Yunji - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Yunji's Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. With us today are Mr. Shanglue Xiao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, along with Mr. Yeqing Cui, Senior Financial Director. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. 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 the company's current expectations and current market operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks and uncertainties or other factors of Yunji and its industry. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the terminologies such as will, expect, anticipate, continue, and other similar expressions.

For a detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's related documents filed with the U.S. SEC. Any forward-looking statements that the company makes on this call are based on assumptions as of today and are expressly qualified in the entirety by the cautionary statements. Risk factors and details of the filings with the SEC, the company does not undertake any obligation to update these statements except as required by applicable law. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Shanglue Xiao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yunji. Please go ahead, sir.

Shanglue Xiao (Chairman and CEO)

[Foreign language]大家好，欢迎大家来到云集2024第四季度的财报电话会。

Hello everyone, welcome to Yunji's Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Call.

[Foreign language]回顾过去一年的经营，同时面向未来，我们将继续坚定有机健康作为云集未来发展的重要战略目标。2024年，公司整体的毛利率提升了49.4%，用户复购率坚持坚守71.9%的高位。这些数字背后是消费者信任为我们投下的健康生活选票。但比数字更重要的是我们对新经营的彻底革新。过去一年，我们强化公司的组织结构，提高运营效率，优化产业布局。这些变革将是2025年云集轻装上阵的起点。

Looking back at our operations over the past year, while focusing on the future, we continue to firmly position organic health as the key strategic objective for our future development. In 2024, our overall gross margin improved to 49.4%, while our user repurchase rate maintained a strong 71.9%. Behind these numbers lies the trust our consumers have placed in us through their roots for healthy living. More important than numbers is our complete operational alignment. Over the past year, we have enhanced our organizational structure, improved operational efficiency, and optimized our business layout. These changes will serve as the starting point for us to move forward with greater agility in 2025.

[Foreign language]今年3月，我们完成了云集业务的云集健康业务和云集健全业务的合并。这项重大的业务合并让我们可以更好地为用户提供可信赖的健康生活解决方案。用真溯源、真体验、真分享，夯实信任链条，让有机健康走进亿万家庭。在坚守有机健康战略下，自有品牌的有机健康产品逐步获得了用户的信任，如金球益生菌在2024年第四季度和2025年第一季度分别取得了近500万与合600万的销售额。此外，今年3月份推出的新品的清然咖啡一上市就获得了消费者的高度认可，仅上市半个月就获得了500余万元的销售。

This March, we completed the consolidation of our health business and our Yunji Select business. These significant moves enable us to better provide trusted healthy living solutions for our users, strengthening our trust chain through true traceability, authentic experiences, and genuine sharing, bringing organic health to millions of households. Under our commitment to our organic health strategy, our private label organic health products have gradually earned our user trust. For example, our probiotics bolus achieved sales of nearly CNY 5 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 and over CNY 6 million in the first quarter of 2025. Additionally, our new life-limit coffee launched at the end of March this year immediately gained high consumer recognition, generating sales of over CNY 5 million in just half a month after its launch.

[Foreign language] 我们还将继续发力打造素颜品牌。经过2024年和今年第一季度的努力，我们完成了从品牌话语体系到品牌视觉体系的全面战略升级，秉承让前沿科技护肤走进大众生活的品牌使命，素颜致力于打造高品质、高自信、高质价比的前沿科技护肤品，立志在不久的未来成为中国的世界级高端科技护肤品牌。同时，素颜正以大单品为核心，建立完整的产品体系，以大单品为驱动，匹配高性能的推广组合，在大单品成功的基础上带动产品系列后续的开发和销售，从而实现以高质价比赢得市场。2024年，我们将推出高端抗衰波斯鹰系列，2024年一共获得了2,000余万销售额。2025年，我们即将推出极具市场竞争力的大单品波斯鹰清脆水，从而进一步带动整个波斯鹰系列产品的市场份额。

We will continue to strengthen our private label brand SUYE. Through our efforts in 2024 and the first quarter of this year, we have completed a strategic upgrade from SUYE's messaging to its visual identity, upholding the brand mission of bringing advanced skincare technology into your daily routine. SUYE, it's dedicated to offering premium quality products at accessible prices, aspiring to become a world-class leader in skincare and the proud representative of China's innovation in beauty. At SUYE, we are building complete product lines around our flagship innovations to deliver exceptional value and drive growth. In 2024, we launched our SUYE PRO-XLANE FIRMING series, a premium yet affordable line that generated over RMB 20 million in total sales, a testament to the strong demand for high-value skincare solutions.

Building on this success, we are expanding this series in 2025 with the launch of SUYE PRO-XLANE FIRMING ESSENCE LOTION, a highly competitive flagship product. This new addition will further enhance the Boswellin series, solidifying its position as a go-to choice for customers seeking advanced skincare without a premium price tag.

[Foreign language]对应我们正分的是试运营中的茶疗养生体验项目，健心茶疗项目是云集打造的2025年的茶疗新模式，包括品茶、国学、冥想、轻度拉伸等80分钟的体验。健心茶疗项目在试运营阶段获得了卓越的表现，首批参与的150多位的茶友，有91%的用户保持了高频的课程参与，更有部分用户连续百日参与晨茶养生课程。今年4月，我们计划招募1,000个茶友，5月20日茶疗项目将正式上线，6月我们将计划培训并上岗100位茶疗师。健心茶疗项目依托我们坚实的有机健康用户而启动，又将更好地反哺我们的有机健康产品。不仅同时具有高毛利产品和高用户粘性的优势，更是我们从交易平台到体验生态的转型密钥。

We are thrilled to introduce our new business initiative for 2025, the Jianxing Tea Therapy program, a unique wellness experience designed to deliver exceptional value while promoting holistic health. This meticulously crafted 80-minute program combines tea tasting, traditional Chinese studies, meditation, and stretching lessons, offering participants a deeply enriching wellness journey. During its trial phase, the program achieved remarkable success, with 91% of its first 150 participating tea enthusiasts presenting for free print sessions. Some users even attended morning tea courses for 100 consecutive days, highlighting the program's ability to build strong user loyalty and engagement. This April, we plan to recruit 1,000 tea enthusiasts to join the program. On March 20th, the Jianxing Tea Therapy program will officially launch, and by June, we aim to train and onboard 100 skilled tea therapists.

By combining high-margin products with an immersive and engaging experience, this initiative strengthens the appeal of our organic health offerings while fostering deep customer loyalty and satisfaction. It serves as a pivotal step in our evolution from a traditional transaction platform to a dynamic experience ecosystem.

[Foreign language]今年一年，云集将继续聚焦全球有机生活的引领者的定位，致力于有机健康食品、健康科技护肤品。在过去一年大幅降低运营成本的基础上，持续优化产品结构，打造超级单品，将产品矩阵向高毛利、高复购产品倾斜，提高盈利能力，达到盈亏平衡。更进一步，我们将从产品销售平台向服务体验平台迈进，发力于银发经济的大未来，把茶疗养生课程发展为健康社群的纽带，让产品销售、文化体验、社交价值生长为三体三位一体的生命树。

In 2025, Yunji remains committed to its vision as the global leader in organic living, focusing on delivering high-value organic health foods and growing advanced skincare products. By leveraging significant cost reductions achieved last year, we will continue optimizing our product lineup to create products that offer exceptional value for money. Our strategy centers on shifting towards high margin, high repurchase rate products to enhance profitability and achieve break-even. Beyond product sales, Yunji is evolving into a service experience platform, embracing the promising opportunities of the silver economy. Our innovative tea therapy wellness courses will serve as the cornerstone for building health-focused communities. This program unites product sales, culture experiences, and social engagement into a cohesive ecosystem, a tree of life where every branch nurtures growth and connection.

[Foreign language] 为了云集，仍将继续激发创新活力，提升核心竞争力，为中国家庭创造更大的社会价值。

In the future, we will continue to stimulate product innovation, enhance core competence, and create greater social value for Chinese families.

[Foreign language] 我今天的分享就到这里，下面欢迎我们的财务总监，高级财务高级总监崔叶青，为大家分享财务的情况。

With that, I will hand it over to Mr. Cui, our Senior Financial Director, to go through the financial results.

Yeqing Cui (Senior Financial Director)

Thank you, Shanglue. Hello everyone. Before I go through our financial results, please note that all numbers starting in the following remarks are in RMB terms, and all comparisons and percentage change are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. During the fourth quarter of 2024, we maintained our focus on optimizing our cost structure while adapting to evolving market dynamics. We took deliberate steps to refine our staffing structure and increment cost reductions in areas such as fulfillment and technology. However, these long-term strategic cost-saving measures were partially offset by increasing near-term expense, including several costs which affect our bottom line. Despite these changes, these actions represented critical progress toward building a more efficient operational framework for the future. Now, let's take a close look at our financials. Total revenue was RMB 197.1 million compared to RMB 149.1 million a year ago.

Revenues from sales of merchandise were RMB 175.5 million, and the revenues from our marketplace business were RMB 19.4 million. These changes were primarily driven by ongoing refinements to our product range across all categories. This, coupled with the optimization of our supplier and merchant network, resulted in a short-term impact on sales. Despite these changes, our gross margin remained relatively strong at 48.3%, mainly due to continued customer loyalty towards our private labels and our effective product creation strategy. Now, let's take a look at our operation expense.

Fulfillment expense was RMB 16.4 million compared to RMB 24.8 million a year ago. This decrease was mainly due to reduced staff costs as a result of staffing structure requirements, reduced warehousing and logistics expense due to lower merchandise sales, and lower service fee charged by third-party payment settlement platforms. Sales and marketing expense were RMB 13.2 million compared to RMB 28.5 million a year ago.

The increase was primarily due to an increase in business promotion expense. Technology and contact expense were RMB 8.5 million compared to RMB 12 million a year ago. This was largely due to the reduction in personnel costs as a result of staffing structure refinements and reduced server costs. General and administrative expense were RMB 71.1 million compared to RMB 44.5 million a year ago. This was mainly due to severance payments from our staff, restriction and impoundment charges on long-lived assets.

Total operation expense in the fourth quarter increased to RMB 126.2 million from RMB 109.8 million in the same period of 2023. Loss from operation was RMB 77.7 million compared to RMB 39.5 million a year ago. Net loss was RMB 85 million compared with RMB 65.9 million a year ago, while adjusted net loss was RMB 84.5 million compared with RMB 65 million a year ago.

Basic and diluted net loss per share attributed to all shareholders was both RMB 0.04 compared to RMB 0.03 in the same period of 2023, turning to liquidity. As of December 31, 2024, we had a total of RMB 242.8 million in cash and cash equivalents, reserve cash, and short-term investments on our balance sheet. We are dedicated to making the most of our working capital and advanced managing our assets to better support our operations.

In summary, as we enter 2025, we will maintain financial discipline while investing strategically to drive sustainable growth and improve profitability. The restriction undertaken in 2024 has provided us with a more streamlined operation foundation. We will continue to be prudent with our capital allocation, focusing investment on categories that demonstrate potential for sustainable growth and improve profitability.

We believe this disciplined approach to cost management, coupled with our effective product creation strategy, will enable us to navigate the current market conditions and position us for improved performance in the future. 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. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like 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. The time will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Any question will come from Megan Wang, investor. Please go ahead, ma'am.

[Foreign language]question. Can you provide more clear about the upcoming Jianxin Tea Therapy project?

Shanglue Xiao (Chairman and CEO)

[Foreign language]谢谢您的提问。我来简单介绍一下我们的建兴茶疗项目。我们即将于5月份推出的建兴茶疗项目，出发点是为了让，呃，我们成，呃，我们的用户，呃，能够提供，为他们提供产品加，呃，一次化的闭环，闭环服务，呃，以茶修心，身心合一，呃，重塑内心的次序，打造构建现代人新的健康生活方式。

Thank you for your question. Let me share more about our Jianxin Tea Therapy product. This project is going to be launched in May, and it aims to let our users enjoy a space where people can calm their minds, connect their body and soul, and embrace a healthier lifestyle. What makes this unique is our product plus the virtualized service model, which creates a complete experience, not just a tea, but a journey towards wellness.

[Foreign language]茶叶是我们中华民族极为重要的历史传承。我们的建兴茶经过我们精心的挑选，最终选择了荣获多国有机认证的五一山高山云雾有机红茶，源自五一山脉传统的产区，色泽乌黑油润，茶汤柔顺甘甜。

Tea itself holds deep cultural significance for us as the Chinese people. For Jianxing Tea, we carefully selected a world-winning organic black tea from Wuyi Mountain. It is certified organic by multiple countries and comes from the traditional production area of Wuyi Mountain. The tea has a beautiful glossy black appearance and brews into a smooth, sweet infusion that embodies quality

[Foreign langauage]但要与提供优质茶叶更有价值的是我们的茶疗仪式。茶疗仪式分为三个部分，共计80分钟：古法的拉伸20分钟，品茗建兴能量茶，以及冥想40分钟，茶友之间的分享20分钟，融合为专为茶疗项目打造的专业化国学课程体系，通过经典文化和美味的感悟进行自我疗愈，达到自我喜悦。

The real magic lies in the tea therapy ritual, which is an 80-minute experience divided into three parts: 20 minutes of traditional stretching, 40 minutes of tea tasting and meditation with Jianxin tea, and 20 minutes of sharing reflections with fellow participants. This isn't just about drinking tea; it is about self-healing through classical culture and finding joy in daily moments. The program even integrates a professionally designed curriculum based on Chinese classic studies to help participants achieve self-awareness and inner harmony.

[Foreign language]通过整个的茶疗仪式，可以让我们的茶友气血通畅，五行去俗，格物致知，达到增强体力、清心脑力和滋养心力的效果。建兴即是滋良知，为善去恶是格物，知善知恶是良知。我们用茶疗祝福过往，归于当下，追求更多人的幸福。

Through this ritual, participants can improve blood circulation and gain insights into themselves, all while boosting physical strength, refreshing their minds, and nourishing their hearts. The name Jianxin itself reflects this philosophy. It means achieving innate knowledge of the good. In essence, it is about removing negativity and embracing positivity to live a more fulfilling life.

[Foreign language]此外，通过茶疗的项目，还可以活跃我们的社群体系，带动有机健康产品的，呃，进一步的销售。

Finally, this project isn't just about personal wellness. It is also strengthening our community and driving sales of our organic health products. It is a holistic approach that connects people to health, culture, and happiness.

呃，谢谢您的提问。

Thank you for your question.

Operator (participant)

As there are no further questions, this will conclude our question and answer session as well as our conference call for today. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.