Beauty and wellness trends 2023:‘ Tech takes spa and beauty back home’

Zarina Kanji, Head of health and wellness, Tmall Global, Alibaba Group UK

Beauty is a well respected driver of the wellness industry in China, as beauty and wellness are deeply connected in this market. The notion of beauty from within is centuries old in China – Chinese Gen Z consumers act with a preventative versus reactive mindset, so they start engaging with beauty at a young age.

They were the first to innovate novel consumption habits for supplements to ensure that consumers could get the advanced ingredients required to tackle inner beauty concerns but in tasty and enjoyable ways, with products such as niacinamide breadsticks, collagen ice creams and melatonin gummies. This brings more joy into everyday wellness.

The opportunity for beauty in China is huge – the country’s beauty market is set to grow by 117% by 2025, while in comparison the mass market is expected to grow by only 24%.

Wellness tech at home Beauty is just one subset of the overall wellness industry, and technological innovation has played a huge part in making both beauty and wellness even more accessible. For example, the connection between a spa treatment

and at-home wellness is a very exciting space in China because of the Chinese consumers’ open-minded attitude to tech, as well as product development itself.

According to the research firm Qianzhan, China’s at-home beauty device market reached $1.38 billion (9.6 billion RMB/£1.13 billion) in 2021 and it is still considered relatively nascent despite comprising 60-70% of the global market share.

Being willing and able to invest in at-home devices, the take-up of at-home tech was accelerated by having to stay at home during the pandemic. A product such as an LED mask that can treat a range of problems from anti-ageing to acne, muscle and joint aches, not only works its magic but at the same time forces the user to take time out of their day to be still, listen to a podcast or meditate. It combines all elements of beauty, health and mental wellbeing for a holistic wellness experience in your home, and this type of product has created a new category within beauty – it is evolving the business of wellness to be more accessible to more people.

The beauty of slowing down

Personal care and beauty are readily accessible in terms of price point, variety of products and availability of access. It is the starting point for Gen Z and continues throughout generations and it has been education, coupled with the increased focus on health and wellness accelerated by the pandemic over the past 3-5 years,

that has opened up the minds of Chinese consumers to invest in the broader economy – health, tech, fitness, travel, and a slowing down of pace for activities such as yoga or embracing zen culture in tea houses.

The notion of affordable luxury plays a large part here and is very relevant in today’s economic climate. Investing in a wellness retreat costs more than treating oneself to a bottle of luxury shampoo or skincare product: ‘at-home’ is accessible and can still provide that coveted feeling of taking care of oneself.

Zarina Kanji

HEAD OF HEALTH AND WELLNESS, TMALL GLOBAL, ALIBABA GROUP UK

Zarina Kanji leads Tmall global business development for health and wellness, food and beverage, and beauty-tech brands at Alibaba UK and Nordics. Zarina is responsible for helping brands to enter the Chinese market and build their international business by connecting them to the over 1.31 billion global annual active consumers across the Alibaba ecosystem. She is based in London. www.alibabagroup.com