The Localization Strategies for Small and Medium-Sized Beauty Brands

Abstract

With the development of cross-border e-commerce, the localization decision-making of small and medium-sized beauty brands from abroad has become a key to their market expansion. This article systematically reviews the research achievements in this field, dividing the localization development into three stages: early cross-border trial, lightweight localization driven by social media, and full-chain refined decision-making. The practical characteristics and research levels of each stage are different. Although the existing research is in line with industry characteristics, the operational details need to be further deepened. The existing literature at home and abroad has constructed a decision-making framework of “constraint - adaptation - implementation”, clarifying the core influencing factors such as resource constraints, cultural adaptation, and channel selection. The research finds that small and medium-sized beauty brands can formulate localization strategies from four dimensions: product, marketing communication, channel and content adaptation, and promotion activities. For example, they can optimize the ingredients and efficacy of products based on local resources and demands at the product end, integrate local cultural symbols at the marketing end, focus on high-penetration local platforms at the channel end, and bind to local festivals and scenarios at the promotion end. However, brand localization faces challenges such as resource constraints, weak market insight, low brand awareness, and supply chain and channel barriers. In the future, it can be deepened from aspects such as industry characteristic integration, strategy tool development, reverse perspective, and research on emerging channels to precisely guide practice.