Sanofi’s vitamin brand Cenovis reveals best-sellers in China amid COVID-19 sales growth
The company has been selling its products to China via major e-commerce sites such as Tmall and JD.com.
According to JD.com, the brand saw a 10-fold jump in sales between January and March this year amid the peak of the COVID-19 spread in China, with its vitamin C product - the Sugarless C - as the best-seller.
The firm told us that many female consumers in China associated it with skin whitening and immune boosting at the same time.
It also highlighted Mega B, and Mega E as the other top-selling products in China, claiming they could help support the health of the entire family by providing different functions.
For Mega B, a vitamin B formula, the product is said to be well-received amongst young consumers due to their long work hours, while the vitamin E product Mega E is popular among older consumers because it supports heart health.
The firm revealed that while there were no plans to launch new products in the upcoming months, it would focus on introducing new product packaging.
However, it emphasised that it regarded China as its key growth driver.
Going live
The brand is also jumping on the bandwagon of livestreaming on e-commerce platforms to grow its presence in the country.
It will partner with social e-commerce platform Omall in a livestreaming e-commerce sales event on May 11 to 17.
Omall is the e-commerce platform of Guangzhou-based company Onion Global.
Onion Global's CFO Mio Ho told us that the event, known as "The Rap of Goods", is one of the firm's biggest sales event of the year.
"Livestreaming is one of the more popular marketing tools in China this year...It is a new kind of concept to drive traffic and sales.
"While it is not easy to gauge the amount of sales that livestreaming can bring, it is nonetheless pretty effective for brand exposure and so it is a very important tool. We will help brands to host many livetreaming sessions to help consumers better understand the products," Ho said.
Other key online activities include advertising on Chinese video-sharing platforms with high traffic flow, KOLs involvement.
The firm added that it had attracted more than 800k store owners and helped them expanded its online business in China.
Livestreaming is one of the top marketing tools in China, especially during the pandemic.
Herbalife China is one example, which said that its business growth had kept a strong momentum in January and February despite the outbreak due to its use of digital tools, including live broadcasting.