Industry News : Probiotics become a new growth engine for the oral care market, and domestic brands continue to refresh the list

With the increase in oral health awareness, consumers' demand for oral care products is also changing. They not only pay attention to the cleaning effect of the product, but also pay more attention to the safety, comfort and personalization of the product. In addition, consumers of different age groups and different oral conditions also have different demands for oral care products, which provides more market opportunities for oral care companies.

Technological innovation is an important driving force for the development of the oral care industry. Oral care products are also constantly upgrading to meet the increasingly diverse needs of consumers. For example, new ingredient products such as baking soda toothpaste, enzyme whitening toothpaste, probiotic toothpaste, etc. are favored by consumers for their unique functions and advantages.

Probiotic track is hot

As a popular health raw material, probiotics involve a wide range of health fields, and oral health is no exception.

Many raw material companies have laid out oral probiotic raw materials, such as DuPont, Chr. Hansen, DSM, Kemin, Kerry, etc. Take Kerry as an example. Its HM6 Lactobacillus salivarius CECT5713 claims to be supported by literature and has many product applications. It can be used in oral care products such as toothpaste and mouthwash, and can also be integrated into direct drinking powder, oral lozenges, oral bursting beads, refreshing tablets, chewing gum and other foods.

Specifically for terminal products, the application range of probiotics is very wide, from solid beverages to freeze-dried powder, oral lozenges, oral bursting beads, etc. Take Tmall's top oral probiotic product Earth Paradise Oral Probiotic Lozenges as an example. This product claims to add 7 probiotics that are beneficial to oral health, and is paired with green tea phenol, resveratrol and other ingredients. The main feature is fresh breath.

Canban launched the Oralshark SP series of toothpaste. Through insight and precise grasp of user needs, it quickly became the top-selling toothpaste category on multiple platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. In March 2023, Oralshark SP series toothpaste passed Frost & Sullivan certification and became the No. 1 online sales in the domestic probiotic toothpaste market from July 2022 to 2023. The outstanding product strength and outstanding sales performance also made the Oralshark SP series toothpaste of Canban win the "Annual Hot Product" award selected by Southern Daily.

Rise of domestic brands

From January to March, from the brand ranking of the toothpaste industry, the top five brands in terms of online retail sales are still Yunnan Baiyao, Holly (formerly Black), Colgate, ORALSHARK, and Shuke, with online retail sales accounting for 9.0%, 7.4%, 5.2%, 4.9%, and 4.5%, respectively. The brands ranked sixth to tenth are Crest, Sensodyne, Baiyunshan, Lengshenling and Jingxiutang. From the perspective of channel merchants, in the first quarter of this year, the scale of Douyin's online retail market surpassed Tmall and JD channels, with a growth rate of more than 55% and a market share of 34.6%.

With the more diversified needs of consumers, my country's toothpaste market has gradually shown the characteristics of specialization, personalization, refinement and health. In the TOP10 list, ORALSHARK, a toothpaste brand under Canban, which focuses on probiotic toothpaste, and Baiyunshan, which focuses on traditional Chinese medicine toothpaste, have become the fastest growing head brands.

From the brand ranking of the electric toothbrush industry, the top five brands are usmile, Laifen, Philips, Oral-B and Feike, with online retail sales accounting for 26.4%, 15.3%, 14.8%, 8.8% and 3.7% respectively. The brands ranked from sixth to tenth are Mijia, Shuke, Bayer, Fupai and Huawei. In the electric toothbrush market, more and more domestic brands have emerged and replaced the leading position of foreign brands. Usmile and Laifen have replaced Philips and Oral-B and occupied the top two places in the electric toothbrush list.

As the leader of domestic high-speed hair dryers, Laifen entered the electric toothbrush market in the fourth quarter of last year and jumped to the second place in the industry in just a few months. The popularity of its products can be seen from this. In the field of electric toothbrushes, domestic brands have significantly accelerated domestic substitution in the past two years due to their higher cost-effectiveness and better product innovation. However, with the entry of more new brands, more intense market competition has been brought about, and the industry reshuffle is still ongoing. In the future, whoever can persist in innovation, meet more consumer needs and solve pain points, will be expected to become the leader of the industry.

From the brand ranking of the manual toothbrush industry, the top five brands are Lion, Huibaishi, Colgate, Shuke, and Holly (formerly Black), with online retail sales accounting for 6.7%, 5.5%, 5.4%, 5.4%, and 4.0% respectively.

The brands ranked from sixth to tenth are Carmel, Frog, Lengshenling, Collenchy, and Melokou. The top toothbrush brands are relatively stable, and the overall changes of the TOP5 brands are not significant. From the perspective of channels, Douyin has the highest growth rate among the key channels, with a growth rate of more than 60% in the first quarter and a market share of 25.9%, becoming the second largest channel. From the perspective of brands, some dark horses of toothbrush brands with Douyin as the main battlefield have emerged in the list 6-10, such as Carmel and Collenchy. These brands have significantly increased their sales through the promotion of Douyin live e-commerce. In addition, the product segmentation of the toothbrush market continues to strengthen. Personalized and segmented products such as men's toothbrushes, maternal and infant toothbrushes have become new engines for major brands to achieve growth.

From the brand ranking of the oral irrigator industry, the top five brands are usmile, Besto, Bayer, Clean-Bi and Panasonic, with online retail sales accounting for 13.4%, 10.4%, 10.2%, 7.5% and 5.7% respectively. In the case of the overall sluggish oral irrigator market, among the TOP5 brands, usmile grew by 29.7%, rising to the top, Clean-Bi grew by 24.1%, and other brands showed a significant decline.

The top five brands in the mouthwash industry are Listerine, ORALSHARK, BOP, Colgate, and THERABREATH, with online retail sales accounting for 17.3%, 7.9%, 7.7%, 5.4% and 4.5% respectively; the top five brands in the mouth spray industry are Baixi, Canban, Listerine, BOP and Shuke, with online retail sales accounting for 14.0%, 12.5%, 6.0%, 4.4% and 3.9% respectively.

Multi-category products are moving towards the direction of daily use of products in the direction of efficiency, intelligence, convenience and optimization of user experience. The PCE Oral Care Expo from August 7 to 9, 2024 will showcase all these new products. We will see the innovative trends among various fine categories, which not only shows the careful research and development of the products, but also shows the brand's insight and thinking on future market trends.

Consumers are paying more and more attention to the practicality of products, and some products that rely on excessive packaging and marketing are gradually abandoned by the market. When creating new products, major brands should pay more attention to the practicality of products. What kind of practical value can they bring to consumers? And better meeting the rigid needs of consumers should be the primary consideration for enterprises. In addition, in today's situation where people's needs are constantly being segmented, products should also strengthen the satisfaction of different segments of the population. More segmented products will be the key for enterprises to expand the blue ocean in the fiercely competitive market.