The Zhitong Finance App learned that Hualong Securities released a research report stating that it maintains the industry's “recommended” rating. With the migration of consumer decisions, content empowerment, channel changes, and improved platform infrastructure, beauty e-commerce's transformation potential and long-term growth value are highlighted. At the basic level, strong beauty experience attributes amplify the value of content platforms; planting education and user evaluation reduce consumer trial and error costs, and establish a basic platform for incubating new brand products; at the technical level, content notes and expert evaluations reshape the pre-purchase decision link. Content cultivation shifts from simple exposure to closed loop of in-site transactions, and content influence can directly redeem transaction growth; at the channel level, community+short video content platforms continue to seize pre-purchase information entry.
The main views of Hualong Securities are as follows:
Changes in consumer decisions and the rise of content platforms, beauty e-commerce has entered a new stage driven by content
Beauty products have the characteristics of strong experience and high trial and error costs. Consumers need to understand the efficacy of ingredients, skin compatibility and actual usage feedback before purchasing. The shopping information acquisition channel continues to migrate to short videos and community sharing platforms; the content platform gradually extends from the planting portal to the transaction side, opening up a complete link from product perception to order conversion, and driving beauty consumption from a single search model to a new model of parallel search+content decision-making.
The value of segmented media showed clear differentiation
Traditional shelf e-commerce undertakes stock purchase demand, focusing on product price comparison and transaction fulfillment; Xiaohongshu builds an integrated closed loop of “content-search-transaction”, relying on note planting, search acceptance, and live streaming conversion to complete the accumulation of user demand, and the influence of content is effectively realized as an increase in in-site transactions. The short video platform simultaneously undertakes product education, evaluation and verification functions, and the two jointly seize the entrance for beauty pre-purchase decisions.
Consumption channels and transformation links ushered in double transformation
The content platform has gradually become the core channel for beauty users to obtain product information, and the focus of user planting decisions has changed from product details to real experience evaluation; relying on the iteration of links of content farming, search acceptance, and live streaming transactions, content is no longer limited to off-site brand exposure, but has settled into the core gripper for in-site transactions and long-term brand user management, promoting the upgrading of beauty e-commerce from the shelf trading era to the global e-commerce era driven by content decisions.
It is recommended to focus on three types of companies: related companies that have built a complete closed loop of content transactions and continue to improve e-commerce infrastructure; beauty brands that are good at cultivating content and educating new products, and are deeply involved in content marketing; MCN and service providers that lay out storefront and note marketing, and open up content cultivation to website transformation.
Risk warning: macroeconomic and consumer demand falls short of expectations; industry competition intensifies; new product development and market performance falls short of expectations; rising customer acquisition costs; content marketing and policy regulation risks; channel transformation and new business development falling short of expectations; risk of fluctuations in the Hong Kong stock market.