Retail Channel

German beauty and fragrance retailer Douglas has released its second quarter results showing revenue up 11.5 per cent year-on-year to €958m, adjusted EBITDA up 16.2 per cent to €145.9m and net loss narrowed to €41.3m, the company has learned. The group's chief executive, Sander VanderLaan, said he was pleased with revenue growth and cost control. The group's net debt has been reduced by €1.3bn thanks to its listing in March.

On 6 June, A.S. Watson Group said in a statement on its website that it expects to spend US$250 million over two years to the end of 2024 to open about 1,200 brand new shops, while investing in upgrading about 4,800 shops. In Asia, 75 per cent of the shops will have a new look and feel, offering customers a new experience. In addition, Watsons has already invested in opening and upgrading 2,200 offline and online shops in 15 markets across Asia, Europe and the Middle East by 2023, the official statement said.

On 20 June, beauty retailer Sa Sa International Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Sa Sa International") released its annual results for the year ended 31 March 2024 (FY2024), which showed that the company's financial results for FY2024 had been unchanged from the previous year. According to the results, in FY2024, Sa Sa International achieved operating revenue of HK$4,368 million (approximately RMB4,065 million), representing a year-on-year increase of 24.8%.

By region, Sa Sa International's major revenue came from online and offline retail and wholesale sales channels in Hong Kong and Macau, China, Mainland China and Southeast Asia.

Among them, online and offline turnover in Hong Kong and Macau, China reached HK$3,400 million (approximately RMB3,164 million), accounting for 78.1% of Sa Sa International's total sales, representing an increase of 31.4%;

In the Mainland China market, the online and offline turnover of Sa Sa International reached HK$582 million (approximately RMB542 million), accounting for 13.3% of the total sales of Sa Sa International, representing an increase of 9.7%.

Brand and Industry

Recently, Harbin Sanlian Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "Harbin Sanlian") made its debut at the 28th CBE China Beauty Expo in Shanghai, which means that Harbin Sanlian formally entered the field of beauty. Harbin Sanlian mainly brought three categories of products, namely functional drinks, medical dressings, and cosmetic masks to this exhibition.

UK-based professional make-up supplier Warpaint London has started to target its growth in the key market of the U.S. On 23rd May, as one of its targets, Warpaint London has landed on the OTCQX Best Market board in the U.S., officially completing its secondary listing under the ticker symbol WPNTF.

Nyx Professional Makeup, a L'Oréal beauty brand, released an announcement on its overseas flagship shop on Tmall, announcing that it will end its operations at 00:00 on 21 June 2024 and will no longer accept new orders. At present, according to the Taobao page, Nyx official flagship shop is still normal to participate in Taobao " 618 " activities.

May 27 news, Xiangya Biomedical (Huzhou) Co., Ltd. announced that it has completed nearly 100 million yuan of Series A financing.

On 28 May, medical beauty industry service platform New Oxygen Technology ("New Oxygen") released its financial report for the first quarter of 2024 ended 31 March. According to the financial report, in the first quarter of this year, Xinyao's revenue was RMB 318 million, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%. The growth in revenue was mainly due to growing orders for cosmetics and medical devices, which led to an increase in revenue from the sale of medical products and maintenance services, Xinyao said. In the first quarter, the number of medical service providers subscribing to information services on the Xinyao platform was 1,160, and the scale of paid users on the platform reached 132,800, while the total amount of medical and aesthetic service transactions facilitated was RMB367 million. Based on the current market conditions, Xinyao expects revenue for the second quarter of 2024 to be RMB380 million to RMB400 million, a decrease of 7.8 per cent to 2.9 per cent from the same period of the previous year.

According to the filing information of new cosmetic raw materials on the official website of the State Drug Administration, on 14 May, "Cup Aromatic Hydrocarbon 8A-12C (Filing No.: National Cosmetic Plain Preparation Word 20240034)" of Suzhou Junde Biotechnology Co. "AMPS/HEMA crosslinking polymer (Record No.: Guozhuangyuan Bizi 20240035)" and "Idesia polycarpa fruit/seed oil (Record No.: Guozhuangyuan Bizi 20240036)" of Zhonglin Oil Technology Co. "Ltd. "Glycine tomentella (Glycine tomentella) root extract (Record No.: Guozhuangyuan Bizi 20240037)" completed the record, the technical requirements of the above four new raw materials have not been made public.

Recently, the U.S. well-known efficacy of skincare brand Obagi (Obagi) and pure beauty brand Milk Makeup parent company Waldencast released the first quarter of 2024 financial results. According to the report, Waldencast's first-quarter net income was $68.3 million (RMB 495 million), up 13.8 per cent year-on-year. Adjusted gross profit was US$52.1 million (RMB378 million), up 32.9 per cent year-on-year.

The Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Government has recently released the latest retail sales figures.The provisional estimate of total retail sales for April 2024 is HK$29.6 billion, a 14.7% year-on-year decline. Comparing the first four months of 2024 with the same period in 2023, the provisional estimate of total retail sales decreased by 4.7 per cent.

Ulta Beauty reported first quarter fiscal 2024 results, with group net sales up 3.5 % to $2.7 billion for the quarter ended May 4, slightly below Wall Street forecasts of $2.73 billion. Comparable sales rose 1.6 per cent, compared to 9.3 per cent in the same period last year. Net income was $313.1 million and earnings per share were $6.47, slightly ahead of expectations of $6.24.

As a result of the company's slowing growth, Ulta Beauty announced that it was lowering its full-year expectations, projecting net sales in fiscal 2024 to be in the range of $11.5 to $11.6 billion, down from $11.7 to $11.8 billion in its previous forecast. beginning to show a slowdown.

On 4 June, according to the new cosmetic raw material filing information platform of the State Drug Administration, "dihydroquercetin (filing No. 20240039)" of Guangdong Bawei Bio-technology Co. completed the filing, and the specific technical requirements have not yet been disclosed.

June 3, according to the official website of the State Drug Administration of new cosmetic raw materials for the record information, Zhejiang Huarui Biotechnology Co., Ltd. of the new raw material "3-hydroxybutyric acid glycerol ester (Record No.: National cosmetics original preparation word 20240038)" to complete the record. Specific technical requirements have not been disclosed. Up to now, 38 new raw materials have been filed or updated this year.

On 1 June, Marc Jacobs perfume official flagship shop on Tmall flagship shop issued a notice announcing that it will end its operation on 30 June 2024, and after the shop ends its operation, the membership rights and interests will also be invalidated.

Recently, the domestic make-up brand "Fomomy" released an announcement on the Xiaohongshu platform, saying that its trademark has been approached for transfer, and that all matters related to the brand thereafter will not have any connection with its company and previous team. "Fomomy" Xiaohongshu account may be cancelled. The brand was founded in 2018 and announced in September 2023 that it was closing down.

Recently, the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Supervision official website issued a "general cosmetics record Q & A (sixty-two) (hereinafter referred to as Q & A)", which once again on the cosmetic safety assessment of the relevant issues for further explanation and clarification, which also once again triggered widespread concern in the industry. On the Q & A to give an authoritative response, a number of industry sources have said, "the transition period of 1 year is there, just may need to provide the product has been carried out before 1 May this year to prove the safety assessment."

On 14 June 2024, Shenzhen Vicky Technology Co., Ltd. completed the filing of new raw materials for the record (Record No.: 20240041) for "Patchouli Phenol". At present, the relevant technical requirements have not been disclosed, and has not yet entered the monitoring period.

June 21 news, Maogoping will start the second round of Hong Kong NDR (non-deal roadshow) in early July this year, the IPO transaction size of about 200-300 million U.S. dollars (about 1.452 billion yuan -2.179 billion yuan), the goal of this year's official landing in September on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Previously, Maogoping formally submitted its form to the HKEx on 8 April, with CICC acting as the exclusive sponsor. Its management NDR was launched in mid-May this year.

On 19 June, hair removal device brand Ulike announced that its products have been launched in US specialty consumer electronics retailer Best Buy shops and online at BestBuy.com. The launch also marks the beginning of the brand's entry into the U.S. retail market. Currently, consumers can purchase the brand's products, including the Ulike Air 3 and Ulike Air 10 models, priced at US$329 (roughly Rs. 2,388.61) and US$399 (roughly Rs. 2,896.82), respectively. According to public information, Best Buy is one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in the US, operating nearly 1,000 retail shops in North America.

On 14 June, Bajaj International (Group) Holdings Limited issued a profit warning that it expects to record a smaller net profit in the range of $1 million in the first half of 2024, a drop of about 70% to 80% from the net profit of $4.5 million in the same period of 2023. The decrease in net profit is mainly attributable to the increase in selling and distribution expenses incurred by e-commerce and traditional channels in the first half of 2024, such as the promotional expenses of e-commerce platforms, which will have a negative impact on the Group's net profit margin.

E-commerce platform

May 27 news, the Little Red Book e-commerce buyer operations business and merchant operations business merged to form the e-commerce operations department, which is the second level of e-commerce. The newly merged e-commerce operations department will unify the management of buyer operations and all merchant operations, which will be responsible for by Yinshi, and report to the COO of Little Red Book, Ke Nan. It is reported that live streaming with goods is the direction of investment that Little Red Book e-commerce is focusing on this year.

Recently, according to people familiar with the matter, the GMV of the total merchandise transaction of Jitterbug e-commerce in 2023 is about 2.7 trillion yuan, and the GMV target in 2024 is 4 trillion yuan, an increase of nearly 50%. Jitterbug has not responded to this for the time being.

Baozun E-commerce (NASDAQ:BZUN, HK:9991) announced its Q1 2024 financial results for the quarter ended 31 March 2024. According to the financial report, Baozun's net revenue for the first quarter of 2024 was RMB2 billion, up 5% year-over-year, with service revenue from e-commerce business of RMB1.27 billion, up 4% year-over-year, and revenue from brand management business of RMB310 million. Operating cash flow improved significantly, by $130 million from the same period last year.

According to an internal announcement by Tencent's WeChat, the WeChat video number live e-commerce team will be merged into the WeChat open platform team, including small programs and public numbers, and the former WeChat video number live e-commerce team leader will no longer serve as the management of the team, with the WeChat open platform leader taking over the position.

The latest data from Tmall International shows that from January to March this year, the number of Tmall International beauty brands stationed in the country has increased by 55% compared with the same period last year. Among them, the number of international beauty brands from Europe and South Korea is the fastest growing, with the number of European beauty brands up 150 per cent over the same period last year, and South Korea up 56 per cent over the same period last year. Overseas beauty brands are trying to tap into the new potential of the Chinese market.

On 3 June, according to data from the Amoy Group, the number of beauty brands with a turnover of more than 100 million yuan on Tmall's "618" has reached 43 so far. Compared to last year, this year's beauty "100 million club" added eight "new faces", including: foraging light, Marumi, Elizabeth Arden, Lin Qingxuan, JOVS, Fresh, Ou Shiman, and extreme Meng. International brands on Tmall "618" ushered in strong growth. Lancôme year-on-year growth of more than 20%; Hélène year-on-year growth of more than 30%; the mystery of the sea blue year-on-year growth of more than 40%; Xiu Li Ke year-on-year growth of nearly 50%. Among the national cosmetics brands, Keflex Beauty grew by more than 100% year-on-year; Han Shu grew by more than 170% year-on-year; Marumi grew by more than 400% year-on-year; and Lin Qingxuan grew by nearly 450% year-on-year.

On 5 June, Taobao launched a live fully managed service for entrepreneurs. According to reports, intends to endorse their own business CEO can "zero threshold" in Taobao broadcast, Taobao live will provide from the pallet to the live room operation of a one-stop "nanny" service. From the current public information, the project is called "the CEO of the courage to go forward".

On 3 June, TikTok Shop cross-border e-commerce officially released the "100 million club" special policy, which aims to provide a series of special incentives and resource support to help more and more cross-border self-operated merchants in the U.S. to achieve an early breakthrough in GMV. This policy will give priority to some of TikTok Shop's key cross-border self-operated merchants in the U.S. region.

According to Magic Mirror Insight data, over the past year (May 2023-April 2024), the sales of eye masks across the internet (including TaoTian, Jingdong, and Jitterbug) were 2.7 billion yuan. Among them, Jitterbug's single-platform sales were as high as 1.72 billion yuan, accounting for 63.7%. In fact, the eye film category has always been far ahead in Jieyin. According to Feigua data, as early as 2022, the increase in eye film sales in ShakeEye in the first quarter reached 616%, with a growth rate far exceeding the average value of the beauty and skin care industry, which also illustrates the huge potential of the eye film market.

Tmall Luxury officially launched the trade-in service, which allows consumers to submit pictures and information of their idle luxury goods online at the Tmall official flagship shops of more than a hundred luxury brands, and then complete the recycling after valuation by the service provider. It is worth noting that the platform subsidy for trade-in during this year's Tmall 618 reaches up to RMB 960, which can be directly used to buy new products on Tmall.

According to Fashion Business Alert, Amoy Sky Group previously cancelled the Tmall 618 pre-sale session, as of 0:00 on May 21, a total of 59 brands with sales of more than 100 million, 376 single product turnover of more than 10 million, 11 beauty brands in the opening of the sale in four hours turnover of more than 100 million, Miu Miu, Valentino, Marni and Lemaire, and other luxury brands an hour turnover over the last year's opening sale for the whole day.

June 10, Taobao rules platform in the commodity sampling new "experience sampling" in the form of "experience sampling", and the original "physical and chemical sampling" parallel, and clear the relevant penalty rules, to further strengthen the platform self-testing, to help consumers put a good consumer experience of the first pass. In the May 27 release of the "Taobao experience sampling standards (skin care and makeup category)" implementation rules, Taobao has been on the skin care and makeup products experience sampling standards have been defined in detail.

On 11 June, selective e-commerce platform Yunjie announced its unaudited first-quarter fiscal year 2024 financial results as of 31 March 2024 . According to the report, Yunjie achieved total revenue of RMB 127.9 million in the first quarter (adjusted net profit of RMB 2.98 million after removing equity incentives). In the first quarter, Yunjie focused on two strategic directions, namely "beauty" and "health", and further strengthened the layout of its own brands. In terms of "beauty", Yunjie's brands Suno and P&S continued to launch new products, with their efficacy benchmarked against that of major European and American beauty brands to create super single products. At the same time, Yunjie beauty brand to broaden external cooperation channels, in the content platform and short video platform and other areas of the whole network grass.

On June 19, Jingdong announced this year's "618" report: as of 23:59 on June 18, 2024 Jingdong 618 turnover and orders were at a record high, and Jingdong live orders increased by more than 200% year-on-year. There are 83 brands with cumulative turnover of over 1 billion, more than 150,000 small and medium-sized merchants with sales growth of more than 50%, and the number of new products in beauty and other categories has increased by more than 380% year-on-year. In addition, the number of Jingdong's 10 billion yuan subsidised online goods grew by more than 100% year-on-year, and the number of users and orders grew by more than 150% year-on-year.

The international conglomerate

has learned that L'Oreal Group has partnered with social software Snapchat and retail company Walmart to launch a virtual hair colouring app in the U.S. Using AR technology, consumers can scan the QR code on the packaging of Feria hair dye made by L'Oreal with their mobile phones in order to experience virtual hair colouring results.

From 1 July 2024, new prices will be implemented for some of the Estée Lauder Group's products, according to sources. The price hike involves brands covering six brands, Estee Lauder, Aquamarine, MAC, Barbie Polo, Zumarone, and ORIGINS, totalling more than 500 products. The overall price increase of each brand is basically within 10%, in which the price of 30ml Estee Lauder Palm Bottle increased by 3.6% to 720 yuan, and the price of 150ml Aquamarine Mystery Repair Essence Water increased by 4.1% to 1,520 yuan. As of press time, Estee Lauder Group has not yet responded.

On 4 June, The Estée Lauder Group announced that it had completed the acquisition of The Ordinary's parent company, DECIEM Beauty Group Inc.

Companies Market Cap released its latest company market capitalisation rankings for 2024, in which the world's largest luxury goods giant LVMH was ranked 23rd with a market capitalisation of $395.22bn, while Procter & Gamble rebounded with a market capitalisation of $395.27bn at 22nd place. French cosmetics giant L'Oréal ranked 38th with a market capitalisation of about $259.26 billion, Hermès ranked 43rd with a market capitalisation of about $239.61 billion, and Nike ranked 97th with a market capitalisation of about $144.7 billion.

German skincare company Beiersdorf said the brand's Chinese market will continue to decline in the second quarter of this year, although the company has managed to capture more market share with its brand La Prairie. Beiersdorf CEO Vincent Warnery said that the company is currently unable to achieve growth, and the first and second quarters of this year were very difficult.

According to Beiersdorf's financial results for the first quarter of this year, the group's sales grew organically by 7.3 per cent to 2.6 billion euros, and revenue from the consumer goods business unit grew organically by 10 per cent to 2.2 billion euros.

By brand, Nivea grew 12.6 per cent in the first quarter thanks to a balanced pricing strategy and volume growth, La Prairie grew 1 per cent to get back on the growth track, and Eucerin and Aquaphor grew 10.2 per cent thanks to strong performance in Europe.

According to sources, L'Oreal will increase prices from July this year, and some shopping mall counters have already received relevant notices, involving a number of brands such as Lancôme, Armani and Shu Uemura. This is L'Oreal's second price increase in the year, in February this year, L'Oreal's Biotherm, Koyan's, Saint Laurent, Armani and other brands have increased prices, of which Biotherm rose 30% to 40%, Armani rose within 10%.

L'Occitane Group's exchange filing released on 17 June showed that the company updated its privatisation takeover offer to provide minority shareholders with two options for the acquisition of equity, with minority shareholders choosing either a cash offer of US$4.35 per share or 10 shares in the new company after privatisation in exchange for each of their existing shares.