Responding to customer buying trends, beauty and cosmetics retailer Bonjour Holdings has strengthened its e-commerce sales channels.
This included its official online shopping website and its long-established shopping platforms at Tmall and WeChat. The group has also cooperated with China Post Cross-border eCommerce to launch an online cross-border shopping platform, www.bonjouro2o.com.
And in response to another trend showing that the total value of mobile-payment transactions in Hong Kong reached US$529 million last year, the group has introduced Android Pay and Apple Pay, as well as Alipay HK and WeChat Pay.
Bonjour focused on digital marketing with regular online promotions as well as participating in online shopping festivals. During the year, the group’s online retail sales in Hong Kong and Chinese grew by 13.1 per cent.
Overall, however, its audited consolidated results for last year saw turnover drop 3 per cent to HK$1.9 billion (US$242 million), while the group’s gross profit margin dropped from 38.1 to 35.2 per cent.
The loss for the year amounted to $202.3 million, including a one-time impairment loss. Excluding that, the loss for the year was $55.9 million, an improvement on the $91.6 million loss the previous year.
As retail sector picked up, the group’s sales also rebounded in the second half. Turnover was a year-on-year decrease of 9.3 per cent in the first half, while the second half showed a 3.4 per upswing.
At the end of December, the group had 38 stores in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou, down from 42 at the end of the previous year. The retail store rent-to-turnover ratio improved 1.8 points to 18.7 per cent.
Bonjour distributes 180 international makeup, skincare and healthcare products, and uses Hong Kong personalities as brand ambassadors, including Ada Choi (Suisse Reborn), Myolie Wu (Dr Bauer), Elanne Kwong (Wowwow), Joey Wong and Tracy Chu (Yumei), Louis Cheung (Dr Schafter) and Mak Cheung Ching (Auslin).
