic impetus is slowing and inflation is rising, but foreign…

Warehouse clubs in China mainly sell high-end imported daily necessities, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, to middle class consumers, which differs from the cheap bulk purchasing models in most developed countries. With the growing demand for…

Vending managed to maintain growth even during the pandemic in 2020, and this continued in 2021, partly due to the contactless nature and convenience of this channel. In addition, as the types of vending are gradually diversifying, the penetration of…

Although variety stores was negatively affected by the temporary closure of stores during the pandemic in 2020, it returned to strong growth in 2021. One reason for the strong rebound was increasing consumer price-consciousness in light of the…