The Ordinary Launches in China

The Ordinary is heading to China.

The Estée Lauder Cos.-owned brand is the latest one to head to the world’s second-largest beauty market, and despite headwinds hampering most Western businesses there, Jesper Rasmussen, Deciem’s global brand president, is bullish.

“China is the second-largest beauty market in the world behind the U.S., and it took time to make sure we were big enough to get to that level, and we’re launching with a very strong assortment in China with some adaptation of the products and some new ones as well,” Rasmussen said.

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Among them are one of the brand’s heroes, a glycolic acid toner, reformulated to meet regulatory requirements.

The Ordinary debuted in Sephora in China earlier this week and will expand with Tmall and Douyin in July. The appetite there is strong, Rasmussen said, though consumer pullback and travel retail softness have hampered every key player, including Lauder.

“With new markets, we ask our community first of all, and then we get insights from our partners in the industry,” Rasmussen said. The brand’s niacinamide serum alone has 650 million views on Red, the social commerce app also known as RedNote. 

“China is a mature market in the way that we don’t see 30 percent growth rates there,” he said. “But the trend is that, even on [Singles’ Day], there is a conscious shopping behavior in China that makes consumers there even more value-driven.”

The expectation is that The Ordinary’s minimal price point and transparency around formulations will resonate with consumers tightening their wallets. “When we have done our consumer research in China, they’re quite interested and want to know more, like where we’re from and the fact that we do everything ourselves from product innovation to going to market,” he said.

The approach to the market differs from other players, even within its own parent company, as Deciem’s own boots on the ground are entirely focused on Deciem and not the rest of Lauder’s more broad brand portfolio in China. 

“We launched pretty small — you won’t see a billion dollars coming out tomorrow, that’s not how we do things,” he said. For example, there will be a bit of a push with creators, but not ones that tap into traditional key opinion leaders (KOLs).

“You won’t see the brand pursuing those high-traffic moments the same way you might see from other beauty brands,” Rasmussen said. “We have established partnerships in lower tiers in the pyramid of KOLs. To me, they seem to have a much stronger conversation.”

Communications will be similar to the educational messaging the brand has maintained globally, albeit in Mandarin, and a campaign coming up that Rasmussen declined to comment on.

The Ordinary is broadening its footprint outside of China, too. Just weeks ago, the brand became the latest Lauder brand to take to Amazon, following Clinique, Estée Lauder, Too Faced and others.