With the advent of digital transformation and globalization, companies have many opportunities to engage with customers from all corners of the globe. However, in order to succeed in the global marketplace, it is essential to speak your customers’ languages. This is why we need localization. And when localization is combined with an agile methodology, it can be beneficial for businesses looking to unlock new horizons.

What Is Localization and Why Do Businesses Need It?

Localization is the process of adapting a product, service, or content to suit the local language, local preferences, and cultural nuances of a specific target market. While textual translation is a significant aspect of localization, it goes beyond word-for-word conversion. That is to say, localization involves comprehensive changes and adjustments that are specific to the local audience, cultural norms, calendars, currencies, images, etc.

By localizing products and content, businesses will be able to build trust and rapport in local markets and create a seamless user experience for their customers globally. This process can be complex and expensive for many small companies. However, adopting an agile approach to localization can be a game-changer.

The Agile Methodology in Localization

Agile methodologies are popular in the software development industry. It emphasizes iterative and incremental progress in small sprints. The core principles of agile include flexibility, adaptability, and a focus on customer collaboration. These principles can be adapted to the localization process to maximize efficiency and minimize time and cost.

1. Continuous Iteration

Instead of waiting until a product or content is fully developed to start the localization process, an agile approach promotes incremental localization by breaking projects into smaller batches. In this way, businesses can initiate localization efforts early and release localized versions with the development team. Not only can this shorten a product’s time-to-market, but also enables ongoing improvements based on feedback from localized markets.

2. Collaboration and Communication

The heart of agile methodologies is frequent communication and collaboration amongst agile teams. In the localization project management office, this means involving translators, localization specialists, localization engineers, and subject matter experts from the target markets in the development process. Through regular, open discussions and feedback, businesses can gain valuable insight into the local preferences and cultural expectations of their audience.

3. Data-Driven Decision Making

Agile localization applies data to make decisions. By analyzing performance metrics and customer feedback from localized products, businesses can gain valuable insights to continuously optimize their approach. Data-driven decisions ensure that localization efforts are accurate and aligned with customer expectations.

4. Automation and Technology

Incorporating automation tools and technology is also an important aspect of agile localization. Utilizing translation memory systems, content management platforms, and other localization technologies can streamline the process, increase consistency, and reduce human errors. Agile teams can leverage these tools to automate repetitive tasks, allowing the focus to remain on creative and value-added activities.

5. Face Changes

Agile techniques embrace change and encourage adaptability since they are normal parts of the process. This also works in localization, where consumer expectations, cultural trends, and market demands are always changing. For long-term success, it is crucial to adjust localized materials and products based on client feedback and market dynamics.

Conclusion

Localization is no longer an add-on for businesses expanding to global markets; it is a must for a company’s global success. Adopting an agile approach to localization empowers businesses to be more responsive, customer-focused, and adaptable in the ever-changing global landscape. By fostering collaboration, embracing change, and leveraging technology, businesses can effectively navigate language and cultural barriers

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If your company wants to expand its market in China, your official website should be an important part of the marketing plan because the company website is the key for future customers to learn about your brand.

China accounts for about one-fifth of the global GDP and has a different digital ecosystem than many other countries. Therefore, for companies that would like to enter the Chinese market, it is necessary to create a Simplified Chinese website with localized content targeting the Chinese audience.

Preparing for Website Localization into Simplified Chinese: The earlier, the better.

Many companies do not start thinking about localizing their websites or products until the end of the development phase or until everything is finished. However, based on our localization experience, the later localization is considered, the more issues can happen. To avoid issues and delays, localization should start at the design stage so that the source content creators, such as the technical writers have an idea about how to make the content localizable and localization-friendly. Besides, the quality of source content influences the quality of the target content. So, it’s important to prepare for website localization from inception.

Tips for Designing and Developing Your Website for the Chinese

Designing and developing a website for a Chinese audience requires careful consideration of cultural nuances and technical requirements specific to the Chinese market. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Use a Chinese domain name: In China, websites with a .cn domain name are preferred over other domains. It’s also important to register your domain name with a Chinese domain registrar to ensure your website is accessible in China.
2. Keep it simple: Chinese consumers prefer websites that are clean, simple, and easy to navigate. Avoid cluttered designs and flashy animations.
3. Use a mobile-first approach: Over 98% of China’s internet users access the web from their mobile devices, so it’s important to design your website with mobile users in mind. Make sure your website is responsive and loads quickly on mobile devices.
4. Pay attention to color and imagery: Certain colors and imagery have different meanings in China than they do in Western cultures. For example, red is a lucky color in China, while white is associated with mourning.
5. Optimize for search engines: Baidu is the most popular search engine in China, so make sure your website is optimized for Baidu. This should include using Chinese keywords and optimizing your website’s structure and content for Baidu’s search algorithms.
6. Be mindful of censorship: China has strict censorship laws, and certain topics and keywords may be blocked. Make sure your website doesn’t contain any content that could be seen as sensitive or controversial in China.

Want More traffic? How Digital Marketing Helps Promote Your Brand in China

Digital marketing is a powerful method for promoting your brand in China. Here are some ways digital marketing can help you reach and engage Chinese consumers and gain more traffic.

Social media platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, and Douyin (also known as TikTok) are extremely popular in China. By creating a presence on these platforms and engaging with Chinese consumers, you can increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. Besides, influencers have a significant impact on Chinese consumers’ purchasing decisions. By partnering with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) or Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs) in your industry, you can leverage their social media presence to promote your brand to their followers.

Baidu is the most popular search engine in China. By optimizing your website for Baidu’s search algorithms and using Baidu’s paid search ads, you can increase your website’s visibility and drive more traffic to your website. Creating high-quality, engaging content in Chinese can also help build your brand’s reputation and drive traffic to your website. This includes blog posts, short videos, vlogs, and infographics that resonate with Chinese consumers.

China also has an enormous e-commerce market. Platforms such as Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com offer a lot of opportunities for brands to reach consumers. To boost sales and enhance brand visibility, it is essential to establish a presence on these platforms and optimize product listings. Since almost all internet users in China can access the internet through mobile devices, mobile marketing, such as mobile app marketing, SMS marketing, and mobile display ads, is crucial to succeeding in the market.

Conclusion

Localizing your website to Simplified Chinese can provide numerous benefits for your business. It can help you reach a wider audience of potential customers in China and increase your brand’s visibility and credibility in the Chinese market. However, it’s important to approach the localization process carefully and thoughtfully. This includes working with professional translators and native speakers of Simplified Chinese to ensure that the translation is accurate and appropriate for the target audience. It also involves considering cultural differences and ensuring that the website is localized in a way that resonates with the target audience.

References:

• Digital Marketing In China in 2020: Best Ways to Enter the Chinese Market
• Localising your Website for China | by Loc N Apps | Medium

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To evaluate the quality and productivity of translation and localization companies need an objective approach to keep up with the industry standards and metrics. A standard is a required or agreed level of quality while a metric is a system of measurement that shows that a service or a product complies with an agreed level of quality. In this blog, I’m going to share with you the standards and metrics used in Translation Quality Management.

Translation and Localization Quality Standard

ISO 17100

ISO 17100:2015 details the requirements for the fundamental processes, resources, and other criteria necessary for the delivery of a quality translation service that meets established standards. Application of ISO 17100:2015 provides the means that a translation service provider (TSP) can demonstrate the conformity of translation services to ISO 17100:2015. A company that is ISO certified has adopted the universal best practices established and has been reviewed and certified that it follows these standards. This certification should provide a buyer of translation services the assurance that the TSP is committed to delivering a translation service that will meet the client’s specifications.

ISO 9001:2015

ISO 9001 defines the objectives of the Quality Management System (QMS) and its policies, and requirements related to documentation control, purchasing, working with subcontractors, human resources, internal quality audits, handling non-conformities, and other internal operations. By selecting an ISO 9001-certified company, you can be assured that the company is dedicated to its quality system and is serious about quality.

ISO 18587:2017

This is a relatively new, translation-industry-specific standard that deals with Post-Editing Machine Translation (PEMT). The standard provides requirements for the process of full, human post-editing of machine translation output and post-editor competencies, and it makes PEMT more acceptable and mainstream.

ISO 13485:2016

ISO 13485:2016 is a standard that’s specific to the medical industry, including medical devices and related services.  It specifies requirements for a quality management process that asks a medical company to provide medical devices and services that consistently meet applicable regulatory requirements.

Linguistic Quality Assurance (LQA)

Linguistic Quality Assurance (LQA) is indispensable for collecting objective feedback and examining translation quality, at any given point in time.

Traditional LQA metrics, such as the LISA QA model and SAE J2450 mainly focused on technical accuracies such as terminology, mistranslations, omissions, and additions. TAUS’ DQF-MQM Error Typology still applies the best parts of the existing metrics and expands its categories and adds metrics, including fluency, style, and severity.

The LISA QA Model

The LISA QA Model, was created by the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA), has been used as a metric to assess translation quality and count errors to determine whether the target content meets the requirements. The Lisa QA Model v3.1, introduced in the 1990s, which was an error rating model. LISA QA rates an error according to its severity and the corresponding weight, including minor, major, and critical with points of 1, 5, and 10 respectively for each error type. The model records both linguistic and technical errors. Utilizing the LISA QA Model assists to ensure the consistency of terminology and content.

MQM (Multidimensional Quality Metrics)

MQM is a flexible system providing translation assessment metrics compared to the models above. It can be used to evaluate the source content which also affects the quality of the final translation based on quality enablement. Besides, the MQM QA model can evaluate not only human translation but also machine translation.

MQM includes over 100 issue types. For the top level, there are eight major categories/branches: Accuracy, Fluency, Terminology, Locale convention, Style, Verity, Design, and Internationalization.  It’s also extensible and allows companies to customize their preferred categories based on the content types and subject matters.

The MQM-DQF Harmonized Metric

SAE J2450 is a statistical tool that automakers use to grade document translation quality according to seven error types, including the wrong term, syntactic error, omission, word structure or agreement error, misspelling, punctuation error, and miscellaneous error. The purpose of SAE J2450 was to create a consistent standard to evaluate the quality of automotive service information translations. This metric can be applied to either human translation or machine translation.

Conclusion

Currently, most of the CAT tools and TMS tend to integrate with a QA model or QA functions which helps language service providers deliver projects at a full scale with compliance to ISO 17100:2015. For example, when the reviewers find issues or errors, they will be asked to select the issue category and severity level with their comments. The final report will be generated based on the issue type and severity which allows the LPMs to check the translation quality and seek improvement plans. Therefore, translation and localization professionals should understand the LQA standards, LQA metrics, and how they are applied and work to ensure the best translation and localization practices.

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To achieve the success of your localization program, what factors do you think will be most important? I raised the question to many of my localization friends at an industry party. Some said it’s vital to implement a comprehensive and advanced TMS (Translation Management System) and CMS (Content Management System); some said the localization team must have the acumen of the latest localization technology such as neural machine translation, and an agile way to run a localization team that smoothly connects the internationalization and globalization.

There is no unifying answer to that question; but with all the insights, everyone agreed that having a well-organized vendor management system is significant to the success of the localization program. In this blog, I will share with you the vendor management lifecycle that can help your localization team to outsource vendors, from identifying the business (localization) needs to vendor relationship building.

Localization Needs Identification

Before starting a Vendor Management system, it is important to determine what industries you are targeting with your sales and marketing, and the languages that are in demand for those industries.

Identifying your localization needs consists of noting your localization problems, goals, scenarios, and the related improvement plans to resolve them. Here are some tips for you to identify your localization needs:

1. Define your localization goals

Assessing business goals and objectives will make it easier to understand the full picture of potential inefficiencies in the localization process and having a clear business objective will help identify business requirements and plan a strategy to move forward.

2. Analyze market data and localization workflows

After setting up goals, think about the strategies needed to achieve them. Collect and analyze localization data and then strategize to find solutions and make evidence-based decisions by tracking important information.

3. Communicate with your localization team and write an SOW (statement of work)

Once data is viewed and analyzed, you will communicate your findings with team members and write down your proposal or statement of work. Please make sure that stakeholders are on the same page and have access to the data.

Vendor Selection, Testing, and Maintenance

After having a clear localization strategy, the next step is to find and select the best resources that suit your accounts, programs, and products. You will need to identify and screen the vendors’ resumes/profiles and update their profiles regularly.

1. Know the kind of vendors you need: a freelancer or a language service provider or do you want a combination of both?

2. Define the duration of the collaboration: short-term or long-term?

3. Categorize the resources you have in your vendor pool: here are some examples to look for.

– Language pairs

– Qualifications: certificates and degrees

– Skills and expertise: CAT tools, SEM, SEA, SEO Keyword Research, transcreation, copywriting, legal certification, etc.

– Years of experience: I recommend at least 5 years of experience in translation/localization

– Verification of vendors’ resumes

– ISO 17100 certified

– Professional bodies (associations, registers, etc.)

– Vendor’s websites

– Testimonials or references

4. Sample Test

A sample test might help you evaluate the vendor’s basic skills and capability. Ensure that you have a standard test sample that you can send to candidates and it’s also important to update the test regularly. A point to consider, if you are targeting a specialized market (such as technical or medical), it is a good idea to have a test custom to that market. To evaluate the translation quality, you must have standard LQA metrics.

5. Update your Vendor Information Regularly

Your vendor database needs regular maintenance just like any other database. Remember to send an email or a message to your vendors at least once a year to verify that their data is up to date. Sometimes the vendor may add new language pairs, services, subject matters, qualifications, and new tools.

Vendor Onboarding

Now that you’ve chosen the localization vendors needed for your program, the next step is to get them onboard. There are a lot of things to consider before a new vendor starts to handle your first project. You may want to start with a kick-off call if your vendor is a Language Service Provider (LSP) but it’s unrealistic to have calls with every vendor if you have a multilingual freelancing team.

Working with New Vendors

So, it’s important to send a kick-off note to your new vendor teams with the project types and requirements, including style guides and other client preferences. Other factors may include the language pairs, tone of voice, word count/volume, priorities, schedules and deadline, and other referential materials needed, such as query form and glossary. Besides, you may also consider if the vendors are familiar with the tools and technologies you plan to apply to your projects. If not, technical training sessions will be required. Other factors that you may consider during vendor onboarding include identifying the risks, thinking about the backup plans and coverage for holidays and time-offs, volume forecasting, and linguistic quality controls.

Vendor Performance Management

Many companies use KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to track their suppliers’ performance. KPIs are the critical indicators of progress toward an intended result, and they provide a focus for strategic and operational improvement, create an analytical basis for decision making and help focus attention on what matters most (KPI.org). Here are some metrics that you can start with:

– Percentage of on-time deliveries

– Number of linguistic or technical quality errors

– Average throughput rate

– Pass/fail rate for sample projects

– Technical ability (ability to handle technical issues and learn new tools)

– Finance: invoice correctness and timeliness of invoicing.

You may want to collect your vendor localization performance data. With more and more valid data being recorded, you can develop and establish your quality management system.

Vendor Relationship Management

“Vendor relationship management is a process that enables your company to control costs, mitigate risks, and improve service.” To build a good short-term or long-term relationship with your vendors, here are the things you can do:

– Establish a vendor management system

– Be transparent in communication

– Learn about your vendors business and operations

– Set up and record KPIs, goals, and objectives in actual projects

– Build a partnership and create a win-win situation

Conclusion

Vendor management in the localization industry is the process of identifying your business objectives, selecting, testing, and onboarding your vendors, as well as managing your vendor performance and relationship. Data can be applied in vetting vendors and analyzing vendor KPIs. Vendor managers or project/program managers should not only be aware of the whole vendor management cycle but also note that we should treat vendors as human beings instead data or numbers in the metrics.

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The cosmetics industry in China is showing promise as a growing market. With increasing consumer income and the rise of related industries, Chinese cosmetic brands are expanding their presence in the international market. This blog will share with you how fast the Chinese cosmetic industry is growing, how Chinese cosmetics grow via digital transformation, and how to manage the translation of Chinese cosmetic materials into English.

About the Chinese Cosmetics Market

Based on the research by Euromonitor, China’s cosmetics market accounts for 12.7% of the global cosmetics market, becoming the second-largest market after the US. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, since 2013, the pace of yearly growth for the Chinese cosmetics industry has remained at 10% and the total retail sales has reached 299.2 billion RMB in total. In the Chinese cosmetics market, skincare products are the main consumer products and consistently account for over 50% of the Chinese cosmetics market.

Chinese Cosmetics in Digital Transformation

As the Millennials and Gen Z (Chinese call them “post-90s”) who grew up in the environment of online shopping and social media have become the main consumers, the digital transformation of the Chinese Cosmetics industry plays a crucial part. These young consumers not only collect and utilize online information but also shop online and provide their feedback. This allows brands to integrate consumer feedback into their products and marketing strategies.

Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It’s also a cultural change that requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment, and get comfortable with failure.

In addition, for some third/fourth-tier cities in China where demand is growing rapidly but offline store availability is insufficient, digital channels are key to expanding the market. Some local brands have begun to understand these young Chinese consumers and are utilizing digital channels to move forward to gain higher market shares and improve their profitability in the long run.

As a result, the digital transformation of the Chinese cosmetics industry accelerates the demand for Chinese translation and localization, which also brings high return of investment to the Chinese cosmetic business

Translation of Chinese Cosmetic Brands

In academics, many translation theories have been developed and applied in the cosmetic industry, such as dynamic equivalence and the Skopos Theory. Today, we are not deep diving into theories, but looking at some translation strategies that are used in Chinese cosmetic translation and how they help promote the Chinese cosmetic industry.

1. Transliteration

Transliteration is the process of transferring a word from the alphabet of one language to another. For example “隆力奇” is translated into “Longliqi” so that the musicality of its original brand name remains. Brand names like “Yunifang”, “Meikang” and “Dabao” also keep their Chinese Pinyin (the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese) as the English translation. However, variations exist in transliteration, and sometimes the pronunciation may change slightly to cater to more international customers. For example, “Hanhoo”, “Mgpin” and “YUE-SAI”, allow the target customers to feel the sonority and musicality of the brand names. Additionally, when translating Chinese domestic cosmetic brand names, the linguists have strong cultural sensitivity to both Chinese and English. For instance, “安安” is translated as “ANAN” in English. Yet, “安安” in Chinese culture, means happiness while the translation “ANAN” loses the meaning of blessing in English culture.

2. Literal Translation

“Literal translation” is a word-for-word translation that sticks closely to the source text. It retains both the content and form of the original text, especially the figures, images, and national or local coloring of the original texts; and its purpose is to convey information. For example, the famous Chinese beauty brand “完美日记” is translated as “Perfect Diary”, which indicates to the customers that they will be perfect by wearing its products. Same effects are applied in the translation of Wetcode (“水密码”), Mask Family (“膜法世家”), Venus (“维纳斯”), etc.

3. Free Translation

Free translation is translating text in a way that reproduces the general meaning of the original text, and you can understand it as a kind of meaning-to-meaning translation. Free translation is used to bring target readers the same feeling as the original readers. The advantage of this approach is that it produces a smooth and expressive translation while retaining the meaning of the original name. For example, “相宜本草” is translated as “Sinoway Herb”, which implies its Chinese origin and indicates that herbs are used in its products. You can find other examples in the translation of these brands: Herborist (“佰草集”), For Beloved One (“宠爱之名”), Doctor Yu (“玉泽”), and MAXAM (“美加净”).

Conclusion

The rise of Chinese cosmetics is due not only with sales promotions but also with marketing strategies, in which translation and localization play a significant role in the process. While there are many translation theories and strategies that can be implemented in the Chinese cosmetics industry, free translation is one of the most dominant methods.

References:
Domestic Chinese Cosmetics Brands
The Rise of Chinese Beauty Brands
The Perspective of Skopos Theory

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Introduction

Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) has been described as the “Chinese Instagram.” It is a social media platform that brings together e-commerce, user-generated content (UGC), and product reviews. The platform focuses on attractive photos, text, and short videos tailored towards lifestyle trends and products. There are over 300 million registered users in this “lifestyle community platform.” In 2019, the company was valued at $3 billion USD after a round of investing that included $300M from the Alibaba Group.

Who Uses Xiaohongshu?

Xiaohongshu is one of the preferred marketplaces of Chinese young people. According to the user portrait analysis index of Xiaohongshu provided by iResearch, the age of its users is mainly distributed among people born in 1985-1990, of which 24-35 years old account for nearly 60%. The platform also skews towards female users, accounting for nearly 90% of its user base. With more than 50% of consumers living in tier-one cities, Xiaohongshu users tend to be among the affluent consumers in Chinese society, which leads to its primary topics like fashion, cosmetics, and travel.

How to Grow Your Business in Xiaohongshu

1. Celebrity Recommendation to Drive Traffic and Promote Products in the Whole Network

Xiaohongshu has become popular because of its celebrity users. Like Tiktok, it relies on celebrities to redirect their traffic to the platform, so celebrity recommendations are a major feature of Xiaohongshu. At the same time, the recommended products are easily given the label with the star’s exclusive recommendation, and many fans and users will pay for them without much thought. Moreover, celebrities tend to recommend their personal favorite items, making them more relatable to their fans and strengthens the recommended products’ reliability. The products are usually recommended by celebrities in the form of pictures, texts, and videos, which also increases the user’s trust in the products. These recommendations then convert users into ‘direct purchasing power’ every business-for-consumer model craves for.

2. Use KOL (Key Opinion Leader) to Increase Brand Exposure

Unlike other e-commerce platforms, Xiaohongshu has established a content-sharing community based on UGC (user-generated content). Among them, KOLs have a large amount of fan traffic and lasting fan attention, so they have a strong influence in Xiaohongshu. Brands can take advantage of Xiaohongshu’s KOLs to embed the brand’s product image in their fans’ mind. Brands can also gain considerable popularity and search volume from the Xiaohongshu platform and thus increase exposure and conversion rates for the brand itself.

3. Use KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers) to “grow grass”: guide consumption and trigger users to quickly place orders

KOCs in Xiaohongshu means Key Opinion Consumers. “Grow grass” here means to recommend their favorite products to others. With the development of Xiaohongshu, the focus of the audience is becoming more and more subdivided, and more people are keen on KOC-guided consumption. This includes sharing their own comments and preferences in Xiaohongshu and building trust among consumers by recommending useful and reliable products. In this biosystem, brands promote their products through KOCs and KOLs, and audiences communicate with each other in the Xiaohongshu community through comments and private messages, which establishes a networked social relationship and triggers a wide-ranging Internet celebrity economy.

4. Xiaohongshu Viral Marketing: To Strengthen Brand Impression

Research shows that 81% of consumers will be influenced when they are making purchasing decisions because of frequently appearing content. Therefore, if you want your brand to be quickly exposed on Xiaohongshu, the key point is to cooperate with KOLs to create a “phenomenal refreshment” for the brand with high-quality content. Firstly, to initiate topics through big data analysis, target group portraits, and peer-competitor keyword data.

Then, to invite several KOLs to publish “grass notes” (recommendation notes) and attract more KOCs to participate, which forms a unique UGC atmosphere. At the same time, let KOLs and KOCs interact with their fans, and it will expand the influence of topics to a greater extent. Then the topics will be pushed to the top according to the content recommendation mechanism of the Xiaohongshu platform. Finally, the brand product purchase link will be embedded into KOL’s “grass notes” to further improve the purchase rate.

Conclusion

Xiaohongshu has become one of the fastest-growing e-commerce platforms in China with its popularity amongst young and rich Chinese consumers. To grow your business in Xiaohongshu, you will need to understand the mechanism of this platform, apply promoting strategies by using the influence of KOLs and KOCs, and strengthen your brand impression with consumers. In addition, keeping up with trending topics and new regulations is also important.

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Parents and children rejoice! New heroes are here to save the world following Mattel’s unveiling of the multicultural Rulers of the Sun action figures that joined their MOTU collections.

Introducing Sun-Man, Digitino, and Space Sumo – the multicultural trio fighting for justice against their arch-enemy “Pig-Head.” Together, these three make up the Rulers of the Sun squad. Let’s get to know them a little up close and personal.

[The Rulers of the Sun | Source: Mattel/the Toy Book]

The Multicultural Rulers of the Sun

Sun-Man, one of the first black superheroes in Mattel’s toy line, debuted in 2021. “The ground-breaking Black action figure — which first hit toy store shelves in 1985 from Olmec Toys — is officially joining forces with Mattel’s vintage toy line in time for the 40th anniversary of Masters of the Universe,” the article says. His origin can be traced back to 1985 when Yla Eason, his creator, was pondering on ideas to having more toy options for her son. “When I originally created the character of Sun-Man, it was to show my son that heroes come in all skin colors,” said Eason. Sun-man’s skin color is an “organic connection” to where he draws his power – from the sun! Equipped with superhero gear such as a shield, sword, and breast plate, Sun-Man has already charmed the little ones!

We don’t know much about Digitino and Space Sumo just yet, but we can settle for ‘Latino computer wizard’ and ‘Asian telekinetic ninja’ for now. Who else has a digital wizard and a telekinetic ninja on their team? That is a powerful trio and Pig-Head won’t stand a chance!

This year, as Mattel celebrates the 40^th anniversary of He-Man: Masters of the Universe, adding the new line of culturally diverse figures to the legends is just timely.

Quoting from the article, “This job requires one to be a bit of a toy historian, and I always knew of the existence of Sun-Man, and of the high prices that vintage examples would go for in the Masters of the Universe collecting community,” said Ed Duncan, SVP of Action Figures, Games and Plush Design, & Inventor Relations at Mattel. “Even knowing that, it was only a couple of years ago that I came across Yla’s story, and it really resonated with me as another black toymaker.”

Gleason and Olmec Toys have retained all rights to the character.

Article originally published on The ToyBook:
https://toybook.com/mattels-masters-of-the-universe-welcomes-the-multicultural-rulers-of-the-sun/

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This statement is no longer an assumption following the latest instalment of the Cross-Border Retail Payments Tracker – a collaborative research effort by PYMNTS – a recognized global leader for data, and Citcoin. The researchers looked into the top eCommerce sites globally.

The study shows that 46% of the top 50 eCommerce sites offer content in four or more languages. This language expansion opens up opportunities for growth through delivering native experiences across their target regions. It’s interesting to see that 16 of these sites got more than 20% of their total traffic from cross-border users. eCommerce giants such as AliExpress, Steam, Booking.com, Samsung and Ikea are the leaders in terms of global traffics, according to research.

 Traffic from foreign languages was more evident for Apple, Samsung and Shein – who claimed to get more than 50% of their total visits from cross-border users. The shift in multilingual online shopping behavior is attributed to pandemic, which retailers see as opportunities.

Furthermore, cross-border online sales in China continue to grow. By the end of 2022, it is projected that China will divert more than 50% of its retail sales online. Nowadays, 75% of China’s population use internet. As these users mature every second and can transact online, so do eCommerce businesses thrive!

Article originally published on https://www.pymnts.com/news/ecommerce/2022/nearly-half-of-top-ecommerce-sites-are-multilingual/

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The pandemic has brought significant changes to all walks of life in many countries. Faced with the challenge of the new normal, China’s skincare and cosmetic industry started to adapt and grow with the pain that global economy still endures.

“Mask Makeup” Prevails in China

After China resumes work and school, people need to wear masks to aid the country from ongoing outbreak. Under the circumstances, wearing eye makeup for women has become extremely important. In China, the eyes are called “the window to the soul”, so the demand for eye makeup has increased.

In February 2020, Pinduoduo New Consumer Research Institute released the article “Best Sellers After the Resumption of Work”. According to the statistics, the search volume for products such as eye shadow pans and eyebrow pencils have increased by 290% year-on-year. At the same time, the popularity of lipsticks has dropped significantly during the pandemic.

The popularity of eye makeup also drives the demand for related skincare products such as eye creams and eye essences. Due to home isolations, many people have to work from home and spend longer time on digital screens, so they act to prevent or resolve eye problems through related skincare products.

Strong Demand for High End Skincare Products in China

In addition to eye makeup, there is also a growing demand for high end skincare products. Perfumes and beauty equipment have also received more attention. As customers of beauty salons also declined, home beauty equipment gradually becomes a new rigid demand. Alibaba’s online shopping tool Tmall, stated that from January to November 2020, the cumulative transactions of home beauty products exceeded 5 billion, a soaring 50% year-on-year increase.

Because of the pandemic, consumers have also faced skin problems due to prolonged wearing of masks. Therefore, many have considered skincare products for acne removal and prevention. The Estee Lauder Group’s quarter 2 of 2021 report showed that skincare and perfume sales have become the main driving force for growth, with skincare revenue increased by 28% and perfume products by 6%.

Beauty Market Strategy: Online and Offline Integration

Around 2010, a number of foreign beauty and cosmetic brands withdrew from the Chinese market paving the way to the rise of local brands and distributors. WOW COLOUR, THE COLORIST, HAYDON black hole, HARMAY Huamei have opened in the major shopping malls across the country.

Majority of the local makeup brands that are available in WOW COLOUR stores include Judou, Colorkey, Huazhizhi, VENUS MARBLE, Girlcult, CLIO, Holdlive, VNK, Kaledos, Jill Leen, Miss Candy nail polish and many other Chinese cosmetics that are popular on the internet.

The advent of customer-centric retail model in the beauty collection stores has also opened up new ideas for offline retail. In-store shopping experiences such as beauty makeup egg walls, photo check-in areas as well as one-stop, self-service shopping counters are provided to engage the customers. Attractive online advertisements are available in various e-commerce and social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin/TikTok.

The Rapid Growth of Online Beauty Sales

Evidently, the outbreak of Covid-19 has caused offline cosmetic retail channels to decline. Even after restriction is lifted, many businesses remain closed. At the same time, the consumptions of foreign products have gradually shifted to domestic supplies. However, e-commerce has emerged and online sales started to rise.

On January 26, 2021, LVMH released its 2020 fiscal year and fourth quarter financial report. The total revenue of beauty and fragrance business fell 22% year-on-year to 5.248 billion euros, and continued business profit fell 88% year-on-year. The group said that the decline was due to restrictions on international travel, reduction of tourists and plummeting beauty products consumption. On the other hand, the total sales of L’Oréal China in 2020 has increased by 27% with its online sales accounted for 60%. The company’s total sales has increased by 56% compared to 2019.

On the other hand, Estee Lauder outside China adjusted its strategy and optimized its brand matrix and channel layout. The “Post-pandemic Business Acceleration Plan” mentioned by the group included the closures of many underperforming retail stores, travel retail counters and stores in Latin America. Among the many adjustment strategies, digital channel has become the leader in the beauty industry.

According to Mintel data, the pandemic has accelerated the shift of consumers to online channel and forced the innovation and transformation of the beauty companies. 60% of Chinese female consumers prefer to discover new skincare brands and trends online. Moreover, the immersive entertainment retail experience is becoming even more popular while “offline personalized experience and online convenient purchase” has become the new trend.

Conclusion

As the requirement to wear face masks continues, Chinese female consumers focus more on what they can demonstrate to others, creating a new economic form under the pandemic: the mask economy. Compared to lipsticks that used to sweep the country, eye makeup and perfumes now become more essential. When choosing the skincare products to purchase, consumers focus more on the items with sun protection, acne treatment and good for sensitive skin. In retrospect, the pandemic has accelerated the shift of consumers to digital channels and forced the innovation and transformation of the beauty and cosmetic industry in the China market to thrive.

The post Beauty in Times of Pandemic: “Mask Economy” in the Chinese Market appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Chinese women have a long history with makeup, originating from ancient times. In China, there’s an old saying that the love of beauty is common to all human beings. Ancient Chinese women wanted to look for beautiful things that made them look prettier. While they obviously didn’t have social media like Pinterest and YouTube, the love of cosmetics, perfumes, and garments was everywhere. We’ll walk you through the history of Chinese women’s love of beauty.

Chinese Makeup History in the Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty opened up a new era in Chinese makeup history. Eyebrow makeup, lip makeup, face makeup, and a series of cosmetics, such as makeup powder, facial cream, lip gloss, and fragrance became a trend during this time. Generally, the makeup style of the Zhou Dynasty was relatively simple and elegant with black and white, so this era is known as the “plain makeup era.”

In addition to powder and “Dai”( “黛”), the cosmetics of the Zhou Dynasty also included “Zhi” (“脂”) and “Ze”(“ 泽”). Zhi is the grease from animals or the oil from plant seeds. Lip zhi referred to lipstick, and face Zhi aimed to moisturize the face. Ze referred to a shampoo made of fragrance materials.

Chinese Makeup History in the Qin and Han Dynasty

There are few records about Qin Dynasty costumes and dresses in history books, but the Han Dynasty inherited many Qin Dynasty legacies. During the Han Dynasty, the custom of makeup was greatly developed, and women paid more attention to their makeup. Here are some of the advancements in makeup.

1. In addition to rice powder, people in the Qin and Han Dynasties invented paste-like lead powder for makeup. The lead powder was usually made of materials such as lead and tin, which were converted into powder after chemical treatment.
2. Red powder, also called “fufen”（“敷粉”）, was the first step in applying makeup. Since the Qin Dynasty, “red makeup” had become popular, and women used powder and Zhu （”朱”，a red material） in their makeup. Red powder and white powder were usually used as the foundation.
3. Rouge came next after powder. The primary raw material for making rouge in ancient times was safflowers. Rouge has a strong viscosity, so it’s not easy to fade away. Therefore, women would apply a little rouge on the cheekbones based on their light red and pink foundation.
4. Cinnabar （“朱”）was made of mercury sulfide with a small amount of iron oxide, clay, and other impurities. It was ground into powder and used for face makeup. It’s a red mineral pigment, also called “Dan,” which is bright and gorgeous.
5. Mo Dan （”墨丹”）refers to the mineral “graphite,” and women used it to draw eyebrows. Mo Dan was ground on a special inkstone to form a powder, and then it was mixed with water and applied to the eyebrows.
6. Lip grease is made of water and cinnabar, and it can prevent lips from cracking and bleeding. By adding color to it, lipstick becomes an ideal cosmetic, just like with today’s lipsticks.

Chinese Makeup History in the Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern Dynasties

During this period, women’s makeup skills gradually matured, demonstrating diversified tendencies and bold colors. Here are some of the main changes during this time.

1. White makeup (powder) was applied to women’s faces, and no rouge was applied to their cheeks, which was more common in the decoration of the court ladies. This type of makeup showed a simple and elegant beauty.
2. Forehead yellow was a kind of ancient face decoration. It was dyed and painted on the forehead with yellow pigment.
3. Oblique red was a kind of makeup on the cheeks, including shapes like crescents and even scars. The bright red color was arranged on both sides of the cheeks and between the temples.
4. Huadian (“花钿”) generally refers to the makeup on the forehead between the eyebrows. In the Six Dynasties, a plum-shaped flower, called “plum blossom makeup,” was especially popular.

Chinese Makeup History in Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties

In the Sui Dynasty, women’s makeup was relatively simple, and the people loved the beauty of simplicity. The Tang Dynasty had a prosperous economy, and exchanges with foreigners were very frequent at that time. As a result, many women’s makeup was influenced by foreign countries, and women pursued fashion and advocated novel styles of makeup.

During the Tang Dynasty, makeup technology was also developed to an unprecedented peak. We can roughly divide the order of face makeup for women in the Tang Dynasty into the following: lead powder, rouge, eyebrows, appliqués, dotted face and slanted red, and lipstick. Strong red makeup was the most popular face makeup at the time, and the red makeup of women in the Tang Dynasty varied in shades of color and size. Different shapes of eyebrows also came about during this time, with about fifteen popular kinds of eyebrow styles.

Chinese Makeup History in the Song Dynasty

In the Song dynasty, women’s makeup tended to be simple and natural. Although there were many changes in facial makeup, it was not as rich and gorgeous as the Tang Dynasty. White and red were still the basic colors of makeup, and women preferred to use ink instead of Dai to draw their eyebrows.

Chinese Makeup History in the Ming and Qing Dynasties

The red makeup of the women in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was mostly thin and elegant, which was quite similar to the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Ming and Qing women created many new types of makeup powder. For example, “zhenzhu” powder, a kind of makeup powder extracted from the flowers of Mirabilis jasmine, was mostly used in spring and summer, and Hosta powder was mostly used in the autumn and winter.

Women in the Qing Dynasty advocated curving eyebrows, thin eyes, and thin lips. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, women changed the convention of wearing heavy makeup and put an end to the red makeup custom that had prevailed for more than two thousand years.

By the early Republic of China, women continued to follow the makeup aesthetic of the late Qing: delicate and pretty face, slender eyes and eyebrows, and thin lips. With the influence of western cultures, women considered makeup from a new perspective and different standards, showing that they started to cast off the shackles of the feudal society.

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