The L’Oréal-owned American cosmetic brand Maybelline is step by step adjusting its online and offline mix in China because it goals to shift its focus to the web market, the brand confirmed Wednesday.

Local media reported that the brand is step by step phasing out all physical stores in China.

Maybelline clarified that it is just shutting down underperforming and end of leasing contract stores available in the market. The brand still operates around 10,000 offline stores, including those in Watsons and cosmetics stores in China, in addition to online flagships on Tmall and JD.com.

The brand also claimed that it gained online market share within the second quarter of 2022.

In an announcement sent to WWD, the brand said “With the intention to adapt to the changes available in the market and consumer demand, ranging from 2020, Maybelline Recent York in China has step by step carried out the strategic transformation from traditional channels to Online + Offline channels, thus bringing consumers a diversified and interactive beauty shopping experience.”

The century-old beauty brand, acquired by L’Oréal in 1996, entered the Chinese market in 1997 and shortly became a preferred selection for numerous women who moved from the countryside to big cities in pursuit of an office jobs because the nation was shifting to a service industry-led economy on the time.

Maybelline was a key player within the inexpensive cosmetic sector through brick-and-mortar channels akin to supermarkets and shops, however the brand in recent times didn’t meet up with local competitors and adapt to the disruptive Chinese e-commerce model.

The brand withdrew from the supermarket channel in 2018 and started to depart shops in 2020.

This shift coincides with the rise of C-beauty brands, in addition to L’Oréal step by step pivoting its focus toward the prestige category.

Data from market researcher Qianzhan Industry Research Institute shows that Maybelline’s market share within the Chinese market fell to 4.9 percent last 12 months from 10.7 percent in 2018, while Florasis and Perfect Diary became two of the preferred brands, taking market shares of 6.8 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.

L’Oréal’s consumer products division grew 4.5 percent to 12.23 billion euros in 2021 year-over-year, while its luxe division reported a 21.3 percent increase in the identical period to 12.35 billion euros, becoming the corporate’s largest business unit for the primary time.

While shutting all of the Maybelline stores, the group earlier this month introduced Carita, the luxurious skincare brand from 11 Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, in China and is opening two stores in Nanjing and Beijing later this 12 months.