Winona Secures Top 6 Spot in Tmall’s Beauty and Skincare Brands During Double 11, Creating a Miracle with Its Market Strength

The conclusion of this year's Double 11 shopping festival, a vital event in e-commerce, saw Tmall's Double 11 event transaction volume reach RMB 540.3 billion. Among the intensely competitive cosmetics sector, Winona, a cosmeceutical brand specializing in sensitive skincare solutions, soared to a new record high, securing a position as the top 6 beauty and skincare brand on Tmall. Notably, from 2018 to 2021, Winona stood as the only Chinese brand consecutively ranked in the top 10 for four years, enhancing its status as the most reliable bastion of Chinese cosmetics through expertise and technology.

Moreover, Winona's performance across various channels remained dominant. It secured the second spot in the cosmetics category of JD's official stores, sixth in the cosmetics category of Vipshop, first in the cosmetics live streaming of Douyin, and sixth In the cosmetics brands on Kuaishou. The comprehensive data growth not only showcased the multi-platform operational capability of the Winona team but also served as concrete evidence of the brand's healthy and sustainable growth.

Another great achievement was from Winona Baby. As a cosmeceutical skincare brand of Botanee Group (Botanee for short) specializing in skincare practices of infants and children, Winona Baby secured a top 10 spot in the infant and child skincare category on Tmall with its debut at the Double 11 shopping festival.

(The aforementioned figures were collected as of 24:00 on November 11, 2021)

Established in 2010, Winona has devoted over a decade to research centered on sensitive skin, offering products that have gained market acclaim and consumer trust. As a prominent brand, Winona has consistently demonstrated robust growth potential in brand influence, product excellence, and marketing strength. In this year's Double 11 event, Winona set a benchmark for all brands looking to stand out in e-commerce promotions by leveraging its exceptional product quality and pioneering marketing approach marked by innovation and breakthroughs.

Focusing on the cosmeceutical skincare sector, Winona pays great attention to botanical technology and medical expertise

The combination of medical expertise and scientific research has been a typical form of cosmeceutical research and development (R&D). Winona has undoubtedly established the strongest moat in this domain. The corporate-led publication Essence of Clinical Application of Winona Cosmeceutical Products contains 128 academic articles from domestic and international leading core journals. These articles center around basic research and clinical verification of Winona products. In April of this year, Winona organized the Second China Sensitive Skin Summit Forum in collaboration with five major industry associations. This event aimed to consistently deliver new standards, guidelines, and trends for research in sensitive skincare solutions.

Winona understands that the mission of solving common skin problems of Chinese people goes beyond a slogan. From its inception, the brand has focused on the cosmeceutical market with distinctive insights and sharp foresight. Collaborating with dermatologists domestically and internationally, Winona has conducted extensive foundational research and tests into the causes and mechanisms of sensitive skin in Chinese people. The brand has centered its R&D efforts on activities such as identifying active plant ingredients in Yunnan, refining the processes for active ingredient extraction, and enhancing the research on ingredient efficiency. Through these endeavors, Winona has established a brand ecosystem that highlights its products, supported by botanical technology and medical expertise.

Winona's flagship products are experiencing a surge in popularity, with product quality supporting marketing success

Leveraging the robust research capabilities of its parent company, Botanee Group, Winona witnessed an impressive sales rise for several of its flagship products during the Double 11 event and achieved good outcomes. Winona's Sensitiveness Relieving Moisturizing Tolerance-Extreme Cream sold over 4 million bottles and Soothing Repairing Freeze-Dried Mask exceeded sales of over 2 million boxes online. Both Sunblock Milk and Anti-Sensitive Essence saw their sales surpass RMB 100 million respectively.

To follow the concept of "Targeting Sensitive Skin Issues, Allowing Skin to Embrace Excellence", this year's Double 11 event's theme, Winona introduced an exclusive, limited edition of Sensitiveness Relieving Moisturizing Tolerance-Extreme Cream. The product's outer packaging design adopts a visualization concept to enhance consumer recognition of the brand's expertise in addressing the root of skin sensitivity and providing specialized care for sensitive skin. This concept also aims to empower consumers with the confidence to confront their skin sensitivity and embrace healthy and excellent skin.

As the flagship product of Winona, the Sensitiveness Relieving Moisturizing Tolerance-Extreme Cream stands as a representative of the brand. As a product featuring a high average transaction value (ATV), high repeat purchase rate, and high consumer recognition, the cream's strong effectiveness has been validated by numerous hospitals at home and abroad. Moreover, the anti-sensitive repair capacity of the cream has been authoritatively certified through 21 academic papers published in core journals domestically and internationally.

This year, Winona's Soothing Repairing Freeze-Dried Mask emerged as a rising star in the mask category through the live stream promotion by the influential Chinese live streamer Li Jiaqi. This product was sold out immediately after being released. This reflected the high consumer recognition and preference for the new flagship product of Winona. The freeze-dried mask uses patented 3D fabric and advanced freeze-drying technology, implementing -40°C vacuum freeze-drying processes to lock active ingredients. Moreover, the mask adopts hospital-level, homologous repairing collagen to ensure ingredient effectiveness while simplifying the overall composition of the product. Besides, the mask is complemented by specialized BSF purified water, which immediately activates the mask's repairing energy upon contact with water. Given the success of this product, it is conceivable that Winona would lead the freeze-dried masks to the cosmeceutical era.

New marketing paradigm: quality-based recommendation+innovative marketing efforts+comprehensive interaction

Leveraging the great potential of its high-quality products, the Winona team executed detailed planning for the warm-up phases of this year's Double 11 event. The team created a novel marketing paradigm that integrates quality-based recommendations with innovative marketing efforts and comprehensive interaction. As a pioneer brand that conducts a professional KOL (Key Opinion Leader) recommendation strategy, Winona has focused on its operation across multiple social platforms, including Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili. The brand boasts a unique marketing strategy characterized by the steps of selecting a specific domain, fitting into the domain, and reshaping the domain. Moreover, the excellent product quality and scenario-based recommendations also contributed to this year's impressive triumph.

In the preliminary phase leading up to the pre-sale event for the Double 11 shopping festival, Winona actively participated in the live-streamed variety show Amazing Offers organized by the team of the renowned live streamer Li Jiaqi specifically for the Double 11 event. The Botanee Group, Winona's parent company, engaged in a face-to-face interview with Li, providing consumers with a more profound understanding of Winona through the show. This interaction also allowed Winona to better meet consumer needs and demonstrated the brand's commitment to customer satisfaction.

The heartfelt and honest exchange during the show helped convey Winona's brand values to consumers and foster their greater interest in Winona's products.

In mid-October, Winona officially announced its partnerships with three prominent figures as brand partners: Bai Jugang, Li Xiang, and Qi Sijun. With different career focuses, they are distinguished in their respective domains, mirroring Winona's dedication to addressing sensitive skin issues for over a decade. Their concentration on excellence is in harmony with the brand values that Winona has consistently upheld since its establishment. The Weibo hot topic "Release Mysterious Members of Brand Partners" gained significant attention, winning over 60 million views on the day of the announcement. This social media engagement significantly boosted visibility and attracted consumers' attention to Winona before the Double 11 event.

Before the pre-sale session kicked off, live streaming, the main battlefield of this year's Double 11 event, had witnessed fierce competition. In this competitive environment, Winona innovated within the conventional live-streaming landscape by developing a novel approach. During the pre-sale session, Winona conducted a special 11-day live variety show named Classroom of Sensitive Skin Research Institute. The live show featured a range of celebrities and experts who introduced proper skincare methods for sensitive skin through engaging lessons centering around skin knowledge. The show provided consumers with a fresh and enjoyable perspective on skincare and reflected Winona's commitment to being with consumers every step of the way.

To cover a diverse range of consumers, Winona also invited many new-generation idols as brand spokespersons to conduct cooperative activities and sales promotions during the live streaming. The new-generation singer Sunnee (Yang Yunqing), the "Power of Winona" brand partner, served as a representative to introduce good Winona products preferred by female celebrities and skincare practices that can help relieve sensitivity and hydrate skin for healthy skin condition in autumn. The three brand partners Bai Jugang, Li Xiang, and Qi Sijun demonstrated skincare routines for sensitive skin and released sales promotions on-site. Moreover, Winona extended its reach in other domains by cooperating with famous stand-up comedians such as Doudou, Yan Yi and Yan Yue, and Xiaobei. The brand transformed the conventional product introduction into attractive stand-up comedies, bringing laughter while promoting products. During the pre-sale session of the Double 11 event, Winona successfully conducted marketing activities through social media. The brand comprehensively promoted products by cooperating with top live streamers, dermatologists, and new-generation idols.

On the eve of the Double 11 event, Winona's brand spokesperson Shu Qi participated in Li Jiaqi's live streaming. Shu Qi presented the publication highlighting Winona's medical research capabilities—Essence of Clinical Application of Winona Cosmeceutical Products—to Li Jiaqi on behalf of Winona. During the live streaming, Shu Qi recommended various Winona products. Through a series of interactive games, they captivated a staggering 15 million viewers. This strategic move played a vital role in driving Winona's brand visibility and sales.

Based on a comprehensive marketing strategy, Winona cooperated with a wide range of social media platforms to expand its reach by placing advertisements on major apps such as Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu. Leveraging the influence of brand partners such as Bai Jugang, Li Xiang, and Qi Sijun, Winona captured great attention of the public on platforms like Douyin. Prominent beauty influencers, ingredient-focused KOLs and users, and dermatologists also generated buzz and encouraged widespread conversation online. In the platofrm of Xiaohongshu, over 100 top KOLs and more than 1,000 Key Opinion Customers (KOCs) recommended Winona's products. These efforts led to over 550 million views. Furthermore, Winona extended its marketing reach offline by disseminating promotional content across building and cinema screens in 24 cities, achieving an extraordinary reach of over 1.9 billion viewers. These strategic moves across various media channels ensured that the message of Winona's commitment to coping with sensitive skin can resonate with consumers.

Winona not only upheld its championship status during the Double 11 event this time but also made its presence across other market segments. Looking forward, Winona will strengthen its research in the cosmeceutical sector. As a leading Chinese cosmeceutical brand, Winona is ready to fulfill its mission by actively enhancing regulations and standards for cosmeceutical industry in China and supporting the sustainable development of this sector. Following the mission of creating China's skin health ecosystem, Winona strives to advance cosmeceutical skincare sector into a new era.