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This article is divided into three parts according to the speech and recording of He Yaqing of Euromonitor Information Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. in the marketing topic of FOCUS International Forum at CIDPEX2019 Wuhan Tissue Annual Meeting. First, it is an overview of the global wet wipes market. Second, China's wet wipes market overview. Three is the new trend of personal care wipes.

A global wet wipes market overview

1 Retail market size

In 2018, the global wet wipes retail market reached $13.6 billion billion. Baby wipes account for the largest share of $5.8 billion, accounting for 43% of the total global wet wipes retail market. In second place was household cleaning wipes, at $3.5 billion, followed by makeup wipes, general purpose wipes, wet toilet paper and feminine care wipes. Due to the small number of areas where women's care wipes are sold, the current retail market is small. The fastest growth is in general wipes and wet toilet paper. Global wet wipes retail sales grew at a CAGR of more than 6% from 2013 to 2018.

　　2 Size of area

In terms of regional size, Asia Pacific was the third largest in the world in 2018. Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America are the regions with rapid development of wet wipes. The compound annual growth rate of wet wipes retail sales from 2013 to 2018 is about 6% to 10%, and it is expected that the growth rate will be maintained in the next 5 years. North America and Western Europe are in the low state of the development speed of wet wipes.

　　Retail Size by Region in 2.1

North America, Asia Pacific and Western European countries wet wipes retail scale is larger.

　　2.2 per capita consumption by region

North America and Western Europe are areas with high per capita consumption of wipes. Although China has a high market size, there is a significant gap between per capita consumption and North America, Western Europe and Australasia.

　　Differences in the proportion of categories between 2.3 regions

In addition to the differences in market size, the proportion of wet wipes is also different. From the perspective of North America, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East, baby wipes are the category with the highest proportion. North American household cleaning wipes account for a relatively large proportion, but Asia-Pacific and African household cleaning wipes account for a relatively small proportion. The reason is that in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, Africa is used to use non-disposable sanitary products, such as rags, etc. to do cleaning.

　　2.3.1 Baby wipes-the largest category

Baby wipes are the category with the largest proportion among all kinds of wipes, mainly due to the large base of users and the lower average unit price per piece compared with other categories. Figure 6 shows the unit price of baby wipes based on the United States, which is at a more economical level. Baby wipes use a wide range of people, such as babies, young children, preschool children, families and other usual sanitary cleaning with baby wipes. As the global birth rate decreases, it may have some impact on baby wipes.

　　2.3.2 General Wipes-Fastest Growing Category

General wet wipes are the fastest growing category in all kinds of wet wipes, and have great market potential in developing countries. First, the number of product channels is increasing, and second, consumer awareness is constantly improving. In developed countries, product efficacy and product segmentation are the main reasons for the growth of general wipes.

　　2.3.3 Wet Toilet Paper-Emerging Category

In 2018, the global retail market for wet toilet paper was $1.1 billion and toilet paper was $47.1 billion. In terms of retail sales, wet toilet paper is only 2% of toilet paper, and wet toilet paper is still an undeveloped category. There are not many circulation channels for wet toilet paper and limited brand access to the market. With the increasing awareness of the use of wet toilet paper among young people, it is expected that the growth rate of wet toilet paper will perform better in the future. In 2018, China's wet toilet paper retail volume ranked sixth in the world, but due to China's large population base, the proportion of users is far behind that of the United States, Germany and Spain.

Smart toilet is a smart home device with the functions of cleaning, drying and heating. The downside is that it will partially replace toilet paper or wet toilet paper, but the positive side is that if you are used to the comfort of using a smart toilet at home, you may choose wet toilet paper that will bring a similar cleaning experience when you go out, thus boosting sales of wet toilet paper. Future development will take time to test. In 2017, Japan's Dongtao Smart Toilet achieved different sales growth in North America, Oceania and Japan.

　　3 Development of retailer brand wipes in developed regions

From 2013 to 2018, the retail sales of branded wet wipes in developed regions such as Western Europe and North America increased significantly, accounting for the highest proportion, reaching more than 20%. Asia-Pacific is currently the region with the lowest share, with a slight downward trend from 2013-2018. Western Europe, North America and Eastern Europe belong to the field of wet wipes retailer brands, and there will be a certain gap in the proportion of different categories of wet wipes. Such as the United States baby wipes category accounted for 40%. Under normal circumstances, the price of baby wipes is 20% to 40% lower than that of other types of wipes. Low price has a great influence on the sales of baby wipes. The products produced by the retailer brand are of high quality and low price, not only limited to ordinary general-purpose wet wipes, but also wet toilet paper and baby wipes. From the product packaging is also relatively good-looking, but compared with the domestic brand packaging gap is not big.

　　4 Drivers of future growth

Euromonitor predicts that the future growth rate of the wet wipes market in the United States will not exceed 5%, the future growth rate of China will be about 10%, and the future growth rate of India will be about 10% to 20%.

From the perspective of influencing factors, the impact of per capita GDP and population in the United States accounts for between 30% and 40%. For China and India, the use habit or the inertia of using wet wipes is a very important factor for future development. The improvement of people's health awareness will be converted to the increase of consumption of sanitary wipes.

Figure 10 shows that product prices have a negative effect on the future growth rate of the Indian wipes market. It shows that wet wipes are very expensive for the general public in the Indian market, and higher product prices will inhibit the future growth of wet wipes in India. From the perspective of soft factors, such as the slow improvement of women's living status in India, they need more convenient sanitary wipes to do cleaning. These soft factors will also drive India's future growth.

II China Wet Wipes Market Overview

1 Market size

In 2018, the market size of China's wet wipes reached about $0.73 billion billion, with a retail sales growth rate of about 10%. From the category, general wet wipes accounted for the largest proportion, followed by baby wipes. Wet toilet paper is the fastest growing category, with a compound annual growth rate of about 40% from 2013 to 2018.

　　2 Distribution of retail channels

From 2013 to 2018, China's wet wipes retail channels have undergone significant changes. First, the proportion of sales channels dropped from 60% in 2013 to 45% in 2018, but it is still the most important sales channel. Second, e-commerce, the proportion of channels increased to 20% in 2018, and began to exceed the proportion of hypermarkets.

　　3 Category Performance

In 2013-2018, China ranked second in terms of retail sales of wet wipes compared to other Asia-Pacific countries. Japan's wet wipes category is the highest proportion of makeup wipes, mainly due to the Japanese women on the makeup requirements are higher, daily at any time to adjust the makeup. China's wet wipes market is a relatively large, the fastest growing category.

　　4 Performance of absolute growth in retail sales

From 2013 to 2018, the absolute value of Asia Pacific wet wipes retail sales increased by about $0.6 billion, most of which was driven by China and South Korea. The absolute value of China's general wet wipes increased by 0.14 billion US dollars, and the growth rate of new wet toilet paper was also very fast, about 0.04 billion US dollars.

Three new trends in personal care wipes

　　1 Product Segmentation

Product segmentation can create segments of the population to position their own brand or function to promote their products to consumers attractive.

DUDE Wipes is an American brand of wipes, positioning for men's special wipes. DUDE Wipes has not only universal wipes, but also odor-removing wipes, cleansing wipes, facial care and body care wipes. These products can not only attract their own brand positioning of the male crowd, but also by virtue of the unique packaging or brand positioning to convey the brand spirit to attract outdoor athletes and women.

　　2 less added

In order to avoid adding ingredients to wet wipes may cause harm to the baby's skin, so most baby wipes claim to add less or no addition. For example, Aqua wipes contain 99% pure water, and Beiqin's "100% pure water" does not contain any spices and no additives. Domestic brands such as Qingfeng, Jierou and Jieyun have launched "EDI Pure Water" wet wipes.

　　3 Natural new raw materials

For different wet wipes product categories and efficacy, such as adding different natural new raw materials, will achieve different effects. For example, adding almond oil to baby wipes has a gentle, skin-moisturizing effect. Makeup remover wipes add carbon, volcanic mud has a better cleaning effect, more clean makeup remover.

4. Summary

1. While market size is important, per capita consumption is more important. Per capita consumption means the value that manufacturers can extract from each consumer. China, Western Europe, North America per capita consumption gap is very large, indicating that China's wet wipes market development potential has yet to be tapped.

2. Innovative content and innovative direction. Innovative content is of great significance to consumers, such as adding new raw materials with different effects for different categories. The direction of innovation can be divergent and is not limited to the sanitary products industry. For example, Shangchao's baby diapers are bundled with baby wipes. In addition to this kind of cooperation with the same category, such as the cooperation of washing machines and laundry detergent, it is also a good inspiration. For the wet wipes retail market, whether smart toilets can cooperate with wet toilet paper? We will wait and see.

3. Environmentally sustainable. In the West and developed countries, there are increasingly stringent requirements for environmental protection, and China will develop in this direction in the future.

(Source: China Textile News)