Today (December 16), the National Bureau of Statistics released retail data for consumer goods for November 2024.
The data shows that in November, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 4,376.3 billion yuan ($600.9 billion), an increase of 3.0% year-on-year. From January to November, the total retail sales of consumer goods amounted to 44,272.3 billion yuan ($6078.76 billion), up 3.5% year-on-year. Notably, the retail sales of cosmetics in November were 43.4 billion yuan ($5.96 billion), down 26.4% year-on-year; for the period from January to November, cosmetics retail sales totaled 401.5 billion yuan ($55.13 billion), reflecting a year-on-year decline of 1.3%.
From January to November, the total national online retail sales were 14,030.8 billion yuan ($1926.5 billion), an increase of 7.4% year-on-year. Among this, the online retail sales of physical goods reached 11,805.9 billion yuan ($1621 billion), growing by 6.8% and accounting for 26.7% of the total retail sales of consumer goods. Within the online retail sales of physical goods, food, clothing, and daily-use items grew by 16.2%, 2.8%, and 6.3%, respectively.
Looking at the data over the past year, retail sales of cosmetics in November this year ranked just behind the highest figure of October. However, in terms of growth rate, the decline in cosmetics retail sales in November was the steepest this year, with a year-on-year drop of 26.4%, followed by June’s decline of 14.6%, where retail sales were 40.5 billion yuan ($5.56 billion).
A review of data over the past 10 years (2015–2024) for November’s cosmetics retail sales reveals that from 2015 to 2021, November consistently showed a growth trend. This trend reversed starting in 2022, and November 2024 marked a record low with a double-digit decline.
Regarding customs import data, in November, the total import volume of “beauty, cosmetic, and cleansing products” nationwide was 26,562.3 tons, down 10% year-on-year, with an import value of $1.223 billion, a decrease of 8.45% year-on-year. Additionally, from January to November, the cumulative import volume of cosmetics in China was 296,289.8 tons, down 11.5% year-on-year, with an import value of $15.046 billion, down 10.1% year-on-year.
