Page 18 - EM - EXPORT MAGAZINE PERFUMERY EDITION

INTERVIEW

Mainland China visitors to Hong Kong and Macau has Their pursuit of a green lifestyle aligns with Sa Sa’s
shifted towards a younger audience. These visitors are ethos. As a supporter of green beauty initiatives, Sa
keen to explore new experiences during their travels as Sa has established a “Clean Beauty” section, enabling
opposed purely shopping-based travel. While the impact customers to confidently select personal care products
on consumerism is challenging, this trend also presents that are free from harmful ingredients and pollutants.
opportunities for Sa Sa’s exclusive brands, known for
their excellent value, particularly appealing to young em: You have a wide portfolio; with which countries
consumers eager to try emerging brands. In Southeast do you mainly do business?
Asia, our primary focus remains skincare, cosmetics, and SK: Traditionally, we have sourced skincare, cosmetic and
fragrances, with cosmetics and fragrances representing fragrance products from Europe (mainly Switzerland,
a significant portion of sales. We will continue to tailor France, Italy and the UK) and also North America. In
our product offerings to local consumer preferences recent years the amount we buy from Japan and South
by introducing products across various price points, Korea is growing.
aligning with Sa Sa’s diversified sales strategy.
em: How do you perceive the future of the cosmetic
em: Talking about market trends, can you give us a and perfumery market in Hong Kong, Mainland
perspective of the market today? China, and generally in the Far East region?
SK: Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy and SK: Post covid, we have seen a reversion of local
discerning in their shopping habits, prioritising products consumers back to offline shopping, where the touch
that offer high value for money and demonstrating a and feel experience plays an important role in our
willingness to try new offerings. In response to evolving product categories.
consumer demands, Sa Sa is committed to introducing Online plays an important role as consumers leverage
a variety of new product categories, including medical- that medium to gather beauty-related information
grade skincare, inner beauty products, and salon-quality anytime, anywhere. They also seek personalized beauty
home beauty equipment. There is also a growing concern advice and services from offline beauty consultants to
for environmental sustainability among consumers, make the most suitable product choices.
particularly within the younger demographic. As a result, beauty companies will accelerate the
application of digitalization to attract more customers
and support. We believe that digitalisation and Online-
merge-offline (OMO) will play an increasingly significant
role in the beauty market. Livestream represents an
interesting proposition, hugely popular in Mainland
China. It syncs well with our offline business model
as we leverage our beauty consultants to introduce
products via livestream thereby extending their reach
to the online space.
claudia Stagno
16