Jessica Alba’s The Honest Co. Launches in China
Jessica Alba’s The Honest Co. has entered China.
The company has teamed up with global growth partner SuperOrdinary to launch on Tmall, China’s leading e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba.
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“Beauty enthusiasts in China are seeking out effective, clean beauty formulations and are eager to integrate them into their daily routines, so it’s a natural home for Honest Beauty,” said Nick Vlahos, chief executive officer of Honest. “We believe that this new partnership will set the foundation for our future global expansion.”
The move comes fresh off the heels of the company’s July launch on Walmart’s website, which will be followed by an in-store rollout this fall.
Also in July, the company’s Honest Beauty landed in Ulta Beauty stores nationwide as part of the company’s continued effort to increase its U.S. distribution.
The brand’s Tmall storefront hosts 44 stock keeping units, including the hyaluronic acid-infused Hydrogel Cream, a tinted eye cream and a hybrid, two-sided mascara and eyelash primer.
“Clean beauty is certainly coming into its own in China — I think two years ago, that was probably a little premature,” said Julian Reis, CEO and cofounder of SuperOrdinary. “Honest has always been a mission-driven, digitally native brand. Its focus on clean products and the clean lifestyle movement is something that I think the market is looking for, especially in China.”
As the Chinese beauty market continues to grow, brands have increasingly sought to tap in, often looking to seasoned partners like SuperOrdinary to aid them in navigating the highly regulated Chinese market, which includes ingredient restrictions not present in the U.S.
“What we do as a company is a deep dive into positioning the brand in the local market so that it has the highest chance of success,” Reis said. “We think through everything — whether it’s the local hashtags in Mandarin to the ad campaigns that we will run to the content creators we’ll partner with.”
Among the other brands SuperOrdinary has helped to enter the Chinese market are The Ordinary, Drunk Elephant and Farmacy.
Honest went public in May 2021, and WWD reported at the time that international sales represented just two percent of the company’s $300.5 million in revenue. Ripe for expansion, the company began talks with SuperOrdinary the same year.
“We will continue to keep a close eye on the wants and needs of the Chinese consumer and will look for opportunities to continue to share new Honest products with our Honest family in this market,” Vlahos said.
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