Luxe connection: Aussie brand Enbacci international expansion plans focus on offline channels for ‘luxury experience’

Enbacci is a luxury skin care brand that develops skin care products with fruit and plant stem cells. It was founded by Mother-Daughter pair Nan Chen and Yong-Li Zhou in 2013

It launched in Thailand first before returning to Australia a year later to focus on building the brand in its home market.

The company operated primarily online before opening its first flagship store in 2017 in Melbourne. Today, the company’s main markets are Australia, China, New Zealand, the UK, and the US.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the company decided to focus on international exports and launched into China with e-commerce platforms Tmall and VIP.

“At the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021, we were having the major COVID lockdowns and that’s when we decided that we really needed to pivot and make the big launch overseas officially and we decided to invest heavily into that,” ​said Zhou.

This year, the company will launch its first overseas flagship store in Beijing at a luxury department store situated at the World Trade Centre.

The launch of the Beijing flagship is the first step in Enbacci’s focus on expanding the brand’s offline footprint.

Moving forward, the company is aiming to strengthen its presence in New Zealand next. However, instead of taking the DTC approach, it is working on entering the market through offline channels.

“Our focus would be to get locations in New Zealand in the next 12 months, especially now that they’ve opened up to us,” ​said Zhou.

She explained that launching a brick-and-mortar shop is the ideal way for a luxury beauty brand to connect with consumers.

“There’s only so much you can do as a luxury brand when it comes to luxury customer experience. Post-pandemic, people want to reconnect and that’s not something you can necessarily do well on a computer screen.”​

She added that after experiencing the disruptions of COVID-19 pandemic. beauty brands must diversify their channels.

“From that perspective, we kind of got too dependant on one sales channel and neglected the other when we could have been doing so much more with both.”​

Having a brick-and-mortar store also cements the brand’s legitimacy in a time where it seems thousands of online direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are popping up every other day, said Zhou.

“Today, if you are online only, you can lose a sense of credibility because there are so many brands popping up because the e-commerce infrastructure has lowered the barrier of entry. Consumers don’t know if these brands have completed their efficacy testing and abiding by all the rules.”​

At the same time, the company is working on expanding its product range. After launching a range of “basic” products like its cleanser and serum, it is now building up the range with products that its consumers are asking for, such as balm cleansers and sheet masks.

It is also developing a body care line with active ingredients that target skin issues such as firmness.