Today, the National Bureau of Statistics in China released the retail data of social consumer goods for July 2024.
The data shows that in July, the total retail sales of social consumer goods reached 3.7757 trillion yuan ($527.3 billion), an increase of 2.7% year-on-year. From January to July, the total retail sales of social consumer goods amounted to 27.3726 trillion yuan ($3.82 trillion), a year-on-year increase of 3.5%. Among them, the retail sales of cosmetics in July this year were 24.5 billion yuan ($3.42 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 6.1%; from January to July, the retail sales of cosmetics were 241 billion yuan ($33.66 billion), a slight increase of 0.3% year-on-year.
From January to July, the national online retail sales totaled 8.3784 trillion yuan ($1.17 trillion), a year-on-year increase of 9.5%. Of this, online retail sales of physical goods were 7.0093 trillion yuan ($978.8 billion), an increase of 8.7%, accounting for 25.6% of the total retail sales of social consumer goods. Among the online retail sales of physical goods, food, clothing, and daily-use products grew by 19.7%, 6.3%, and 7.5%, respectively.
Reviewing the data from the past year, the retail sales of cosmetics in July this year were the lowest in the past 12 months. In terms of growth trends, the month with the highest growth rate was May this year, with an 18.7% year-on-year increase; the month with the lowest growth rate was June, with a year-on-year decrease of 14.6%, and the retail sales amounted to 40.5 billion yuan ($5.66 billion).
CHAILEEDO has compiled the retail sales data of cosmetics for July over the past 10 years (2015-2024) and found that since 2018, the growth rate has been slowing down, and July this year recorded the highest decline in the past 10 years.
Regarding customs import data, in July, the national import volume of “beauty cosmetics and personal care products” was 27,098.8 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 2.6%; the import value was 9.3 billion yuan ($1.3 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 3.2%. Additionally, from January to July this year, the cumulative import volume of cosmetics in China was 184,528.6 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 12.1%; the import value was 68.6 billion yuan ($9.58 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 8.8%.
