Baozun - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by for Baozun's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the management prepares remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's call, Ms. Wendy Sun, Senior Director of Corporate Development and Investor Relations of Baozun. Please proceed, Ms. Wendy.

Wendy Sun (Senior Director of Corporate Development and Investor Relations)

Thank you, Operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Our first quarter 2025 earnings release was distributed earlier before this call and is available on our IR website at ir.baozun.com, as well as on PR Newswire Services. We have also posted a PowerPoint presentation that accompanies our comments to the same IR website, where they are available for your download. On the call today from Baozun, we have Mr. Vincent Qiu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Ms. Catherine Zhu, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Junhua Wu, Director and Chief Strategy Officer of Baozun Group; and Mr. Ken Huang, Chief Executive Officer of Baozun Brand Management. Mr. Qiu will first share our business strategy and company highlights. Ms. Zhu will then discuss our financials, followed by Mr. Wu and Mr. Huang, who will share more about our e-commerce and brand management segments, respectively.

They will all be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session that follows. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 as a mandate, the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as a mandate, and the U.S. Private Securities Regulation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors

Securities and Exchange Commission and its announcement, notice, or other documents published on the website of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, Limited. All information provided in this call is as of the date here and is based on assumptions that the company believes to be reasonable as of this date, and the company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement except as required in the applicable law. Finally, please note that, unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned during this conference call are in RMB. In addition, we may elect to use adjusted in place of non-generally accepted accounting principles or non-GAAP in order to reduce all raw confusion that may arise from our discussions about financials related to the Gap brand. It is now my pleasure to introduce our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Vincent Qiu. Vincent, please go ahead.

Vincent Qiu (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, Wendy. Hello, everyone, and thank you all for your time. I'm pleased to report that Baozun continues to execute our strategic transformation with constant quarterly progress. Our revenue streams are now more diversified, and our operational excellence continues to strengthen across the businesses. Baozun Group achieved 4% year-over-year revenue growth. BEC sustained a stable top line while BBM accelerated its strong momentum with 23% year-over-year sales growth. BEC is making strides in quality development and value generation for our brand partners. Our ongoing progress in omnichannel and content creation initiatives is transforming customer engagement and the shopping experience. We also improved the quality of our product sales model, achieving both healthy top-line growth and gross margin expansion. In addition, we are leveraging technology and AI applications to build a leaner and efficient organization.

These innovations set a clear path for margin expansion for BEC and foster a culture of excellence. Within BBM, both Gap and Hunter are performing ahead of expectations. Our efforts to localize teams, products, and merchandising plans for Gap are yielding strong results. As Gap China continues to innovate and grow, we remain committed in delivering exceptional value to customers. Meanwhile, Hunter expanded the product offering category, achieved strong sales growth, and received widespread recognition. To capitalize on this momentum and further strengthen Hunter's footprint, we will open three new stores simultaneously this May in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Overall, we closed the quarter with a constant positioning to accelerate our transformations through 2025. Notably, 2025 marks Baozun's 18th anniversary, a symbolic and a strategic milestone. I'm proud of how far we've come. In China tradition, 18 signifies a time of renewed vigor, maturity, and ambition.

We view this milestone as a reflection of our transformation into an innovation-led platform focusing on long-term value creation. Now, I will turn the call over to our team for a deeper look into our financials and the business performance.

Catherine Zhu (CFO)

Thanks, Vincent, and hello, everyone. Now, let me provide a more detailed overview of financial results for the first quarter of 2025. Please turn to slide number three. Baozun Group's total net revenues for the first quarter of 2025 increased by 4.3% year-over-year to RMB 2.1 billion. Of this total, e-commerce revenue grew slightly by 1.4% to RMB 1.7 billion, while brand management revenue rose by 23% to RMB 387 million. Breaking down e-commerce revenue by business model, services revenue remained flat at RMB 1.3 billion. BEC product sales revenue increased 7.3% year-over-year to RMB 423 million, driven by strong performance in new categories. BBM product sales totaled RMB 387 million, representing a 23% year-over-year growth. This growth was mainly driven by the strong performance of the Gap brand, with both online and offline channels delivering healthy gains. Please turn to slide number four.

From a profitability perspective, our blended gross margin for product sales at the group level was 32.4%. Gross profits increased by 18.9% year-over-year to RMB 262 million for the quarter. Breaking this down by our key business lines, gross margin for e-commerce product sales expanded to 15%, a 130 basis point improvement compared to 13.7% a year ago. This margin expansion was primarily driven by product mix diversification. Gross margin for BBM was 51.6%, compared with 53.1% a year ago. The decrease was mainly due to product offering adjustment and optimization of commercial plans for the Gap brand. Now, turning to bottom-line items, please refer to slide number five. During the quarter, our adjusted loss from operations totaled RMB 67 million. This included an adjusted operating loss of RMB 46 million from e-commerce segment, a decline of RMB 58 million from the same period last year.

The decline was mainly due to low seasonality for e-commerce retail in Q1, as well as personnel adjustments and the strategic investment initiative to transform and realign with our operational tactics. We incurred approximately RMB 18 million in restructuring costs related to human resource reform in the quarter. BBM's adjusted operating loss totaled RMB 21 million, an improvement of 28% from the same period of last year. Lastly, please turn to slide number six. We published our 2024 sustainability report, highlighting tangible progress across environmental, social, and governance metrics in April. We achieved a 36% reduction in scope one to carbon emissions versus our base year 2021, and we are on track with our commitment to reduce by 50% by 2030. These initiatives demonstrate our commitment to building sustainable and responsible business. Let me now pass the call over to Junhua to update you on BEC, our e-commerce business.

Junhua Wu (Director and Chief Strategy Officer)

Thanks, Catherine, and hello, everyone. Since resuming full active duties in March, I'm pleased to report that BEC is now firmly aligned with our commitment to profitability and sustainable growth. In Q1 2025, we made meaningful progress across key strategic priorities, revitalizing e-commerce, enhancing our value proposition, expanding omnichannel capabilities, and driving technology-led efficiency improvements. These early achievements align closely with the objectives of our 2025 annual operating plan, which emphasized integrated business management, profit-focused execution, and a leaner, more agile organizational model. Now, let me quickly walk through some of our operational highlights in the e-commerce segment for the first quarter of 2025. BEC revenue totaled RMB 1.7 billion, largely flat compared to the same period last year. However, our strategic investment in enhancing distribution capabilities is beginning to yield compelling results. Please turn to slide number seven.

In Q1, BEC's product sales grew by 7%, driven by standout category performance in home and furniture, alcohol, and health and nutrition. Gross profit margin also improved by 130 basis points to 15%, supported by breakthroughs in new categories and renewed terms with several existing brand partners. Turning to BEC service perspective, as shown on slide number eight, while BEC service revenue remained flat, we made structural mix change aimed at quality enhancement. Revenues from online store operations grew by 12% year-over-year, driven by strong performance in the luxury and apparel categories, as well as continued progress in omnichannel initiatives. Notably, we achieved strong double-digit revenue growth on JD.com and Douyin, and triple-digit growth on RedNote for the quarter. Recently, Baozun was nominated as part of the first batch of RED partners, uniquely among traditional Tmall Partners.

In the contraction segment, revenue from warehouse and logistics, as well as digital marketing and IT, each declined by a middle single-digit year-over-year. The decline in warehouse and logistics revenue was mainly due to reduced volume from several key clients in the sportwear segment. While we anticipate the challenges to persist with certain clients, we have proactively focused on expanding our B2B business and business development in emerging segments such as outdoor and FMCG category within our warehouse operations. In our digital marketing business, we prioritize value-added marketing while optimizing passive performance marketing to enhancing profitability and capital allocation efficiency. As content becomes increasingly critical to success in e-commerce, we are committed to innovating in content creation capabilities to stay ahead of the curve.

Recently, our content creation efforts were recognized in the Alimama Ecosystem Conference, where we received awards for top performance team in Taobao operations and top data-driven investment team, as well as the Alimama Future Business Award. Q1 2025 demonstrates BEC's focus and precise execution. E-commerce is regaining momentum. Distribution is scaling profitability. Omnichannel platforms are advancing, and technology investments are driving measurable efficiencies. These results validate our annual plan's profit-centric framework. With solid execution and a clear strategic mandate, BEC is poised to deliver lasting value throughout 2025 and beyond. Now, I'll pass the call to Ken for an update on Baozun Brand Management.

Ken Huang (CEO of Brand Management)

Thank you, team, and thank you all. Please turn to slide number nine for additional insights into BBM. I'm happy that we carried our strong momentum into Q1, achieving 23% year-on-year sales growth and acceleration from 17% in the previous quarter. Total BBM revenue for the quarter was RMB 387 million, driven by improvements across key operating metrics, including same-store sales growth, traffic growth, and conversion rate. Overall, our same-store sales growth improved to 5% for the quarter. As discussed in our previous call, our strategic priorities moving forward are clearly defined: channels, merchandising, and marketing. In the first quarter, we achieved growth in both online and offline channels, even amidst ongoing macroeconomic challenges. Throughout 2024, we conducted a comprehensive store network optimization and collaborated with key strategic partners to tap into emerging markets. In the first quarter, we closed another four stores.

Our optimized offline network has achieved healthier productivity with double-digit growth in sales per square meter compared to a year ago. More encouraging, stores opened in the second half of 2024 have generally achieved higher efficiency. Year to date, we have secured an opening pipeline of more than 40 new stores with about 10 set to officially open in the second quarter. Our merchandising strategy remains closely attuned to market dynamics. In the first quarter, we focused on responsive product planning and a compelling pricing strategy, all of which have strengthened customer engagement, hence traffic and conversion. We also leveraged data analytics to identify and target high-potential customer segments in emerging markets, tailoring our product offerings to meet their specific needs. Our marketing initiatives in Q1 further deepened Gap's brand resonance through localized storytelling.

A standout example was our collaboration with the Forbidden City during Chinese Spring Festival, which showcased our ability to blend China's rich cultural heritage with Gap's brand DNA, emphasizing comfort, safety, and quality. By the end of the first quarter, the Forbidden City collaboration had generated a total sales of RMB 10 million and also recorded at the highest sales rate for any IP collaborations in our history during the same period. Building more local cultural relevance is one of our key strategies in China. We will continue to explore and engage in more collaborations with Chinese culture IPs to enhance our market influence. In January, we kicked off our community engagement trial, Brand and Bear Events, at our flagship store in Shanghai. This initiative is designed to create a memorable experience for families and children while fostering a positive brand image.

We also amplified our reach by leveraging social media platforms and influencers to better connect with younger audiences. Our Brand and Bear campaign deepened emotional connections with consumers, contributing Kids & Baby to be the highest growing sector during the quarter. We plan to expand such community engagement initiatives to other cities in the coming quarters. Overall, gross margin for BBM grew 20%, with the blended gross margin remaining healthier at 52% for the quarter. Operationally, we made continuous progress in efficiency enhancement. Our adjusted operating loss narrowed by 28% year-over-year to RMB 21 million, thanks to displaying the cost management and better unit economics. Looking ahead, BBM's partnership with Gap Inc. continues to strive, fueled by our local expertise and strong execution. With double-digit top-line growth in Clearview for 2025, we are in a strong position to further unlock new avenues for growth and improve profitability as we keep scaling.

That concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you. Operator, we are now ready to begin the Q&A session.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Our first question will come from Alicia Yap with Citigroup. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Alicia Yap (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Hi, good morning. Good evening, management. Thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple of questions here. One is that just if management can give us updates in terms of what your expectations for this year 618, and then any preliminary result that you can see from just the past one week or so on the promotion, and then across your different e-commerce platform, how do you think it's actually trending, which platforms it's actually generating or getting more traction? Second question is that I know we've been working on the IT and also logistics service. Wondering any of the can we have we actually able to get more brands actually onboarding to use our IT services and also the logistics services? Thank you.

Junhua Wu (Director and Chief Strategy Officer)

Okay. Thank you, Alicia, for the question. This is Junhua. Let me address your first question about the campaign of 618. This 618 is the longest campaign by far. It started from the 13th of May to the 20th of June. It's about a 37-day campaign. If you're talking about some kind of difference between this 618 with the others, they provide a lot of instant discounts at day one. Without giving a lot of threshold discounts, they provide some lower tiers with a sliding scale starting from 200 - 20 to 5,000 - 500. As you can see, this is only about eight days after the 13th of May. I can only share you with the first wave result. As far as we're concerned and we observed from our number, the first wave came really well.

A lot of brands, they keep ramping up their presale stage, and their existing transactions convert rate is really pretty well. In terms of the cancel rate, now the current data suggests we have a single mid-digit lower down than the last year, which means a better result. The return rate is also relatively lower than last year, which is also a better result. As far as we still have about 50% of the shipment still ongoing, maybe we can share the data later on after the next wave or someday in the middle of June. In the categories differentiation, we look forward to see, of course, the first one is home appliance category, and consumer electronics category is ramping up very well because of the subsidies from the government. Also, luxury category and fashion apparel category is also very catching up.

We can see that the home appliance category and the fashion luxury category is leading the 618 by far. The second thing is about the IT services and logistics services. For the IT part, you can see that our revenue growth has a little bit declined year-over-year because the cadence of the IT services is very different from the regular store like our flagship store operations. They have to just sign a new client. Based on different kind of the solution they provide, the revenue contribution period and cadence is very different. A lot more brands are focusing on the new one-stock solution to leverage their online inventory with their offline inventory, especially with their offline flagship stores. More and more brands are exploring the possibility with Baozun's IT team to think about a one-stock solution.

We have a strong confidence that in the coming Q3 and Q4, we can catch up the revenue growth. For the logistics service traction, we can say that right now, as you might know, we're focusing on several key clients, as like the reporter just said. We focus on several key clients, and their business is remaining flat. Some of them are declining. Keep supporting those clients. We need to just keep supporting them and increase the quality of the services and also have a new development of new B2B and some kind of the return reverse warehousing and logistics services as a complement. Okay. Hope that makes sense to you.

Operator (participant)

The next question will come from Jay Yuen with Citic. Please go ahead.

Jay Yuen (Analyst)

Good evening, management. Thank you for taking my question. Congratulations on this quarter's strong performance. My first question is regarding the BBM sector. Is there any updates for the Gap operation strategy, and how does the company plan to balance scale expansion with profitability? Is Baozun considering acquiring more new brands? That's my first question. My second question concerns the recent collaboration between RedNote and Tmall. What is Baozun's strategy, and have companies seen brands allocate more resources to RedNote? Thank you.

Ken Huang (CEO of Brand Management)

Okay. This is Ken. I will answer the first question about the strategy of Gap. I think from 2025, our strategy is quite clear in product marketing and channels. For product, we are further enhancing the Gap's DNA. We are trying to enhance our key Gap categories, including Gap Denim, Gap Khaki, Gap Sweatshirt, and the Kids & Baby category. At the same time, we want to be more balanced between the local assortments and global products to bring more value to our Chinese customers. For marketing, we are creating more local culture relevance, including the IP collaboration with the Forbidden City, we just did, and we will continue to do this year. Starting from last month, we also launched a series of RedNote campaigns with the key KOLs, delivering our connections with our customers through music and dance.

The third one about channel, I think for online channels, we are expanding all channels, and our advantage is our faster response to every platform. We are further improving our supply chain for our online exclusive products. For offline, we are partnering with a number of strategic partners in different regions for us to further expand our local stores in emerging markets. In terms of balancing our scale and profits, I think we continue looking for the increase of scale. As we mentioned, we will keep a double-digit increase this year. We target to open 50 new stores this year. With the increased scale, it will help us to balance our back office cost and in the end, to break even.

We want to keep this momentum quarter by quarter to deliver solid results and in the end to reach a break-even point in the last quarter. Of course, when we are balancing the scale and the profit, we are also considering our brand. We will still continue investing in our brand marketing. Yes, it's really a challenge, but in the same time, I think we are confident by working with the Gap Inc. team together for the branding part.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Again, if you have a question, please press star, then one.

Vincent Qiu (Chairman and CEO)

I think for the second question.

Alicia Yap (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

I think the second question regarding the later level again and Tmall and also whether the company's plans for acquiring new brands are not just yet. Maybe Mr. Junhua, you can share.

Vincent Qiu (Chairman and CEO)

Maybe you can say something about the RedNote and Tmall first.

Junhua Wu (Director and Chief Strategy Officer)

Yes. Sure.

Yes. Yes. I believe that you were asking about the Red Cat Initiative. Let me explain that to you, use it before and after kind of scenario. Before the Red Cat Initiative, we used to spend a lot of marketing spending on RedNote for seeding, for new arrivals, and for driving some keys for consumers can really just get a lot of content on RedNote before they drop in transactions. Like 10 years ago, when a consumer made their decision for purchasing, they used to go open in PDP and then reading a lot of reviews of the product and then make the decision. Now they're using RedNote as a UGC content platform to getting a lot of information from different angles and then place a transaction on the Tmall, JD.com, wherever they are familiar to.

The Red Cat project is directly provided way to just link directly from the content or a different link or different keys or different forwarding from RednNote directly to Tmall transaction PDP page. You can seamlessly experience that kind of things. The Red project to us is more related to the performance marketing part. For now, in the 618 Campaign, several of our brand partners already relocate some of their online performance marketing budget from the in-Tmall search performance marketing budget to the Red Cat project. We can directly just invest on driving traffic on RedNote from all the seeds or the content and getting the transaction done. Compared with the ROI for now, the ROI is relatively higher than the one on the Tmall inside performance marketing results.

Because this is very new, the Red Cat Initiative is only just open for two weeks, and we have only several brands for trying that kind of initiatives. We will get back to you with a more detailed result after we have a significant awareness and balancing all those kind of ROIs in a stable way. Yeah, hope that makes sense to you.

Vincent Qiu (Chairman and CEO)

Okay. This is Vincent. I'm making some comments for your third part of the questions, which is a new brand acquisition plan for the, I think it is for the brand management part of our business. BBM, actually, our strategy is a portfolio strategy, which means we'll do multiple brands and trying to build up the synergy in different brands. That is the strategy. So far, we have two brands already. First one is Gap. Second one is Hunter. Both doing quite well.

For other new brands, they can be easier onboard to our BBM platform. If it is a majorly distribution model, it can be also onboard our BEC platform. We have two platforms for the new brands to onboard. Sometimes you can imagine that BEC and BBM will meet in the middle. That gives the potential brands more opportunities to work easier, more focused on product development or channel development. We always have a quite strong pipeline for BEC and also BBM. Recently, given the macroeconomic situation, we are quite careful and cautious in onboarding new brands. Yeah. We are seeing more and more synergies between brands and between brands in BEC and BBM and also between BBM and BEC. Yeah. Hope that answers your question. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Very clear. The next question will come from Chris Kao with Haitong Securities. Please go ahead.

Chris Kao (Equity Analyst)

Thank you, management, for taking my question. I have two questions. The first question is about apparel and sports. I think these two categories are performing very well this quarter compared to the overall weak market consumption sentiment. Could you please share the key drivers behind it, and how should we think about the future trends of these two categories? My second question is about the BBM sector. As the 618 Campaign approached, how should we think about the potential opportunity of integration of the BBM sector and BEC sector during the 618 Campaign? Thank you. These are my two questions.

Junhua Wu (Director and Chief Strategy Officer)

Okay, Chris. The first question is Junhua. The first question is regarding the apparel and sportswear category. So this is for me. Yes, indeed, the apparel, especially sportswear and luxury apparel category, they are the key in the battlefield across different platforms, especially as far as you might know that JD, they've been restructured and hired some kind of key players in charge of their apparel category, which used to work for Tmall. Apparel and sportswear and luxury, they are rat-racing in a very heavy way, especially in those big campaigns like 618. They've been spending a lot on providing coupons and instant discounts in this category. Yes, as far as the momentum currently for apparel and sportswear industry, everybody is catching up. Some of the leading brands, they are ramping up. They've been spending a lot of drivers in differentiating different consumers.

They spend a lot of investment into segregating different kinds of consumers by different tiers. Like they set up the apparel into trendsetters, quality chasers, pragmatic consumers, and price-sensitive consumers. Based on the consumer study, we've been spending a lot of time finding the right assortment, leveraging the right message, using the right marketing approach way to send a group of assortment to the right group of consumers to make the right transaction. For apparel, sportswear, and luxury category, more and more resources are spending into the day-to-day operations based on data bank they provide, based on historical data, based on a lot of merchandising and assortment collections we can work with our brand partners. We look forward to foreseeing this category have a better momentum in this 618 and maybe across this year.

Ken Huang (CEO of Brand Management)

Okay. For the second question, for the synergies between BBM and the BEC, I think we mentioned that the synergies we are having from the beginning because for BBM, all our brands, both our brands, Gap and Hunter, we are working very closely with BEC for TP service, DP service, logistics service, IT service, and digital marketing service. It is not just for 618. It is for our day-to-day work. Especially mentioning the 618, I think the advantage is we have more for BBM, we have more all channels information in advance and the resources management. We can anticipate what we should respond to each platform. BBM as a platform that can produce products itself, our advantage is to make our supply chain more responsive, fast response to the different platforms' needs.

I think this is a major advantage between BBM and the BEC when we are facing fast-changing platform strategies. Hope.

Chris Kao (Equity Analyst)

Thank you.

Vincent Qiu (Chairman and CEO)

Answer your question.

Operator (participant)

Again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Alicia Yap (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Okay. Thank you, operator. On behalf of the Baozun Management Team, we would like to thank you for your participation in today's call. If you require any further information, feel free to reach out to us. Thank you for joining us today. This concludes the call. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.