Yunji - Q2 2022

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you and welcome to Yunji's second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. With us today are Mr. Shanglue Xiao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Peng Zhang, Vice President of Finance, and Ms. Kaye Liu, Investor Relations Director of the company. Now I would like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Ms. Kaye Liu, IRD of Yunji. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Kaye Liu (Director of Investor Relations)

Hello everyone. Welcome to our second quarter 2022 earnings call. Before we start, please note that this call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on our current expectations and current market operation conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors affecting Yunji and its industry. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the terminology such as will, expect, anticipate, continue or other similar expressions. For a detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our related documents filed with U.S. SEC. Any forward-looking statement that we make on this call will be based on assumptions as of today and are expressly qualified entirely by the cautionary statements, risk factors, and details of the company's filing with SEC.

Yunji does not undertake any obligation to update this statement except as required under applicable law. With that, I will now turn over to Shanglue Xiao, Chairman and CEO of Yunji.

Speaker 5

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Yunji's second quarter 2022 earnings call.

During the second quarter, we successfully navigated through the uncertainties and the volatility caused by the challenging macro backdrop. Widespread resurgences of the pandemic and related control measures affected a number of major cities across China. In the face of these headwinds, we retained our focus on optimizing our platform's user experience while upholding our social responsibility. To ensure users received outstanding fulfillment services and timely delivery of the urgently needed orders, we nimbly and proactively deployed our logistics resources. For example, in some networks, we switched our express delivery service to those providers such as SF Express, whose service remained unaffected by the pandemic. Furthermore, we optimized our inventory structure by transferring products between warehouses to ensure they're readily available for delivery to users.

As in China, our supply side was also affected by the macro headwinds to a certain extent. In particular, some products could not be released from customs or shipped out from factories in those regions severely affected by the pandemic. Unfortunately, this meant that these products were not available for purchase on our platform during the originally planned promotional period. Since June this year, the situation has greatly improved and our supply and cross-border logistics chains have both gradually recovered. Our private label product inventory has now been delivered, securing sufficient stock for merchandise sales during the next few quarters. Furthermore, we have taken preemptive measures to mitigate potential future COVID-related supply chain disruptions by increasing our inventories of our private label products and cross-border merchandise.

During the first half of this year, we adhered to our strategy of developing inclusive private label products, actively enriched our product offerings, and developed a variety of fresh user-centric products. Our big health brand continues to contribute to the diversification and enrichment of the product category. During the first half of 2020, we developed more than 10 original new products for weight management, skincare and body revitalization under our private label. These innovative products are scheduled to be launched in succession on our platform. Meanwhile, we upgraded our product formulas with positive results. Our second generation fruit and vegetable fresh candy, reaching the milestone of 5 million sales within 1 minute and 10 million sales within 20 minutes upon its launch on June 14th, 2022.

Shanglue Xiao (Chairman and CEO)

而我们的护肤品牌素野，则是在内容营销和自有品牌出圈上做了一些新的尝试。我们聘请了国内知名女星作为水光护肤新产品代言，新产品的线上代言人。以此为基础，素野团队产生出诸多吸引力的短视频，提升线上线下的品牌力，触达了更多站内站外爱美人士。相信未来这些流量会为产品商业化打下坚实的基础。在上个月的素野十二周年庆，素野以医美成分护品为定位，推出多款新品，在周年庆大促中突破了RMB 2,100万的销售。

Speaker 5

On the cosmetics front, we carry out fresh content marketing and brand development initiatives for our private label skincare brand SUYE. As part of these efforts, we appointed a popular Chinese female celebrity as the brand spokesperson for our new product line containing ingredients used in mesotherapy treatment. In addition, SUYE's marketing team produced a number of engaging short videos. These videos successfully boost the online and offline brand awareness and attracted beauty lovers from both our own and third party platforms. We are confident that these augmented traffic flows will serve as a solid foundation for future product commercialization. During SUYE's 12th anniversary celebrations, we launched a number of new skincare products that contain ingredients used in medical aesthetics under the SUYE brand, generating over 21 million RMB sales during the anniversary celebration promotion.

Shanglue Xiao (Chairman and CEO)

云集自有品牌矩阵中，另一个核心的是美食。我们做云集美食的初心，是希望我们的用户可以足不出户，吃遍天下的美食。我们将这样的愿景延伸到了短视频内容营销中。中国地大物博，每个地方有每个地方专属的口味。我们在视频号上每周更新一人一道家乡菜的主题美食分享视频，用家乡味勾起观看者的乡愁和对各地美食的兴趣。目前，云集美食官方号的短视频在站外平台的播放量已经稳定在百万级别的播放。我们会保持在自身和第三方平台对内容的投入，希望在不久的将来，内容营销可以成为云集创造可观的品牌认知和商业收益。

Speaker 5

Food is another strategic focus within our private label brand matrix. Our original brand concept for Gourmet Yunji was to enable our users to enjoy delicious food from all over the world without having to leave their home. This concept was also visually illustrated and amplified in our food categories short video marketing content. China is a vast country with abundant resources and each region possesses its own unique cuisine. We updated our social media account on a weekly basis with videos themed around sharing a dish from my hometown. This theme is designed to invoke viewers' nostalgia with hometown tastes, while stimulating their interest in delicious food from diverse locations. Currently, each short video on our Gourmet Yunji official account on third-party platforms receives around 1 million views constantly. We will continue to invest in content development on our own and third-party platforms.

We are confident that our compelling marketing content will substantially improve brand awareness and create a business value in the near and long term.

Shanglue Xiao (Chairman and CEO)

疫情同时引起了大众消费心态的改变。在宏观环境不确定的情况下，消费者对非必需品的需求下降，对于消费变得更加谨慎。社交电商云集作为一家与用户走得更近的企业，更应该服务好信任我们的用户。我们希望能回报这些忠实用户，用更贴心的服务打动消费者。为此，我们强化了自身的服务体系，推出了更多增值的服务。

Speaker 5

Meanwhile, the pandemic has brought about certain changes in consumer behavior and mindset. Faced with an uncertain macro environment, consumers are increasingly cautious with personal expenditures. As a result, market demand for discretionary products has declined. As a social e-commerce platform that maintains close relationships with its users, we aim to provide a valuable and trustworthy service that meets the expectations. At the same time, we constantly strive to provide more authority services to inspire customers. As such, we have enhanced our own service system while launching more value-added services.

Shanglue Xiao (Chairman and CEO)

我们升级了在大健康垂直社区中的服务，在部分活跃社群组织试点了营养师咨询和点评服务。本次试点服务中，我们在各个垂直社群安排了专业的营养师，并且在一个月内组织了九场专家团和运动达人的直播大课。试点期间，参与用户中有90.6%的用户成为活跃参与者，每日积极与营养师互动。

Speaker 5

We upgraded service provision in our healthcare category community groups by piloting a nutritional consulting service where users are provided with professional advice and feedback. For these pilot service, we designated professional nutritionists to cover each community group and organized nine live streaming group classes with a team of professionals and sports experts. During this period, 90.6% of the trial users were successfully retained and they engaged with nutritionists on a daily basis.

Shanglue Xiao (Chairman and CEO)

未来为了鼓励服务经理更好地服务我们的用户，我们计划在下半年加大对服务经理的投入。经过一年多的降本增效，以及在自有品牌上的开发，公司毛利率取得很大的进步。下半年我们已经有足够能力让出一些毛利来依据服务经理的表现，提高服务经理的收入。

Speaker 5

Looking ahead, in order to deliver ever higher levels of service to our users, we will increase investment in the development of our service managers during the second half of this year. Having implemented various strategic initiatives to reduce costs, improve operating efficiency, and develop private label brand products over the past year, our gross margin has improved significantly. This improved gross margin enables us to increase service managers' income as an incentive to reward outstanding performance.

Shanglue Xiao (Chairman and CEO)

我的分享就到这里。下面欢迎我们的财务副总裁张鹏为大家分享财务情况。

Speaker 5

With that, I will turn the call over to Mr. Peng Zhang, our Vice President of Finance, to go through the financial results.

Peng Zhang (VP of Finance)

Thank you, Shanglue Xiao. Hello, everyone. Before I go through our financial results, please note that all numbers stated in following remarks are in RMB terms, and all comparisons and percentage changes are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. During the quarter, we were once again faced with the resurgence of COVID-19 and associated lockdown measures in Shanghai and across the country. Compared to the same period last year, our repurchase rate remained relatively stable at 79%, and our gross margin improved even in the face of these headwinds. We intensified our focus on optimizing cost structures and developing our private label brands, enabling our business to navigate safely through the present macro uncertainties. Furthermore, we invested in our fulfillment partner base to ensure the delivery of products even within areas under strict pandemic control measures.

Our cash position remains strong enough for us to successfully steer through the current market downturn and adverse economic environment. We will continue to reward our shareholders through share buybacks. Now let's take a closer look at our financials. Total revenue was RMB 284 million, compared to RMB 571 million a year ago. Revenues from sales and merchandise were RMB 237 million, and revenues from our marketplace business were RMB 42 million. This decline in revenues was primarily the result of continued COVID outbreaks, particularly during April and May. The pandemic-related lockdowns disrupted our supply chain with our third-party suppliers, merchants, and logistics service providers being particularly affected. Consumers' willingness to spend was also impacted, with uncertain macro conditions fostering desire among consumers to save rather than spend.

These factors combined to create merchandise shortages, logistical delays, and a stagnating consumer demand, all of which negatively affected our operations during the first half of 2022. Their continued impact depends upon the future direction of the pandemic. Though we are seeing signs that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, we will remain vigilant and respond nimbly to further developments. Despite these challenges, we improved our gross margin to 40.6% compared to 35.1% a year ago as a result of sustained customer loyalty to our private labels and effective product curation strategies. Now let's take a look at our operating expenses. Fulfillment expenses were RMB 43 million compared to RMB 50 million a year ago.

This was primarily due to lower warehousing and logistics costs resulting from a reduction in the quantity of merchandise sold, as well as reduced service fees from third-party payment settlement platforms. These savings offset the heightened logistic costs that resulted from us maintaining our supply chain flexibility during the pandemic lockdown period. Sales and marketing expense were RMB 58 million compared to RMB 61 million a year ago, mainly due to the decrease in member management fee, which was partially mitigated by an increase in private label promotion expenses. Technology and content expenses were RMB 24 million compared to RMB 32 million a year ago. The decrease was mainly due to the reduction in personnel costs as a result of staffing structure refinements and reduced server costs. General and administrative expenses was RMB 32 million compared to RMB 43 million a year ago.

This was primarily due to reduced personnel costs as a result of refinements to our staffing structure and professional service fees. Total operating expenses in the second quarter decreased to RMB 157 million from RMB 187 million in the same period of 2021. We recorded a loss from operations of RMB 30 million compared to an income of RMB 16 million a year ago. Net loss was RMB 25 million, compared with net income of RMB 17 million a year ago. While adjusted net loss was RMB 17 million, compared with adjusted net income of RMB 24 million a year ago. Basic and diluted net loss per share attributable to ordinary shareholders were both $0.01, compared with basic and diluted net earnings per share attributable to ordinary shareholders of $0.01 in the same period of 2021. Moving on to liquidity.

As of June 30, 2022, we had a total of RMB 645 million in cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments on our balance sheet. Compared to RMB 743 million as of March 31, 2022, the decrease was partially caused by cash used in our share repurchase program. Our liquid assets were sufficient to cover our payable obligations, and we did not hold any long-term bank loans or debt on our balance sheet. On March 17, 2022, we announced our 2022 share repurchase program. As of June 30, 2022, we have repurchased over 6 million American depository shares, representing over 60 million Class A ordinary shares from the open market with cash for an aggregate amount of approximately $7 million. Furthermore, our board of directors has approved an extension of the repurchase program for another six months.

We intend to continue to be opportunistic in repurchasing shares when we view our stock price as disconnected from the underlying fundamentals of the business. While we face the significant macro challenges in the first half of 2022, we are confident that our resilience and flexible business model, updated supply chain, improved product curation, and optimized cost structure will power growth regardless of future alternatives. We have achieved solid progress, and we expect to carry the optimized cost structure into the post-pandemic year, which we believe we will bring long-term value to our shareholders. This concludes our prepared remarks for today. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

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. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. When asking a question, please state your question in Chinese first, then repeat your question in English for the convenience of everyone on the call. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Again, if you have a question, that's star one. Our first question comes from Ethan Yu from First Trust China. Please go ahead.

Ethan Yu (Analyst)

Thank you for taking my question. At present, including the past June 18, 2022 promotion, GMVs via short videos and live streaming are growing rapidly. Could you share some colors or views on this trend? Thank you.

Speaker 5

Thank you for your question.

Thank you for your question. Live streaming is not a new format and we have done a lot of attempts with it. For us, live streaming is more like a content marketing than direct sales, especially for private label promotions. Marketing comes in many forms, and we believe that highly valued goods and the supply chain are the cornerstones of sales. In fact, content marketing, it is what Yunji has been doing since establishment, and we have focused on this area a lot. Actually, either the photos or articles. They are the important channels for us to deliver the information. We have a group of marketing users and service managers who love to share shopping experience. That is also a kind of content sharing. Live streaming and short videos make sharing more vivid.

We are more than welcome to explore live streaming and short videos as a sharing method to bring fancy content and shopping experience to users. Recently, Yunji Gourmet Yunji official account on third-party platform has grown rapidly. The account outputs interesting content every week and has many short videos that receives around 1 million views constantly. Later, we will also try to organize live streaming sales on these accounts to promote private-label products and Yunji-selected high-quality supply chain. We hope that these high-quality contents and efficient live streaming could actually bring more value to our platform and users.

Ethan Yu (Analyst)

Thank you.

Speaker 5

Thanks. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to hand the conference back to management for closing remarks.

Kaye Liu (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you for joining us today. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions, and we're looking forward to talking with you next quarter. Bye.

Operator (participant)

Conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today.