Indonesia’s beauty and personal care markets are enjoying a tremendous growth spurt, with present revenue amounting to an estimated $7,095 million USD. The market is expecting continued growth of around 6.6% CAGR annually until 2023, with almost 7% of the total revenue coming from online sales by 2021. Large investment companies and venture capitalists (VC) are now exploring opportunities in the Indonesia beauty tech sector, something previously considered as a niche, women’s space. Beauty tech startups are offering their products online to the Indonesian audience, a growing market with more of the population becoming beauty conscious, increasing sales potential.
Beauty is one of the largest industries in the world. We look at the impact of technology. Read our story about beauty startups here.
However, merely offering products online is not enough to stand against beauty giants like L’oreal and Unilever. Therefore beauty tech startups in Southeast Asia are offering more holistic customer experience, with targeted marketing trying to empower and connect all women through personal care. These three promising startups are offering the Indonesian woman exactly what they need and want.
LAMIDA
This beauty eCommerce is doing more than selling products online. With their 3E’s vision and mission, namely Embrace, Encourage and Empower, they want Indonesian women to engage in the beauty scene by helping make them more confident individuals and inspire an entrepreneurial spirit.
Many Indonesian women have a specific interest in the beauty industry, but they often lack the confidence to pursue a career in the sector. LAMIDA wants to give them the courage to act by building online communities and deploying beauty influencers who will show the ups and downs in their career path. Its first campaign, #MEaningful, launched on July 20, 2020.
Social Bella
The startup, created by Chrisanti Indiana, is most known for its eCommerce platform Sociolla, where they sell around 3000 products from 140 different brands. For this platform, Social Bella received an A-list Disruptor Award from Forbes Indonesia for the Most Promising Growth-Stage Startup in 2019. The same year Indiana, the Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer of Social Bella was listed in the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia version.
In July 2020, Social Bella drew $58 million USD in funding during a Series E round with contributions from Temasek, Pavilion Capital and Jungle Ventures. The company intends to employ these fresh funds to grow its share in the local beauty and personal care market further, with growth expected to reach the value of $8.5 billion USD by 2022.
To focus more on the experience of shopping and choosing products, the company created a platform, SOCO, where consumers can review personal care products. BeautyJournal is its online beauty and lifestyle medium with online-to-offline (O2O) marketing services. They want to deliver targeted eCommerce to the niche of Indonesian mothers with Lilla by Sociolla. And for those who want the full experience, they can visit the offline store with the Omnichannel concept.
Base
Base wants to serve its audience with personalised skincare. Yaumi Fauziah Sugiharta, CEO of Base and former Gojek Head of Marketing, was already engaging with people through her personal beauty blog. She cited that after conducting an internal survey, 72% of women in the country appeared to be overwhelmed with the wide range of skincare options. Base was born to remove this burden of choice and to offer personalised skincare products for women in a tropical country.
On the Base website, customers go through a three-step process to assess their personal skincare needs. An algorithm recommends the appropriate products for the individual to order, and they then can expect delivery within five working days. Base focuses on the natural aspect of their products and offers cosmetics for clients who value things such as the products not being tested on animals, being certified halal, vegan, without irritants and BPOM approved. By finding the best plant-based ingredients from across the world, they bring the beauty experience in Indonesia to the next level by offering effective, safe and ethically-sourced skincare.
In September 2019, the company secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by East Ventures and Skystar Capital.
Beauty tech startups in Southeast Asia are changing the landscape of the personal care market, with women entrepreneurs, in particular, seeing huge growth in their businesses over the past few years. They understand the needs of Indonesian women and are developing fantastic startups to meet those demands. It seems that the demands go far beyond just the product quality and price. The Indonesia beauty tech sector is empowering women by building communities, developing entrepreneurs and delivering personalised skincare. By building a lifelong and personal connection with their audience, these innovative startups are providing services that can rival the beauty giants who have long dominated the industry.