Today (October 20), China’s National Bureau of Statistics released the latest data on retail sales of consumer goods.
According to the data, in September, total retail sales of consumer goods reached 4.1971 trillion yuan ($589.2 billion), up 3.0% year on year. Among them, cosmetics retail sales totaled 36.8 billion yuan ($5.16 billion), an 8.6% increase compared with the same period last year. From January to September, total retail sales of consumer goods amounted to 36.5877 trillion yuan ($5.14 trillion), up 4.5% year on year, while cosmetics retail sales reached 328.8 billion yuan ($46.2 billion), an increase of 3.9%.
Overall, from January to September, national online retail sales amounted to 11.283 trillion yuan ($1.6 trillion), up 9.8% year on year. Of this, physical goods online retail sales totaled 9.1528 trillion yuan, growing 6.5%, accounting for 25.0% of total retail sales of consumer goods. Within online sales of physical goods, food, clothing, and daily-use items grew by 15.1%, 2.8%, and 5.7%, respectively.
An analysis of the past ten years (2016–2025) of September cosmetics retail data shows that while the total retail value has generally trended upward, the year-on-year growth rate has fluctuated significantly. Specifically, from 2016 to 2021, retail sales in September increased steadily each year with substantial growth rates. In 2022, retail sales declined 3.1% year on year. In 2023, sales returned to growth, rising 1.6% year on year. In 2024, sales fell again, but rebounded to positive growth in 2025.
In addition, examining monthly cosmetics retail data for this year, sales rose continuously from January to May, with April posting the largest increase of 7.2%. In June, however, retail sales declined 2.3%. Entering the third quarter, from July to September, cosmetics retail sales resumed growth, with the growth rate showing clear momentum.
From the perspective of customs import data, in September, China’s total imports of “beauty, cosmetics and toiletry products” amounted to 32,638.9 tons, with an import value of $1.486 billion. From January to September, cumulative imports of “beauty, cosmetics and toiletry products” reached 265,160.7 tons, a 9.8% year-on-year increase in volume, while the cumulative import value stood at $12.335 billion, up 0.4% year on year.
