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On weekends, I often accompany my girlfriend to shop for skincare and other beauty products. Even in this ecommerce age, she likes to go directly to stores to see and test the products first.
Many beauty retailers offer this experience, including Sociolla. While it’s known first and foremost as an ecommerce firm, it has had an offline strategy as well, opening several stores across cities in Indonesia.
Sociolla has since deployed that same tactic in Vietnam, its first overseas market. More than that, though, it has also brought over a couple of Indonesian beauty brands with it.
In this week’s Big Story, my colleague Budi dissects how having a retail partner like Sociolla helps these brands cut down on complexities. Plus, even though there are ecommerce platforms that offer cross-border services (including Shopee and Lazada), there is an advantage to Sociolla’s model, which is an offline presence.
That said, having a retail partner is not necessarily the only route for international expansion. Considering Indonesia’s scale, there is also an argument for winning the local market first.
Meanwhile, for this week’s Hot Take, I examine Blibli subsidiary Tiket.com’s expansion to Malaysia. It’s a reasonable move for the Indonesian online travel agent at first glance, but questions abound.
— Jofie
THE BIG STORY
Indonesian D2C beauty brands build foundation for regional expansion
Image credit: Timmy Loen
Brands have leveraged Sociolla’s network to gain exposure in Southeast Asia, and targeting certain beauty niches may have given them an edge.
THE HOT TAKE
Questioning Tiket’s ambitions to enter Malaysia
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