Have domestic beauty brands become “general stores”?

Headline finding: strategic expansion, not chaos

It has been reported that an industry insider recently observed China’s leading domestic beauty brands increasingly resemble “general stores” — selling skincare, color cosmetics, men’s products, hair care and even small niche items like foot and neck masks. That image is blunt but useful: since last year, top domestic beauty players have rushed to cover adjacent categories as core skincare growth slows. China’s cosmetics market still expanded to about RMB 1.104 trillion in 2025, with domestic brands’ share rising to 57.37%, but the growth mix is shifting fast.

Data and company moves

Platform and industry figures show why brands are pivoting. In early 2026 mainstream e‑commerce growth for beauty skincare/body oils was under 1% year‑on‑year, while color cosmetics, fragrance/tools and hair care jumped near 20%. Proya (珀莱雅) reported RMB 7.098 billion in revenue in the first three quarters of 2025 with skin‑care income shrinking while color and hair categories grew strongly. Shangmei (上美股份) posted RMB 9.178 billion for 2025, driven by Kans (韩束) on short‑video platforms; Kans’s skin share on Douyin has fallen from 99% of its sales mix in 2023 to about 85% this year as personal care and makeup rise. It has been reported that these “growth relay” signals — when multiple market leaders shift new-category weight at once — are a clarion call across the sector.

Why this is happening (and how it differs from foreign groups)

The push is not random. Headline brands face a stage‑ceiling effect: one blockbuster product can scale only so far. The group strategy is two‑pronged — quick gains by stretching a strong master brand into adjacent categories, and longer‑term bets by incubating sub‑brands. Proya, Shangmei and Chando (自然堂) are building multi‑brand matrices while smaller newcomers double down on single‑category depth. Why don’t China’s players simply buy or fast‑launch dozens of niche brands like L’Oréal or Estée Lauder? Because foreign multinationals are global brand managers with diversified international revenue. Most Chinese groups remain heavily domestic‑market dependent, and it has been reported that overseas sales still make up a small slice of revenue — so the fastest, lowest‑risk lever is to use an already‑trusted brand to sell more SKUs at home. Geopolitical headwinds and trade‑policy uncertainty make synchronous global expansion harder, reinforcing the domestic focus.

Two likely futures

Expect a market bifurcation. One path leads to “ecosystem brands” — large master brands that carefully manage multi‑category portfolios to smooth growth volatility. The other path produces “category specialists” that defend deep technical or supply‑chain moats and own a narrow consumer mindshare. Middle players without either capability are being squeezed out: industry data showed 27,000 brands culled in 2025, nearly 41% of active brands. So is it a messy drift into being a “general store”? Not quite. What looks like scattershot assortment may be the first steep climb of a deliberate strategy to turn single‑hit makers into multi‑category platforms before they can realistically globalize. Who wins — the sprawling ecosystem or the focused specialist — will shape China’s beauty landscape next.