Due to the differences in economic development level and living habits, the development level of household retail tissue market varies from continent to continent. Due to the advantages of population and more emerging markets, the sales volume of retail tissue in Asia Pacific region accounts for 33% of the global total, followed by North America, Western Europe, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Oceania. Among them, Western Europe and North America have relatively mature market development and relatively small development potential, while Asia Pacific region, especially Southeast Asia and Africa have the largest market development potential.

       The paper market in the Asia Pacific region is huge in scale, and Southeast Asia is the fastest growing market. Due to the large number of emerging countries and the growing middle class, the market still has great growth potential in the future. The development trend of tissue industry in the Asia Pacific region is as follows:

      First, with the growing middle class, various household paper brands continue to innovate, hoping to attract middle and high-income groups through higher quality products.

       Second, consumers are more and more concerned about the environment and climate change, and tend to use environmentally friendly products. Manufacturers continue to launch environmentally friendly household paper. Third party safety certification is an important purchase standard, which can ensure the safety of products. Many consumers are willing to spend more money on safe and reliable products.

      Third, the tissue industry in the Asia Pacific region continues to expand fiber types and adopt more sustainable fibers, such as bamboo and straw.

       The overall development level of African tissue market is low, but the growth is fast. As shown in Figure 4, as a country with a high level of development, South Africa's retail tissue sales are significantly higher than those of other African countries, followed by Nigeria, Angola, Kenya, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon, Ethiopia, etc.

     The development trend of African tissue industry is as follows:

      First, the industry has great market potential. Except Angola, other African countries are showing a growth trend. It is expected that the demand and sales volume of household retail tissue will increase by 2023.

       Second, at present, the per capita consumption of paper in Africa is low, and there is still great potential to tap. Coupled with the gradual improvement of macro-economy and the industry's efforts to improve product awareness and purchase convenience, it is conducive to the growth of tissue sales in African countries.

       Third, there are still great risks in the African market. For example, some products are too cheap, profits are extremely low, and economic and political instability will lead to consumer spending reduction, which is not conducive to the development of the industry.

New trend of industry development

(1) Private brand rises suddenly

       In the global retail tissue market, private brands account for 21% of the market share (Figure 5), even more than many world-famous brands. At present, the sales volume of its own brand market mainly comes from Western Europe and North America. Amazon launched its own household paper brand "presto!" After that, many e-commerce platforms are eager to try, trying to make further use of e-commerce platforms by setting up private brand products. In 2018, private brands in the United States accounted for 27% of the national retail sales of tissue, while Western Europe accounted for a larger proportion, while the share of private brand toilet paper in Russia even more than doubled in the past five years. In the future, the share of private brands in developing countries is likely to gradually rise. The flexible sales mode of private brands, good at innovation, plus the e-commerce and direct consumer oriented business model, make it have a relatively bright development prospect.

        At present, the macro-economy is weak and the degree of economic recovery is uneven. Products with high cost performance are particularly favored by the market. Private brands are good at "going down" and shorten the distance with consumers. Compared with traditional advantage brands, private brands have lower cost and obvious price advantage.

       Therefore, the rising share of private brands has brought great pressure to brand product manufacturers. However, this does not mean that the traditional advantage brand products will be in a disadvantageous competitive position. The traditional advantage brand constantly carries out product innovation, produces more value-added products in the high-end and other advantage fields, and further excavates the potential value of fixed customer groups.

(2) Emerging markets are growing rapidly, and China will remain at the leading level

        The growth frontier of the global tissue market is constantly shifting. As the markets in Western Europe and North America become more and more mature, Asian and African countries are expected to be at the forefront of growth, with rapid growth in demand and sales, including India, Vietnam, Kenya, Cameroon, Algeria, Morocco and other countries. By 2023, China will still be the country with the largest sales volume of tissue in the world.

(3) Sustainable development is the general trend of the industry

         With the global attention to climate and environment, and the shortage of fiber raw materials is frequently mentioned, sustainable development has become one of the focuses of the industry. The industry is trying to explore the potential of new materials and develop non wood pulp products as a supplement. Western Europe pays the most attention to sustainable development and mentions it the first time. Therefore, consumers have a high degree of favor for environmental protection products. However, due to the long history of this awareness and the fact that brands have generally paid attention to the significance of sustainable development, the Western European market needs to seek more highlights to attract consumers. In many emerging markets, environmentally sustainable products are still the hot spots for brands to attract consumers.