Today (May 19), China’s National Bureau of Statistics released the latest data on retail sales of consumer goods.
According to the data, in April, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 3.7174 trillion yuan ($515.4 billion), a year-on-year increase of 5.1%. Among them, retail sales of cosmetics reached 30.9 billion yuan ($4.3 billion), growing 7.2%. From January to April, total retail sales of consumer goods amounted to 16.1845 trillion yuan ($2.24 trillion), an increase of 4.7%, while cosmetics retail sales reached 145.4 billion yuan ($20.15 billion), up 4%.
Overall, from January to April, national online retail sales reached 4.7419 trillion yuan ($657.4 billion), a year-on-year increase of 7.7%. Among these, online retail sales of physical goods totaled 3.9265 trillion yuan ($544.4 billion), an increase of 5.8%, accounting for 24.3% of the total retail sales of consumer goods. Within physical goods sold online, food-related goods grew by 14.6%, clothing by 0.5%, and daily-use items by 5.5%.
CHAILEEDO reviewed the retail sales of cosmetics in April over the past 10 years (2016–2025) and found that from 2016 to 2021, April cosmetics retail sales showed a consistent upward trend. However, in 2022, there was the first recorded decline, with a drop of 22.3%.
In the three years following that (2023–2025), fluctuations have been dramatic. In 2023, growth turned from negative to positive, peaking at 24.3%. In 2024, growth reversed again, showing a decline of 2.7%. In 2025, the figure returned to positive growth.
Notably, judging by the monthly cosmetics retail data this year, all four months (January–April) have shown positive growth, with April seeing the highest increase.
In addition, CHAILEEDO reviewed the annual retail sales of cosmetics over the past five years (2018–2024) and found that last year was the second time in five years to record a decline—the previous time being 2022, which saw a year-on-year drop of 4.5%. Furthermore, from 2022 to 2024, annual growth in cosmetics retail sales has been consistently lower than that of total retail sales.
Regarding customs import data, in April 2025, China imported a total of 30,962.4 tons of “beauty, cosmetics, and personal care products,” with an import value of 12.19 billion yuan ($1.69 billion). From January to April 2025, the total import volume reached 110,942.9 tons, up 8.9% year-on-year, with a cumulative import value of 40.2 billion yuan ($5.57 billion), an increase of 1.2% year-on-year.
