Vipshop - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Transcript

Speaker 0

Ladies and gentlemen, good day everyone, and welcome to Vipshop Holdings Ltd.'s second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Ms. Jessie Zheng, Vipshop's Head of Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Thank you, Operator. Hello everyone, and thank you for joining Vipshop's second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. With us today are Eric Shen, our Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, and Mark Wang, our CFO. Before management begins their prepared remarks, I would like to remind you that the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those outlined in our Safe Harbor statements in our earnings release and public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which also apply to this call to the extent any forward-looking statements may be made.

Please note that certain financial matters used on this call, such as non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop shareholders, and non-GAAP net income per ADS, are not presented in accordance with the U.S. GAAP. Please refer to our earnings release for details relating to the reconciliation of our non-GAAP matters to GAAP matters. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Eric Shen.

Speaker 3

Good morning and good evening, everyone. Welcome and thank you for joining our second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. In the second quarter, our team acted swiftly to revive customer activities and sales momentum, driving stabilization in our business. These efforts delivered measurable progress against our key priorities for renewed growth. Total GMV returned to growth, driven by clear strengths in the apparel-related category, reflecting our refined adjustments in the merchandising portfolio. Total active customers also showed clear signs of recovery. SVIP membership sustained its double-digit growth. In the second quarter, active SVIP customers increased by 15% year over year, contributing 52% of our online spending. This high-value customer segment continued to outperform in terms of sales and revenue growth. With the fast-moving industry dynamic, we remain anchored to the vision of the discount retail for brands.

We believe at its heart, discount retail for brands is about offering customers beloved brands and high-quality products at exceptional value. While execution may innovate, the fundamentals stay true: great brands, great quality, and great value. To achieve this, we are making changes to shifting our merchandising strategy, which is key to deliver unique, compelling value to brand partners and customers. We are relying on our merchandising team to better capitalize on evolving customer trends and lifestyles while enhancing cross-category synergies. Operationally, we are taking a more holistic approach to plan and manage our brand and customer interactions to maximize platform-wide value creation. We will also unify the marketing, customer growth, and engagement efforts to advance customer value through each lifecycle stage across customer segments.

We hope these initiatives will inject great agility and efficiency into our business model, creating a self-reinforcing flywheel that advances our growth priority from merchandising operations to customer engagement. Starting with merchandising, we are pursuing a path that is unique to Vipshop. We focus on the three pillars of our merchandising strategy: relevancy, differentiation, and specialization. In a competitive environment, we are standing out by consistently offering customers high-value brands that they love, exclusively Made for Vipshop, customized products, and carefully curated portfolios of highly sought-after items. In the meantime, we keep up with new trends, new styles, and innovative fabrics and materials in each category. This ensures a steady and sustainable flow of inventory that aligns with shifting customer demand. In the first half, we added close to 500 brands to our platform, which are gaining traction among customers.

The Made for Vipshop line is a key part of our differentiation. It's delivering a more compelling blend of the quality and value that results in high-value customers, repeat purchases, and better conversions. In the second quarter, it maintained strong sales momentum, contributing to a meaningful portfolio of our apparel sales. For many brands, this customized product accounts for more than 20% of their sales on our platform. In the second quarter, we added more high-fashion selections, achieving improved sales flow. We saw growing customer recognition of our platform as the go-to place for flash sales and cherry hunting, leveraging our global sales capabilities. We will have a steady stream of differentiated items that flow into our assortment, so that shoppers always have something to discover as they come back.

For our customers, we continue to create a unique experience that not only reinforces the affordability and the reliability they love, but also inspires them to discover the value and the freshness we offer. This is coming from optimized traffic allocation, along with the customer journey enhanced through improved search and recommendations for both existing and new offerings. A good example of our customer-centric approach is the SVIP membership program. In the second quarter, we upgraded our private sales for SVIP members, offering high-value blended products to create a great sense of exclusiveness and delight. We expect the loyalty program to deliver a more differentiated and personalized experience for our top-tier customers. Lastly, we continue to develop and leverage AI capabilities as part of our overall technology advancement to drive growth and efficiency. We are deepening collaboration with the business team to expand AI application cases and deliver measurable results.

We see promising early traction across our AI initiatives. AI-generated reviews and Q&As are contributing to enhancing the customer journey. AI-driven pre-sales support is showing initiative benefits to conversations and issue resolution. Besides, AI-powered marketing content demonstrates effective reach to potential customers. Despite near-term challenges, we are investing in multiple ways to grow shares across our merchandising portfolio and customer segments. Our roadmap for sustainable, profitable growth in the long term relies on the consistent and collaborative execution every day. It stays true to who we have always been, while adapting to evolving trends, enhancing our capabilities, and always thinking about our unique role in retail for today's customers. At this point, let me hand over our call to our CFO, Mark Wang, to go over our financial results.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Eric, and hello everyone. We have delivered another quarter of healthy profitability with margins held up, while as we moved at pace to stabilize the business. This underscores our team's consistent financial discipline in a dynamic operating environment. During the quarter, we prioritized investments in growth initiatives related to customer engagement in the merchandising categories where we saw good momentum. We were more agile to dynamically reallocate resources in response to more productive activities that really helped the business grow its profit. As Eric indicated, through a series of organizational changes, we have further enhanced strategic clarity and execution speed across the company. Though we are early on our journey, these actions are building tangible traction, enabling us to position the business for return to sustainable, profitable growth in the quarters ahead.

Furthermore, we are firmly on track to deliver on our shareholder return commitment for 2025, which is no less than 75% of the RMB 9 billion through year 2024 non-GAAP net income. In the first half, we distributed a total of over $640 million USD through a combination of dividend payments and share buyback, reflecting both our robust cash flow generations and the conviction in the company's fundamental value and the growth prospect. Now moving to our detailed quarterly financial highlights. Before I get started, I would like to clarify that all financial numbers presented below are in RMB, and all percentage change are year-over-year changes unless otherwise noted. Total net revenues for the second quarter of 2025 were RMB 25.8 billion, compared with RMB 26.9 billion in the prior year period. Gross profit was RMB 6.1 billion, compared with RMB 6.3 billion in the prior year period.

Gross margin was 23.5%, compared with 23.6% in the prior year period. Total operating expenses increased by 6.3% year-over-year to RMB 4.6 billion from RMB 4.3 billion in the prior year period. As a percentage of total net revenues, total operating expenses were 17.7%, compared with 16.0% in the prior year period. Fulfillment expenses decreased by 2.6% year-over-year to RMB 2.1 billion from RMB 2.2 billion in the prior year period. As a percentage of total net revenues, fulfillment expenses were 8.2%, compared with 8.1% in the prior year period. Marketing expenses decreased by 3.3% year-over-year to RMB 715.9 million from RMB 714.7 million in the prior year period. As a percentage of total net revenues, market expenses were 2.8%, which remained stable compared with that in the prior year period.

Technology and content expenses decreased by 9.3% year-over-year to RMB 442.0 million from RMB 487.2 million in the prior year period. As a percentage of total net revenues, technology and content expenses were 1.7%, compared with 1.8% in the prior year period. General and administrative expenses were RMB 1.3 billion, compared with RMB 900.7 million in the prior year period, primarily reflecting an increase in the share-based compensation expenses for Shenzhen Outlets. As a percentage of total net revenues, general and administrative expenses were 5.0%, compared with 3.4% in the prior year period. Income from operations was RMB 1.7 billion, compared with RMB 2.2 billion in the prior year period. Operating margin was 6.6%, compared with 8.3% in the prior year period. Non-GAAP income from operations was RMB 2.4 billion, compared with RMB 2.6 billion in the prior year period.

Non-GAAP operating margin was 9.3%, compared with 9.5% in the prior year period. Net income attributable to Vipshop shareholders was RMB 1.5 billion, compared with RMB 1.9 billion in the prior year period. Net margin attributable to Vipshop shareholders was 5.8%, compared with 7.2% in the prior year period. Net income attributable to Vipshop shareholders per diluted ADS was RMB 2.91, compared with RMB 3.49 in the prior year period. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop shareholders was RMB 2.1 billion, compared with RMB 2.2 billion in the prior year period. Non-GAAP net margin attributable to Vipshop shareholders was 8.0%, compared with 8.1% in the prior year period. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop shareholders per diluted ADS was RMB 4.06, compared with RMB 3.91 in the prior year period.

As of June 30, 2025, the company had cash and cash equivalents in the restricted cash of RMB 24.7 billion and short-term investments of RMB 3.0 million. Looking forward to the third quarter of 2025, we expect our total net revenues to be between RMB 20.7 billion and RMB 21.7 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of approximately 0% to 5%. Please note that this forecast reflects our current and preliminary view of the market and operational conditions, which is subject to change. With that, I would now like to open the call to Q&A.

Speaker 4

Thank you. To ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. We do ask you to translate your question into Chinese if you are bilingual. Please give us one moment to compile the Q&A roster. The first question comes from Alicia Yap with Citigroup. Your line is now open.

Thanks, management, for taking my question. My first question is about the latest e-commerce competition. I understand that there is very limited overlap, but curious to get management's view whether the recent stand-up initiatives of quick commerce by other e-commerce platforms have any impact on Vipshop. Have you seen any change of purchasing frequency declining or budget spend coming down by your customers? My second question is about the weather. Given the recent uncertainty of weather conditions with heavy rain and flood in many areas of China, has that affected the apparel items purchasing demand for the summer clothing? Thank you. 谢谢管理层接受我的提问。我有两个小问题。第一个是能不能请管理层分享一下您的观点。最近电商平台对于即时零售上有非常多的投入，这对于我们唯品会的需求有没有看到任何的影响？我们在消费者行为上，比如说购物的频次或者是预算的花费，对我们唯品会的用户有没有什么影响？我的第二个问题是关于天气的。最近我们看到天气有非常不确定性，在一些城市都有非常大的暴雨或者是洪水。想请问管理层，您有没有观察到任何对于比如说衣服上的消费或者是消费者的需求，对于夏天会不会有什么影响？谢谢。

impact on their travel or on their clothing purchases. We have not seen any particularly unusual data, nor have we seen any places with long-term situations like this.

Thank you, Alicia. Thank you for your question. On the potential impact from the instant or quick e-commerce, we don't see any material impact on our business. We are very much focused on apparel sales, and just a small portion of our business is standardized items, which are more suitable for quicker delivery, especially when customers see they can get most of their daily essentials within a half an hour delivery. They may choose to shop on quick e-commerce through quick e-commerce. Overall, we don't see any meaningful impact on our business so far. On customer behavior, there could be some change, but at the end of the day, it depends on the quality and pricing of the offerings, especially in standardized items. On weather conditions, also, we don't see a very meaningful impact despite volatile weather conditions across many regions in China, whether it's rain or flood.

We don't see very much impact on people's outing, travel plans, or apparel purchases. We look at the data across different tiers of cities, and we don't see any abnormalities with regard to their travel or apparel shopping activities.

Thank you. The next question comes from Andre Cheng with JPMorgan Chase & Co. Your line is open.

谢谢管理层接受我的提问。我这边有两个问题请教。第一个问题是关于我们三季度的这个营收指引回到了一个这个正增长的一个区间。那我想跟沈总这边确认一下, 就是这个部分的话有任何去年积极特殊的因素吗? 我这边是没有任何印象, 但就想确认一下, 是不是这代表说我们重新回到了一个正增长的轨道, 那可能这个三季度的这个增长的势头可能可以延续到后面的季度。这是第一个问题。第二个问题就想请教一下, 就是我们二季度这边回购到了三亿五千万美元左右, 这是大概可能两年来最高的这个金额。那我想了解说这个公司在二季度这个回购的力度加大这么多, 是有没有什么特殊的考量? 那接下来我们今年剩下的时间, 随着这个我们预计的这个quota还有相当的这个数额, 我们是不是还会维持这样子一个回购的力度? 那让我接下来翻译一下我的这些提问。 Thank you, management, for taking my question. My first question is about the third quarter revenue guidance, returning to positive year-on-year. I want to understand whether there's any comparison effect that helps the year-on-year growth, or we are back to a positive growth trajectory again, suggesting that the company will maintain a positive growth in the coming quarters. My second question is about the share repurchase. The company bought back nearly $350 million in the second quarter, which is the highest in two years. I wonder if there's any reason for such a strong jump of buyback, and should we expect such a momentum to continue into the second half of this year given the management's commitment in terms of shareholder return for 2025? Thank you.

mentioned in the future. It is possible that positive growth will continue to increase as we find this trend, and the growth may get better and better. The second question will be answered by our CFO.

Andrew, on your first question on Q3 guidance, we guide for top-line growth at 0 to 5%. We attribute this positive momentum to the effort we have made in the last few quarters. We've made a lot of organization changes and adjustments in terms of merchandising and operation, so that we actually have started to see there are clear recovery in terms of customer growth. Total active customers actually have returned to growth so far year over year, especially we have seen new customers which have been, you know, struggled for a few quarters, have returned to growth as well. If customers start to regrow, naturally, we are more confident about sales and revenue growth. We actually see, and also on the merchandising side, we've been talking a lot about providing more consumer-relevant and differentiated offerings, especially to provide them with more items at a competitive pricing.

We've done a lot of optimization on the merchandising front as well. That's why we guide a positive top-line growth for Q3. We don't think there is any material base effect for Q3. For Q4, we also want to see a positive growth in terms of top line. Q3, admittedly, we actually had a high base in 2024. We actually benefited to some extent from the long streak of cold weather conditions. Overall, we are confident that we can maintain growth for the quarters ahead. We are looking to accelerate the growth in the foreseeable future after we see our recent changes and adjustments materialize into real growth engines.

Speaker 2

Okay. Regarding your second question, thank you for your question regarding the program. Actually, there is no special reason for increasing the amount of the share buyback in the second quarter. We just committed to return that to our shareholders continuously. As you may be aware, we have mentioned before, we are going to return no less than 75% of our full-year 2024 non-GAAP net income to shareholders in discretionary share repurchase and/or dividend distributions. Actually, that's almost around $900 million. We just committed to return value to our shareholders, and we will continue to invest in our business growth and improving profit and generating cash to support our dividend payouts and buyback. Thank you.

Speaker 4

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. The next question comes from Wei Xiong with UBS. Your line is open.

好的, 谢谢管理层接受我的提问。那我也有两个问题想请教。首先是关于咱们GMV跟收入之间这个GAP呢, 观察到这个季度其实相对的比例也是比较稳定的。那想请教一下咱们最近观察到退货率这方面的趋势, 那未来是不是有继续改善的空间, 还是说考虑到SVIP这边持续健康的增长, 那么下半年可能这个GAP还是有稍微扩大一些的可能性。那第二个问题呢, 是other revenue这边这个季度的增速还是在环比加速, 所以想请管理层分享一下咱们深圳Outlets这边最近一些收入跟利润率的趋势, 包括明年一些发展计划的展望。那我也自己翻译一下。 Thank you, management, for taking my question. First, we noticed a relatively stable gap between GMV and the revenue this quarter. Just wondering, could management share any latest trend regarding the return rate on our platform? Do we see any further room to improvement to narrow this gap going forward, or that gap might widen a little bit considering the very healthy growth of SVIP users in the second half of the year? Secondly, on the other revenue side, could management share the latest progress and revenue and profit trends for Shenzhen Outlets business, as well as some strategic planning and outlook for next year? Thank you.

那么我回答那个第一个问题是关于退货率的。那么退货率呢，我们目前整体看比较正常，而且呢，就是我们那个这么多年，就最近这么多年我们看每年的趋势也基本上比较稳定。那么我们自己预估，那么因为我们比如说我们的SVIP其实持续在增加，那么我们自己预估未来可能每年那个退货率可能会提升2到3个点，但是在每个季度呢，基本上持平的，就是说每个季度的那个退货率基本是这么样。对这块呢，我们不会有太大的担心。第二点就是关于深圳Outlets，深圳Outlets我们现在运营有20个Outlets，那么总体我看他们的业务其实发展都还不错。包括我们看到同店，那么比如说都有双位数的增长，我们自己认为其实奥特莱斯这个生意在中国还是非常不错的。我们其实后续也会看，如果有合适的那个城市或者地方，我们其实可以继续再拓展。总体我们认为在中国可以做Outlets的城市其实还有不少。我们也会持续把这个深圳Outlets作为一个很长远很稳健的一个我们说的一个商业模式，继续把它做大做强。

Thank you, Sheng Wei. On your first question, in terms of return rate, we actually see no surprise, as regard to return rate. For years, we have seen some relatively stable return from customer behavior. It's just that our SVIP customers are growing very nicely at double digits. We potentially are looking at 2 to 3 percentage points increase every year in terms of return rate, due to this structural factor. It will be smoothed out on a quarterly basis, which we do believe that at some point, we will see a flattish return rate, quarter by quarter. On the second question, on Shenzhen Outlets, we have seen very good momentum in terms of Shenzhen Outlets. We have a total of 20 stores for now, and the comparable same-store growth maintained at double digits for several quarters.

We continue to look for the right cities or locations to expand our outlet business, given the fact that the outlet industry is actually prospering in China and is actually riding on the tailwind of value for money consumption. We do believe that there are still a decent amount of cities or locations that are suitable for outlet expansion, and we intend to build the outlet business as part of our strategic and long-term asset.

I show no further questions at this time. I will turn the conference back to Jessie for any closing remarks.

Thank you for taking the time to join us today. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact our IR team. We look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.