Ranked #1 in global sales, with market presence in 49 countries, Ulike's three-pronged approach to going global | Navigating the Global Waves
Introduction:
Going global is no longer an option for enterprises, but there are still many choices in the way of going global. Brand expansion overseas, supply chain expansion overseas, cross - border e - commerce... Behind each model, there are countless stories of arduous exploration by Chinese companies; North America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America... On every distant continent, there are an increasing number of international presences of Chinese brands.
From attracting foreign investment forty years ago to "going global in groups" today, Qiantang, as the main front of Hangzhou's export - oriented economy, has always been the bridgehead for enterprises to transform themselves and break through for innovation. The International Service Center for Chinese Enterprises has long been concerned about overseas markets and enterprises going global. Based on this, in 2025, we launched a new column "Wave Riders in Going Global", aiming to find benchmarks in various fields for going global, disassemble practical cases from a professional perspective, precipitate methodologies in the process of seeking consensus, and explore differentiated development paths in non - consensus.
The following is the seventh article in this column.
Jack Trout, a master of marketing, once wrote in his classic work Positioning: "To occupy a category in the limited minds of users, the best differentiation for a brand is to be the first, to be the leader or pioneer of the category with far - leading sales. Secondly, differentiate the category and be the only one in the segmented category, that is, the first in the segmented category."
Ulike, a leading brand of hair removal devices, can be regarded as a typical case of the positioning theory. After becoming the number one in the hair removal device category three years after its establishment, it maintained the sales volume of its hit products through extensive and high - frequency social media marketing and e - commerce platform promotions, thus continuously consolidating and strengthening its "TOP1" market position and consumer perception. In turn, it used "TOP1" as a marketing selling point to promote the acquisition of more new users and sales conversion.
In the more mature overseas hair removal device market, Ulike achieved a rapid increase in sales volume and brand awareness by replicating its successful domestic experience of "hit products + social media marketing". On this basis, to adapt to the specific needs and preferences of different regions, it made targeted local adjustments in three aspects: products, channels, and marketing.
Domestic TOP1 Brand
Entering Overseas Mature Markets
The Ulike brand was established in 2013 and is affiliated with Hangzhou Youlai Technology Co., Ltd., mainly dealing 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 skin care 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 current market share in the domestic market has reached over 70%.
Compared with the domestic market, consumers in many overseas regions have a longer - standing hair removal habit and a higher level of awareness and demand for hair removal products. 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).
Previously, 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 pasted 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, but 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. Due to the combination of the convenience of home use and the effectiveness of salon products, the market demand has been growing rapidly in recent years. According to a report by 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, the United States, 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 into 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.
Analysis of Core Overseas Strategies:
Replicate Domestic Success + Localized Operations
Although the overseas markets such as those in Europe, the United States, 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 late - comer, Ulike achieved rapid growth in sales volume and increased brand awareness in a short period of time mainly by adopting the business strategy of "replicating domestic success + localized operations".
The so - called domestic success experience can be summarized as: Centering around a single hit product, strengthen the brand perception of being the market leader through the positive cycle of e - commerce sales and social media marketing.
Specifically, it can be disassembled into three steps:
01
Concentrate marketing resources on 1 - 2 core products. During major e - commerce platform promotions, cooperate with large - scale marketing campaigns on social media to quickly turn the products into hit products with the first - ranked sales volume.
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, so as to make localized adjustments in product strategies, sales channels, and marketing methods to better adapt to the consumption preferences of different markets.
Picture: Some overseas recruitment information posted by Ulike on its official LinkedIn account
1 Product Strategy
Make Core Products a Hit + Localize Product Forms
Ulike's overseas product strategy is also driven by 1 - 2 core hit products to boost overall sales. The most prominent positions on the official independent website's homepage are only used to display three products, including the latest model Air10, as well as the classic models Air3 and AirX. These products are also the key products for Ulike's social media marketing.
However, in terms of product appearance, different from the purple models主推 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 business department, told us that this is because 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 specially launched a men's hair removal device in Japan. Different from consumers in China, Europe, and the United States, 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 permanent whole - body 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 - service tools with long - term hair removal effects.
Secondly, to differentiate from existing leading brands, Ulike focuses on its patented sapphire ice - point technology in terms of product selling points, 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
Layout on Multiple Platforms to Boost Sales + Build Brand on Independent Website
In the Chinese market, Ulike mainly sold its products through e - commerce platforms such as Tmall and Douyin from the very beginning. Rely on major e - commerce promotions to drive sales explosions. Overseas, Ulike also chose 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 the second place, reaching 11.3%, second only to Braun's 12% (according to the Oversea report by Magic Mirror); during the Double 12 promotion in Southeast Asia, through the Shopee x Facebook advertising (CPAS) and Shopee Affiliate Marketing (AMS) tools, the single - day sales of all sites increased by 16 times.
Mainly Deploy on E - commerce Platforms
North America
Amazon, TikTok, Best Buy
Japan
Amazon, Rakuten
Southeast Asia
Shopee, Lazada
To quickly find a sales breakthrough on e - commerce platforms, Ulike adopted the cost - performance strategy that Chinese brands are best at. The main products on Amazon are priced at around 350 US dollars, and those on the Japanese Rakuten platform are priced at around 40,000 yen. Although these prices are higher than the domestic ones, they are much 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 trough in the overseas electric hair removal device market. According to the research data of Overseas by Magic Mirror, the sales of products in the price range of 299 - 349 US dollars account for more than 20% 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 independent brand website as a platform for brand exposure and core product display. To increase the trust of potential users in the products, a user - generated content (UGC) section is also set up on the homepage of the independent website, showing the before - and - after effects of ordinary users using the hair removal device.
Picture: User - generated content 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, of which 41.19% were direct visits, 19.91% were from organic search traffic on search engines, 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 recognition overseas.
Picture: Proportion of traffic sources to Ulike's official independent website
Source: similarweb, data as of May 9, 2025
3 Marketing Strategy
Strengthen the Brand Perception of TOP1 through 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 on social media.
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 post content such as the usage methods and effect comparisons of Ulike hair removal devices, and drives traffic to e - commerce platforms and promotes sales conversion through product recommendation and brand topic creation.
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.
In the domestic market, Ulike has cooperated with top - tier live - streamers such as Li Jiaqi, Wei Ya, Luo Yonghao, and Liu Genghong several times, or invited popular celebrities to post product recommendation notes. This marketing method has also been transplanted overseas. The most well - known example is the cooperation with Kim Kardashian, who posted a video of her experience using the Ulike hair removal device 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.
Conclusion
Lin Xueping, a researcher at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, wrote in the book Going Global on a Large Scale: "The real - sense going global of an enterprise is not just 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 real global brand through product technology innovation and continuous in - depth localized operations.
For example, in the Japanese market, Ulike is currently 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, covering multiple regions such as Tokyo, Fukuoka, Kanagawa, Hokkaido, and Okinawa.
Fia said that in the future, Ulike still needs to obtain more support from Chinese and local partners in terms of product compliance and localized services. "The entry of Chinese brands into overseas markets has never been a solo process."
This article is from the WeChat official account "Hangzhou Qiantang Enterprise Going Global Service Base", author: Qiantang Going Global. It is published with authorization from Qiantang.
