Earnings Call Transcript - BZUN Q1 2025

Operator, Operator

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's prepared 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. They 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 US Securities Act of 1933 as amended, The US Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended and The US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relates to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the company's control, which may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties or factors is included in the company's filings with the US Securities and Exchange 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 hereof 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 under 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-general accepted accounting principles or non-GAAP in order to reduce oral confusions that may arise from our discussions about financial related to the Gap brand. It is now my pleasure to introduce our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Vincent Qiu. Vincent, go ahead.

Vincent Wenbin Qiu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

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 the value generation for our brand partners. Our ongoing progress in omnichannel and the 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 the gross margins mentioned. In addition, we are leveraging technology and AI applications to build a linear 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 to 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 our footprint, we will open three new stores simultaneously this May in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Overall, we closed the quarter with a constant positioning to accelerate our transformation through 2025. Notably, 2025 marks Baozun's 18th anniversary, a symbolic and 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 Yanjie Zhu, Chief Financial Officer

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 3. Baozun Group's total net revenues for the first quarter of 2025 increased by 4.3% year-over-year to RMB2.1 billion. Of this total, E-Commerce revenue grew slightly by 1.4% to RMB1.7 billion while Brand Management revenue rose by 23% to RMB387 million breaking down E-Commerce revenue by business model. Services revenue remained flat at RMB1.3 billion. BEC product sales revenue increased 7.3% year-over-year to RMB423 million driven by strong performance in new categories. BBM product sales totaled RMB387 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 4. From a profitability perspective, our blended gross margin for product sales at the group level was 32.4%. Gross profit increased by 18.9% year-over-year to RMB262 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 5. During the quarter, our adjusted loss from operations totaled RMB67 million. This included an adjusted operating loss of RMB46 million from the E-Commerce segment, a decline of RMB58 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 adjustment and the strategic investment initiatives to transform and realign with our operational tactics. We incurred approximately RMB80 million in restructure costs related to human resource reform in the quarter. BBM's adjusted operating loss totaled RMB21 million an improvement of 28% from the same period last year. Lastly, please turn to Slide number 6. We published our 2024 sustainability report, highlighting tangible progress across environmental, social and governance metrics in April. We achieved a 36% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 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 Wu 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 emphasize 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 RMB1.7 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 7. In Q1, BEC's product sales grew by 7%, driven by standout category performance in Home & Furniture, Alcohol and Health & 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 8. While BEC service revenue remained flat, we made structural mix changes 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 and Douyin and triple-digit growth on RedNote for the quarter. Recently, Baozun was nominated as part of the first batch of brand partners, uniquely among traditional Tmall partners. In the Construction 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 Sportswear 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 enhance 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 plans profit center 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, Chief Executive Officer of Baozun Brand Management

Thank you, Team, and thank you all. Please turn to Slide number 9 for additional insights into BBM. I'm happy that we carried our strong momentum into Q1, achieving 23% year-on-year sales growth, an acceleration from 17% in the previous quarter. Total BBM revenue for the quarter was RMB387 million driven by improvements across key operating metrics, including same-store sales growth, traffic growth and the 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 engagements, enhanced 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 total sales of RMB10 million and also recorded 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 cultural IPs to enhance our market influence. In January, we kicked off our community engagement trial, Brannan Bear Events at our flagship store in Shanghai. This initiative is designed to create memorable experiences 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 a younger audience. Our Brannan Bear campaign deepened emotional connections with consumers, contributing the kids and baby category 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 by 20%, with the blended gross margin remaining healthy at 52% for the quarter. Operationally, we made continuous progress in efficiency enhancement. Our adjusted operating loss narrowed by 28% year-over-year to RMB21 million, thanks to disciplined cost management and better unit economics. Looking ahead, BBM's partnership with Gap Inc. continues to thrive, fueled by our local expertise and strong execution. With double-digit top line growth in clear view for 2025, we are in a strong position to further unlock new avenues for growth and improved profitability as we keep scaling. That concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you. Operator, we are now ready to begin the Q&A session.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Our first question will come from Alicia Yap with Citigroup. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Alicia Yap, Analyst

Hi. Good morning. So good evening, management. Thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple of questions here. One is that just if management can give us an update in terms of what your expectations for this year’s 618 are? And then any preliminary results that you can see from just the past like one week or so on the promotion? And then across your different E-Commerce platforms, how do you think it is actually trending, which platform is actually generating or getting more traction? And then the second question is that, I know we've been working on the IT and also logistics service. Wondering if we have actually been able to get more brands to onboard 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 Wu. So let me address your first question about the campaign of 618. So this 618 is the longest campaign by far. So it started from the 13th of May to the 20th of June. So it's about a 37-day campaign. So if you're talking about some kind of difference between this 618 and the others, they provide a lot of instant discount at day one. And without giving a lot of threshold discounts, they provide some lower tiers with a sliding scale starting from 200 minus 20 to 5000 minus 500. So as you can see that, this is only about eight days after the 13th of May. So I can only share with you the first wave result. So as far as we're concerned and we observed from our numbers, so the first wave came really well. A lot of brands kept ramping up their presale stage and their existing transactions conversion rate is really quite well. And in terms of the cancel rates, now the current data suggests that we have a single mid-digit lower than last year. So which means a better result. The return rate is also relatively lower than last year, which is also a better result. But as far as we still have about 50% of the shipments still ongoing, so maybe we can share that data later on after the next wave or someday in the middle of June. So in the categories differentiation, we look forward to see, of course, the first one is Home Appliance category and Consumer Electronics category ramping up very well because of the subsidiaries from the government. And also Luxury category and the Fashion Apparel category are also very catching up. So we can see that the Home Appliance category and the Fashion Luxury category are leading the 618 by far. And second thing is about the IT services and Logistics services. So for the IT part, you can see that our revenue growth has had a little bit decline year-over-year because the cadence of IT services is very different from the regular stores like our flagship store operations. So they have to just sign a new client and based on different kinds of solutions they provide, the revenue contribution period and cadence are very different. But many more brands are focusing on the new one-stop solution to leverage their online inventory with their offline inventory, especially with their offline flagship stores. So more and more brands are exploring the possibility with Baozun's IT team to think about a one-stop solution. So we have strong confidence that in the coming Q3 and Q4, we can catch up with 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 report just said. So we focus on several key clients and their business is remaining flat. Some of them are declining. So as we keep supporting those clients, we need to just keep increasing the quality of the services and also have new development of new B2B and some kind of return reverse warehousing and logistics services as a complement. Okay. Hope that makes sense to you.

Operator, Operator

The next question will come from an unidentified analyst with CITIC. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst, 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 update for the Gap operation strategy? And how does the company plan to balance scale expansion with profitability? And 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 results to RedNote? Thank you.

Ken Huang, Chief Executive Officer of Baozun Brand Management

Okay. This is Ken. I will answer the first question about the strategy of the 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. Simultaneously, 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 cultural relevance, including the IP collaboration with the Forbidden City we just did and we will continue to do this year. And starting from last month, we also launched a series of RedNote campaigns with key KOLs, delivering our connections with our customers through music and dance. For channels, I think for online channels, we are expanding across 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 to further expand our local stores in emerging markets. Regarding balancing our scale and profitability, I think we continue to look for the increase of scale. As we mentioned, we target a double-digit increase this year. We aim to open 50 new stores this year. So with the increased scale, it will help us to balance our back office cost in the end to breakeven. We want to keep this momentum quarter-by-quarter to deliver solid results and in the end to reach a breakeven point in the last quarter. But of course, while balancing the scale and profit, we are also considering our brand. We are still continuing to invest in our brand marketing. But yes, it's a real challenge, but at the same time, we are confident by working with the Gap Inc.'s team together for the branding part.

Wendy Sun, Senior Director of Corporate Development and Investor Relations

I think the second question regarding RedNote and Tmall and also whether the company's plans for acquiring new brands are not addressed yet. Maybe Vincent and Junhua you can share.

Ken Huang, Chief Executive Officer of Baozun Brand Management

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

Junhua Wu, Director and Chief Strategy Officer

Yes. Sure. I believe that you're asking about the Red Cat initiative. So let me explain that to you, using it before and after kind of scenario. Before the Red Cat initiative, we used to spend a lot of marketing spending on RedNote for seating for new arrivals and for driving some keys for consumers to get a lot of content on RedNote before they drop in transaction. So like ten years ago when a consumer made their decision for purchasing, they used to open a PDP and then read a lot of reviews of the product and then make the decision. Now they are using RedNote as a UGC content platform to get a lot of information from different angles before they place a transaction on Tmall, JD or wherever they are familiar. The Red Cat project is directly linking from the content or a different heat or different forwarding from RedNote directly to Tmall transaction PDP page. You can seamlessly experience that kind of things. So the Red project to us is more related to the performance marketing part. So now in the 618 campaign, several of our brand partners have already reallocated some of their online performance marketing budget from Tmall search performance marketing budget to the Red Cat project. So we can directly invest in driving traffic on RedNote from all the views, all the content and getting the transaction done. Compared with the ROI, for now, the ROI is relatively higher than that of the Tmall inside performance marketing results. So because this is very new, the Red Cat initiative only just opened for two weeks, and we have only several brands trying that kind of initiative and we will get back to you with more detailed results after we have significant awareness and have balanced all these kinds of ROIs in a stable way. Yes, I hope that makes sense to you.

Vincent Wenbin Qiu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Okay. This is Vincent. I'm making some comments on your third part of the questions, which is a new brand acquisition plan for the Brand Management part of our business. BBM, actually, our strategy is a portfolio strategy, which means that we will do multiple brands trying to build synergy across different brands. That is the strategy. So far we have two brands already. The first one is Gap, the second one is Hunter, both doing quite well. For other new brands, they can be either onboarded to the BBM platform or if it is mainly distribution model, it can also onboard our BEC platform. So we have home platforms for 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 and more focused on product development or channel development. So we always have a strong pipeline for BEC and also BBM. But recently, given the macroeconomic situation, we are quite careful and cautious in onboarding new brands. However, we are seeing more and more synergies between the brands and the brands in BEC and BBM, as well as between BBM and BEC. Yes, hope that answers your question. Thank you.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Thank you. Very clear.

Operator, Operator

The next question will be from Chris Kao with Securities. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst, 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 approaches, 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, this is Junhua Wu. 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 are the key in the battlefield across different platforms, especially as far as you might know that JD has been restructured and has hired some key players in charge of their Apparel category, who used to work for Tmall. So Apparel, Sportswear and Luxury, they are racing heavily, especially in those big campaigns like 618. They've been spending a lot to provide coupons and instant discounts in this category. So, yes, as far as the momentum currently for Apparel and Sportswear industry, everybody is catching up, and some leading brands are ramping up their efforts. They have been investing heavily into segregating different kinds of consumers by different tiers, like setting up the Apparel into trendsetters, quality chasers, pragmatic consumers, and price-sensitive consumers. Based on consumer studies, we spend a lot of time finding the right assortment, leveraging the right messaging, and using the right marketing approach to send a group of assortments to the right group of consumers to facilitate the right transactions. Therefore, for Apparel, Sportswear and Luxury categories, more and more resources are being allocated to day-to-day operations based on a databank they provide, historical data, and a lot of merchandising and assortment collections that we can work with our brand partners. We look forward to seeing this category having better momentum in this 618 and perhaps across this year.

Ken Huang, Chief Executive Officer of Baozun Brand Management

Okay. And then for the second question regarding the synergies between BBM and BEC, I think we mentioned that we have been having synergies from the beginning because for BBM, 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's not just for 618. It's for our day-to-day work. Especially regarding 618, I think the advantage is we have more, for BBM, we have more all-channel information in advance and better resource management. This allows us to anticipate our response to each platform better. The BBM platform can produce products itself, so our advantage is to make our supply chain more responsive and facilitate a faster response to the different platforms' needs. I believe this gives us a major advantage between BBM and BEC when we are facing fast-changing platform strategies. Hope that answers your question.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Thank you.

Operator, Operator

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.

Wendy Sun, Senior Director of Corporate Development and Investor Relations

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, Operator

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