How Does Chinese Brand Jiao Xia Tap into The Sun Protection Market In China?
Jiao Xia (蕉下), or Banana Under, has become “China’s first sun protective stock” to file an IPO in Hong Kong. Starting with its iconic umbrella, the brand creates a sun-protective empire with over 2.4 billion RMB annual revenue.
How does Jiao Xia tap into this lucrative market in China? What are some of the key takeaways brands can learn from its success?
About Jiao Xia
Jiao Xia was founded in 2013. It specializes in sun-protective items, including umbrellas, hats, gloves, jackets, and shoes.
The brand grows wildly. From its prospectus, it managed to achieve annual revenues of over 380 million RMB, 790 million RMB, and 2.4 billion RMB from 2019 to 2021. With a gross profit rate of over 50%, Jiao Xia has become a vanguard in the industry.
Source: Jiao Xia Prospectus.
Tap into the Hard Sun Protection Trend
“Hard sun protection” or physical sun protection is a trendy concept among Chinese girls, thanks to the education finalized by many online publications. It delivers the message that physical items, such as umbrellas, hats, and gloves, are better at preventing sun than sun cream.
With growing awareness of physical sun protection, China Insights Consultancy estimates that the market scale of sun-protective clothes grows from 45.9 billion RMB to 61.1 billion RMB from 2016 to 2021. It is expected that by 2026, the number will reach 95.8 billion RMB in China.
Jiao Xia has met its golden growing period when anxiety and solutions both exist in the market. Most Chinese consumers want to have fair skin and they’ve been educated to embrace the hard sun protection. Jiao Xia, an expert specializing in sun-protective products is there to solve their issues.
Dare to Change Hero Products
Sun-protective umbrellas have been Jiao Xia’s hero products for a long time. It is sold at 179 RMB, not cheap in the China market, but with its creative paintings on the umbrellas, a UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) above 50, and its carriable size that can be easily put in a pocket, it wins love from many Chinese girls. Based on Jiao Xia’s Tmall statistics, the brand sold more than 4.5 million umbrellas.
What makes the brand continue to grow is that it doesn’t stand where it was but keeps exploring new opportunities. It sounds cliché, but in practice, not many brands dare to lower the contribution percentage of a lucrative business section to their annual revenues.
In 2019, it introduced new product categories, including sun-protective face masks, jackets, and hats. Moving to 2021, the brand expanded its business to a broader range, such as sunglasses, leggings, and Martin boots.
With new product categories, the contribution of the umbrella has gradually decreased from 86.9% in 2019 to 20.8% in 2021. What replaces the umbrella’s iconic position are clothes and accessories (sunglasses, face masks, and gloves), with growing percentages from 0.8% and 5.3% in 2019 to 29.5% and 25.4% in 2021 respectively.
Source: Jiao Xia Prospectus.
Use Numeric Facts to Convince Consumers
According to Jiao Xia’s prospectus, the brand has worked with more than 600 KOLs by 2021, among which 199 of them amass over 1 million followers. Together they brought over 4.5 billion traffic for Jiao Xia on the Internet.
Since the prices of Jiao Xia’s products are higher than the average, KOLs often tell the brand’s stories from different angles based on their follower’s profiles. Jiao Xia also scientifically frames its products with hard facts, such as its competitive UPF index, reports from professional assessment organizations, and customers’ feedback.
Our Thoughts
Spotting the trend and leveraging it to expose the brand name and keep introducing new products to satisfy the market’s ever-changing needs secure Jiao Xia’s position in the China market. The brand also has KOLs to tell its story and uses numeric facts to convince consumers.
With growing numbers of players in the sun protection industry, it requires more for brands to stand out and let consumers see them and try them.
