Mit der weltweit führenden Verkaufszahl: Wie hat diese in Hangzhou ansässige Haarentfernungslaser-Marke den Auslandsmarkt erfolgreich erobert?
The marketing guru Jack Trout once wrote in his classic book Positioning, "To occupy a category in the limited minds of users, the best differentiation for a brand is to be the first. Become the leader or pioneer of the category with far - leading sales. Second, differentiate the category and be the only one in the segmented category, that is, the first in the segmented category."
Ulike, a leading brand in the hair removal device market, can be regarded as a typical example of the positioning theory. After becoming the number one in the hair removal device category within three years of its establishment, it maintains the sales volume of its best - selling products through extensive and high - frequency social media marketing and e - commerce platform promotions. This continuously consolidates and strengthens its "TOP1" market position and consumer perception. In turn, it uses "TOP1" as a marketing selling point to attract more new users and promote sales conversion.
In the more mature overseas hair removal device market, Ulike has achieved rapid growth in sales volume and brand awareness by replicating its successful domestic experience of "best - selling single product + social media marketing". On this basis, to adapt to the specific needs and preferences of different regions, it has made targeted local adjustments in three major aspects: products, channels, and marketing.
1. The domestic TOP1 brand enters the mature overseas market
The Ulike brand was established in 2013 and is affiliated with Hangzhou Youlai Technology Co., Ltd., mainly engaged in household electric hair removal devices.
In the past decade or so, with the rapid expansion of the domestic household hair removal market, which has become the third - largest beauty and personal care consumption category after skincare and makeup, Ulike's business has also achieved rapid growth. Its sales exceeded 100 million yuan in 2016, and since then, its sales volume has ranked first in the household hair removal device category for nine consecutive years. According to Ulike's official data, its products currently account for more than 70% of the domestic market share.
Compared with the domestic market, consumers in many overseas regions have a longer - standing hair removal habit, and their awareness and demand for hair removal products are also higher. According to the research data of QYResearch, the global sales of the household hair removal device market reached 4.397 billion US dollars in 2023, and it is expected to reach 12.86 billion US dollars by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.7% (2024 - 2030).
In the past, the popular hair removal products overseas were mainly smear - type products such as hair removal creams and waxes, or hair removal wax strips that are first stuck and then peeled off. However, the hair removal effect and duration of these products are limited, and they also cause strong pain. Some beauty salons also offer laser hair removal services. However, the hair removal process takes too long and is expensive.
The limitations of traditional hair removal products have given rise to electric hair removal devices. Because they combine the convenience of home - use with the effectiveness of salon products, the market demand has been growing rapidly in recent years. According to the report of Fortune Business Insights, the global market size of laser hair removal devices reached 1.22 billion US dollars in 2024.
Therefore, after establishing a leading position in the domestic market, expanding overseas markets has become a natural choice for Ulike. It started incubating its overseas business at the end of 2019 and fully deployed in the markets of Europe, America, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia after 2022. According to the research data of Frost & Sullivan, Ulike became the brand with the highest global sales of hair removal devices in 2023. In 2024, Ulike was selected for the Kantar BrandZ China Globalization Brand Growth Star List (a total of 15 brands were on the list). Ulike officially disclosed that as of August 2024, its products had been launched and sold in 49 countries, with global sales exceeding 6 million units and the number of global offline stores exceeding 1,000.
2. Dissecting the core overseas strategy: Replicate domestic success + localize operations
Although the overseas markets in Europe, America, and Japan have a large demand base and low product education costs, they have also been occupied by local leading hair removal device brands. Facing such a competitive landscape, as a latecomer, Ulike has achieved rapid sales growth and increased brand awareness in a short period mainly by adopting the business strategy of "replicating domestic success + localizing operations".
The so - called domestic success experience can be summarized as centering around a single best - selling product, strengthening the brand perception of being the market leader through the positive cycle of e - commerce sales and social media marketing.
Specifically, it can be broken down into three steps:
01 Concentrate marketing resources on 1 - 2 core single products. During the e - commerce platform promotions, cooperate with large - scale marketing campaigns on social media to quickly turn the products into best - selling products with the first - ranked sales.
02 Use "sales TOP1" as the subsequent core selling point to attract more new users to be interested and continuously drive traffic to the store and products.
03 Promote the actual conversion of new users and the repurchase of old users through subsidy and other preferential activities to further consolidate the market position of being the number one in sales.
Based on this common approach in Internet e - commerce, Ulike has established local marketing teams in major markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Malaysia, and Vietnam, and made local adjustments in product strategies, sales channels, and marketing methods to better adapt to the consumption preferences of different markets.
Some overseas recruitment information posted by Ulike on its official LinkedIn account
1) Product strategy: Promote core single products + Localize product forms
Ulike's overseas product strategy also drives overall sales with 1 - 2 core best - selling products. Only three products are displayed in the most prominent position on the homepage of the official independent website, including the latest Air10, and the classic Air3 and AirX. These products are also the ones that Ulike focuses on marketing on social media.
However, in terms of product appearance, different from the purple models promoted in North America and Southeast Asia, the Ulike Air10 launched in Japan is mainly in pink. Fia, the manager of the Japanese market in Ulike's overseas division, told us that market research found that Japanese female users prefer to buy light - colored products.
Fia also mentioned that in response to the unique hair removal needs of Japanese men, Ulike has specifically launched a men's hair removal device in Japan. Different from consumers in China, Europe, and America, a men's hair removal boom has emerged in Japan since 2015. Young men pay attention to shaving to keep their faces clean, while middle - aged and elderly men do full - body permanent hair removal in advance for the convenience of elderly care. Many Japanese men find daily shaving troublesome and are embarrassed to go to hair removal shops, so they have a demand for self - help tools with long - term hair removal effects.
Secondly, to differentiate from existing leading brands, Ulike features its patented sapphire ice - point technology, emphasizing that it can avoid the common skin burning sensation and redness problems when using hair removal devices. At the same time, considering that Japanese consumers generally have sensitive skin and pursue a milder experience, Ulike has added a skin color recognition function to avoid damaged skin and lowered the minimum wavelength of the hair removal device from the common 600 to 550 to reduce skin damage and discomfort that Japanese users are worried about.
2) Channel strategy: Expand sales through multi - platform layout + Build the brand through an independent website
In the Chinese market, Ulike has mainly sold its products through e - commerce platforms such as Tmall and Douyin since its establishment, driving sales explosions through e - commerce promotions. Overseas, Ulike has also chosen to start from online channels, mainly deploying on local mainstream e - commerce platforms and leveraging platform traffic to drive rapid sales growth.
In 2023, Ulike's market share on the Amazon US site rose to second place, reaching 11.3%, second only to Braun's 12% (according to the Magic Mirror Oversea report); during the Double 12 promotion in Southeast Asia, through Shopee x Facebook advertising (CPAS) and Shopee Affiliate Marketing (AMS) tools, the single - day sales of all sites increased by 16 times.
Ulike's layout on e - commerce platforms
To quickly find a sales breakthrough on e - commerce platforms, Ulike has adopted the cost - performance strategy that Chinese brands are best at. The main products on Amazon are priced at around 350 US dollars, and on the Japanese Rakuten platform, they are priced at around 40,000 yen. Although both are higher than the domestic prices, they are far lower than those of leading European and American brands such as Braun and Nood (prices are generally between 400 - 500 US dollars) or Japanese brands such as Yaman (prices are generally between 50,000 - 80,000 yen).
Moreover, 300 US dollars is also the price low - point in the overseas electric hair removal device market. According to the research data of Magic Mirror Overseas, the sales of the 299 - 349 US dollar price segment account for more than 20% of the sales on the Amazon US site, but the number of products only accounts for 2.4%. As a result, three months after the Ulike Air 10 was launched on the Amazon US site, the monthly sales of a single product exceeded 6,000 units, and the sales volume exceeded 10 million yuan.
In August 2022, Ulike started operating its brand - independent website as a platform for brand exposure and core product display. To increase the trust of potential users in the products, a buyer - show section is also set up on the homepage of the independent website to display the before - and - after effects of ordinary users using the hair removal device.
Buyer - shows displayed on the homepage of Ulike's official website
In the past month, the total number of visits to Ulike's independent website was 288,000. Among them, 41.19% came from direct visits, 19.91% came from organic search engine traffic, and only 20% of the traffic relied on advertising (including paid, external links, and display ads). This means that in addition to the effect of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Ulike has formed a certain brand awareness overseas.
Proportion of traffic sources of Ulike's official independent website. Source: Similarweb data on May 9, 2025
3) Marketing strategy: Strengthen the brand's TOP1 perception through a KOL + KOC matrix
Nearly 20% of the traffic to Ulike's independent website comes from social media, with the most traffic coming from Facebook and YouTube. Moreover, more than half of the users are aged between 18 - 34, which is the mainstream user group of social media.
Data source: Similarweb
Data source: Similarweb
Currently, Ulike has opened official accounts on mainstream overseas social media platforms and conducts daily operations. In addition to posting product information, it mainly cooperates with a large number of beauty bloggers and other KOLs to publish content such as the usage methods and effect comparisons of Ulike hair removal devices. Through product recommendation and brand topic creation, it drives traffic to e - commerce platforms and promotes sales conversion.
In addition to paid cooperation with KOLs, Ulike also encourages a large number of ordinary users to share UGC content such as product reviews and usage experiences to increase the topic popularity of the brand on social media.
Ulike's overseas social media fan base
In the domestic market, Ulike has cooperated with top - stream anchors such as Li Jiaqi, Wei Ya, Luo Yonghao, and Liu Genghong several times, or invited popular celebrities to publish product recommendation notes. This marketing method has also been transplanted overseas. The most famous one is the cooperation with Kim Kardashian. A video of her experience using the Ulike hair removal device was posted on her social media account, attracting more than 1 million views and driving the exposure of the related topic #Ulikehairremoval to exceed 30 million times within a few days.
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Lin Xueping, a researcher at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, wrote in the book Going Global on a Grand Scale, "The real - sense overseas expansion of an enterprise is not merely a natural continuation of product exports but a re - expansion of the company's genes overseas."
In the past few years, Ulike has completed the first step of opening up overseas markets through the Internet approach of "e - commerce sales + social media marketing". Next, it needs to evolve into a true global brand through product technology innovation and continuous in - depth local operations.
For example, in the Japanese market, Ulike is conducting single - point cooperation with more large - scale offline supermarkets to gradually cultivate local users' perception of the products and brand awareness. The official website shows that currently, the number of Ulike's offline stores in Japan has reached 122.