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Tag: Sa Sa

  • Sa Sa International’s sales fall in fiscal third quarter

    Sa Sa International’s sales fall in fiscal third quarter

    Sa Sa International’s sales declined in the fiscal third quarter amid a significantly weaker performance in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.

    The group’s sales declined 10.7 percent year over year to HK$1.06 billion (US$136.2 million) as Mainland China sales plunged 35.8 percent to HK$120 million while Hong Kong and Macau slid 8.1 percent to HK$817 million.

    Southeast Asia sales rose 12.4 percent to HK$115.4 million, while other regions decreased 11.8 percent to HK$2.7 million.

    In Mainland China, the company has already closed 13 offline stores due to a continuous sluggish environment. The group ended the period with 175 stores.

    The company intends to boost promotion on popular social media platforms and channels, tapping influencers to promote brand awareness and establish credibility among target buyers.

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  • Meta, Sa Sa and Vita Green join Omnichat to share WhatsApp marketing

    Meta, Sa Sa and Vita Green join Omnichat to share WhatsApp marketing

    Omnichat, a one-stop omnichannel messaging integration platform that offers conversational commerce solutions, recently hosted an offline event, “Future Commerce Summit cum New Product Launch”.

    Leading global social media giant Meta and several prominent retail brands in Hong Kong, including beauty product retailing group Sa Sa and health supplements group Vita Green were invited to explore the recent retail trends this year along with WhatsApp Marketing to foster conversions and sales while delivering a first-class customer experience.

    As the WhatsApp Business Solution Provider of Meta, Omnichat also announced the launch of its latest social commerce solutions comprising automated customer journey, in-chat payment, social customer data platform (Social CDP) in tandem with “Omni AI”, the latest integration with ChatGPT. The features are designed to empower retail businesses to drive efficient customer service and better customer engagements, thus improving sales conversion rates online and offline.

    Meta builds technologies that help people connect. Adam Bowden, partner lead, GCR & global partners of Meta, said that 70 percent of consumers worldwide use instant messaging software to communicate with businesses, according to the statistics of Meta.

    “Meta has provided WhatsApp Business Platform to businesses, enabling them to meet the needs of consumers and achieve their business goals more quickly. This platform drives merchants to interact and communicate with customers anytime and anywhere, enhancing the relationship between merchants and customers and encouraging consumption. With monthly active users reaching 2.5 billion, WhatsApp has a global presence in 180 countries,” Bowden said.

    According to the survey conducted by Meta & Forrester Consulting, 88 percent of surveyed businesses said that WhatsApp has brought in more revenue. Claudia Chiu, senior strategic partner manager, Greater China Region of Meta, noted that the WhatsApp Business Platform has empowered businesses to establish a complete shopping journey.

    “WhatsApp Business Platform can tailor-make different messages to customers based on their characteristics or scenarios, such as new customers, repeated customers, and potential customers. Moreover, businesses can include different response buttons and product catalogues in WhatsApp messages.”

    Sa Sa proactively integrates its offline and online businesses to deliver a customer-centric omnichannel shopping experience. Hong Li, director of e-commerce at Sa Sa, said that using Chatbot auto-reply feature of Chat Commerce has significantly reduced the response time of customer service, enabling the team to solve other customers’ problems, thereby increasing sales conversion rates.

    “During the last Lunar New Year and 3.8 International Women’s Day, we delivered game messages and exclusive coupons to customers via WhatsApp and Omnichat’s Chat Commerce platform. Through this way, not only the customer engagement rates can be increased but also a 39-fold increase in coupon redemption rates compared to the general rate,” Li added.

    Vita Green has been continuously increasing member engagement and digital marketing automation capabilities through technology advancement. Terrence Siu, head of IT at Vita Green, said their iconic brands, Vita Green and Tea Château have been using WhatsApp to precisely send customised marketing and promotional messages to their loyal members. Salespersons can also be bound to their respective customers for providing one-on-one services, including product recommendations and customer enquiries.

    “Thanks to WhatsApp and Omnichat’s platform, our team is equipped with a new communication channel for member engagement which has boosted our sales and enhanced the overall customer experience,” Siu said.

    Across WhatsApp Business Platform, Facebook Messenger and Instagram, Omnichat empowers brands to deliver seamless online and offline communications for customers.

    Alan Chan, founder and CEO of Omnichat, said: “Our merchants can use the Social CDP to collect customer identities from various social media platforms and map them to a unique profile, building a more comprehensive customer database. Together with the automated customer journey solutions, customised marketing messages can be automatically sent out in accordance with different shopping scenarios.

    “We expect the function will empower merchants to achieve more than 20 per cent revenue growth. With the integration of ChatGPT, we further optimise the handling of customers’ enquiries, product recommendations as well marketing campaign planning. Our In-Chat Payment function is also available for merchants to send payment links and deliver a seamless Chat-and-Buy customer shopping experience.”

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  • SaSa International Closing 20 Hong Kong stores

    SaSa International Closing 20 Hong Kong stores

    Sa Sa International (0178) projects to close 15 to 20 shops in Hong Kong by the end of March 2022, but will add 30 stores in the mainland after recording a net loss of more than HK$350 million for the fiscal year ending March.

    Sa Sa said that it will close some physical stores in Hong Kong, especially in tourist areas, to cut down on rental costs.

    The group stated that the leases of 38 of their Hong Kong shops expired this year. Last year, the renewal rent in tourist areas was reduced by about 70 percent and in non-tourist areas by about 26 percent.

    So far this year, the rent renewal in tourist areas was reduced by 65 percent and in non-tourist areas by about 30 percent.

    As of the end of March, Hong Kong and Macau stores were reduced from 112 stores to 100 stores, Malaysian stores were reduced from 79 to 75, and mainland stores increased from 44 to 57.

    The group will focus more resources on its online business.

    This came after its net loss narrowed by 32 percent year-on-year to HK$351.4 million.

    Basic loss per share amounted to 11.3 HK cents. The board does not recommend the payment of a final dividend.

    Turnover for the continuing operations decreased by 46.8 percent to HK$3.04 billion. Sales of retail and wholesale in Hong Kong and Macau reduced by 57.8 percent to HK$1.99 billion. Mainland revenue rose 15.9 percent in yuan to HK$289.85 million. From April 1 to June 9, sales rose 55.1 percent. Hong Kong and Macau sales rose 53.5 percent and mainland sales rose 30.7 percent due to low base effect.

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  • Loss-making Sa Sa will continue to cull stores if landlords won’t compromise

    Loss-making Sa Sa will continue to cull stores if landlords won’t compromise

    Beauty-products retailer Sa Sa International says it will continue to renegotiate rents and quit locations where it cannot get satisfactory rent reductions as it struggles to return to profitability in the decimated Hong Kong retail market.

    The company has just reported a loss of US$66.6 million for the year to March on sales down 29.9 percent to $737.7 million. The previous year, Sa Sa International posted a profit of $60.7 million. However, if a one-off impairment related to retail store assets in line with changing accounting standards, and a loss of $5.3 million related to the closure of the company’s Singapore business are excluded, the trading loss would have been a more modest $26.4 million.

    Retail and wholesale sales in Hong Kong and Macau fell 33.2 percent to $611.5 million.

    Between October 1 and June 14 this year, Sa Sa has closed 12 stores in Hong Kong, primarily in the tourist districts of Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay and Mongkok.

    “As we move into FY2020/21, we strive for a significant rental reduction in the renewal negotiations or closures of shops with an unsatisfactory rental reduction in order to reduce the rental expenses of the group as more leases will expire in this financial year,” said chairman and CEO Simon Kwok in a commentary for shareholders.

    “Meanwhile, we will continue to negotiate with landlords for temporary rental relief for shops with leases not yet expiring in the near term.”

    With new leases, the company is exploring changing from fixed-rental rates to turnover rent, which is the arrangement adopted for almost all of its current leases in Hong Kong and Macau.

    “This would help merchants such as Sa Sa and our landlords to align interests during market fluctuations,” said Kwok. “However, some landlords are willing to offer this arrangement only on a temporary basis.”

    Like most Hong Kong discretionary retailers Sa Sa has been hit heavily by declining tourist numbers from Mainland China, at first related to general economic malaise across the border, then concerns over protests from June last year and finally Covid-19 effectively ending border crossings since January.

    The chart below shows the change in the number of inbound mainlanders entering Hong Kong month by month between April last year and March this year (blue line), the decline of total retail sales in the territory (pink line) and the change in sales of medicines and cosmetics (black line).

    The year-on-year decline in Mainland tourist sales was 80.2 percent in the fourth quarter, reaching 97.4 percent in February for Hong Kong and Macau SARs combined. In the three months to March last year, mainlanders accounted for 71 percent of Sa Sa International’s sales, but in the same quarter this year just 38 percent.

    “Local consumption declined less by comparison, decreasing by 16.6 percent in the fourth quarter thanks to our quick shift of product sourcing towards personal protection equipment,” said Kwok.

    Inventory reduction

    On a more positive note, Sa Sa managed to cut its inventory by $52.6 million to $129.8 million, thanks to clearance sales and wholesale measures. Turnover days decreased by three days from 104 to 101 during the year.

    While the group’s cash balance reduced to $82.8 million at the end of March, the company says reserves are adequate for its current operational needs.

    “Currently, the top priority for Sa Sa is to manage our costs and working capital to navigate and survive the storm and to adjust our business strategy to ride on the much-awaited wave of gradual recovery,” said Kwok.

    “In addition to closely monitoring our inventory and cash positions, we aim to reduce our inventory by implementing aggressive clearance activities, as well as implementing stringent controls on product order placement to ensure that funds will only be allocated to strategically focused products.

    “While striving to retain stores and staff as much as we can, we aim to realize a leaner cost structure and enhance operational efficiency in order to achieve long term healthy development for the group.”

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  • Sa Sa International sales down as coronavirus bites

    Sa Sa International sales down as coronavirus bites

    Fourth-quarter sales of beauty-products retailer Sa Sa International plummeted 62 percent in Hong Kong and Macau as the coronavirus pandemic brought to a halt inbound tourism from Mainland China.

    Sales to mainlanders in Hong Kong and Macau slumped by 80.8 percent. While local customers spent 4.1 percent more during the quarter, the average sale per transaction dropped 20 percent and their overall basket size dropped by 34.6 percent.

    “The rapid outbreak of novel coronavirus around the world has wreaked havoc on the global economy, and the group has been inevitably affected,” said Sa Sa International chairman and CEO Simon Kwok in a quarterly trading update to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

    Group turnover fell 56.5 percent in the three months to March 31, including the permanent closure of its Singapore business

    Strict border controls imposed in Hong Kong to reduce the spread of the virus, the two-week closure of Macau casinos and decreased consumer demand led to the temporary closure of many SaSa stores, with other stores trading shorter hours. Kwok said that while the closures lowered operating costs, they also contributed to the sales decline.

    “In view of the persistent severe operating environment, the group will continue to implement strategies for reducing costs so as to maintain its competitiveness and reduce losses,” said Kwok. “The group will also do its best to protect the livelihood of its staff.”

    Sa Sa International will continue to trim its store network in Hong Kong as leases come up for renewal and the company will continue to pursue rent relief from landlords.

    “Furthermore, the group reduced non-essential and non-productive expenses substantially across all departments, streamlined its organization structure and implemented short-term measures such as reducing salaries and adopting the scheme of unpaid leave to reduce operating costs,” he said.

    With local consumers now accounting for a majority of the group’s overall sales, the company plans to adjust its product mix to meet their demand for protective and pandemic-related.

    products and other beauty items. Slow-selling lines will be dropped and inventory reduced to help preserve cash and reduce the risk of stored products expiring.

    Kwok said that the company has progressively been reducing inventory levels and has adequate cash to meet its current business needs, despite the decline in sales.

    Enforced store closure in China during the quarter saw sales there fall by 51 percent and in Malaysia, where non-essential stores have been ordered closed for six weeks commencing mid-March, sales were down by 16.9 percent.

    The company closed down its Singapore during the quarter shuttering all 21 stores and it has permanently closed 10 stores in Mainland China during the last year, along with six in Hong Kong and Macau and two in Malaysia.

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  • Sa Sa teams up with Shopee to revitalise its onlineretail strategy, strengthens presence in Singapore

    Sa Sa teams up with Shopee to revitalise its onlineretail strategy, strengthens presence in Singapore

    Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, has announced its partnership with Sa Sa Dot Com Limited (“Sa Sa”), a subsidiary of Sa Sa International Holdings Limited. The Shopee-exclusive Sasa Official Store launched on Shopee Mall in Singapore yesterday, marking the start of Shopee Brands Festival – an 11-day long campaign featuring a host of exciting sales, deals, and promotions.

    With the launch of the Sasa Official Store on Shopee in Singapore, Sa Sa aims to not only strengthen its online presence, but also tap on Shopee’s extensive user base to reach a wider audience. The strategic partnership between both brands will enable Shopee to drive greater growth in one of its top-performing categories, Beauty & Personal Care, by providing users access to a greater assortment of products on the platform. This includes luxe beauty products such as the SK-II Facial Treatment Essence, Lancome Youth Activating Concentrate, and Shiseido Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate.

    Dr Simon Kwok, SBS, JP, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sa Sa International Holdings Limited, said “We are excited to boost our online retail strategy through this partnership with Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in the region. The launch of the Sasa Official Store will allow us to bring a greater variety of beauty products and tools to a wider audience. This will enable us to effectively drive sales growth and lay a solid foundation for the development of our new retail model. We look forward to strengthening our e-commerce business further and are positive that working with Shopee will allow us to achieve success in the near future.”

    Zhou Junjie, Chief Commercial Officer, Shopee, said “Shopee is committed to helping our brands and retail partners unlock their full potential, and Shopee Brands Festival demonstrates our dedication to empowering new and existing brands on our platform. This campaign is another step forward for us in bringing our users the most popular and exciting products from their favorite brands. We look forward to working closely with Sa Sa, starting with the launch of its Shopee-exclusive store.”

    The Sasa Official Store launched exclusively on Shopee yesterday. Users can look forward to deals of up to 60% off all Sasa products storewide, vouchers, and more during Shopee Brands Festival.

    Running from 20 February to 1 March 2020, Shopee Brands Festival will give users access to a variety of exciting deals, promotions, and sales across a host of popular brands including Bose, 3M, Colgate, Enfagrow, and more. In Singapore, the campaign will feature more than a week of super promotions, with key highlights including:

    • 10 back-to-back Super Brand Days with exclusive deals and product launches across leading brands

    • Lowest Price Guaranteed on products such as the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch, SK-II Facial Treatment Essence, Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer, and more

    • A chance to win up to 80,000 Shopee Coins with Shopee Shake, which will run twice daily from 21 February to 1 March

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  • Sa Sa shuts stores after Lunar New Year sales plunge

    Sa Sa shuts stores after Lunar New Year sales plunge

    Sa Sa International has reported a massive 76.9-per-cent slump in Hong Kong and Macau sales during Lunar New Year as the coronavirus kept mainland Chinese tourists at home.

    As a result, the company has shut 21 stores and will “substantially strengthen control measures” in order to reduce losses.

    Besides the store closures, its executive directors have taken a 75-per-cent salary reduction for three months as the first in a series of cost-cutting initiatives. Inventory levels will be cut and the company is looking to reduce staff costs.

    With Hong Kong Immigration Department figures showing an 85.5-per-cent year-on-year decrease in mainland tourist arrivals, the impact on retailers across categories generally frequented by visitors, such as luxury goods and cosmetics, is expected to be severe for many retailers in the territory.

    Sa Sa International chairman Simon Kwok said that in Hong Kong, the company’s retail sales plummeted by 77.9 percent year on year.

    “Such decline was mainly attributable to the novel coronavirus outbreak, resulting in a further decline of mainland tourist arrivals and poor local consumer sentiment.”

    Falling store footfall saw a drop of 54.4 percent in the total transaction volume, with spending by mainland tourists down by 92.1 percent and that of local customers by 8 percent. The average sale per transaction among local customers fell by 25.6 percent.

    Kwok said Sa Sa International’s retail sales in Macau plunged by 73.4 percent, with an almost 70 percent drop in total transaction volume. Mainland tourist spending fell by 76.5 percent and spending by locals by 29.4 percent.

    Kwok said that with efforts to contain the coronavirus seriously affecting the mobility of mainlanders,

    Sa Sa International will “closely review the market condition and adjust its product strategies”. “Facing the severe shortage of masks and disinfection products, the group strives to support Hong Kong and Macau SARs citizens to combat the coronavirus outbreak by going all outsourcing such products globally and selling them at reasonable prices to cater for their needs.”

  • Sa Sa in rent discussions with landlords

    Sa Sa in rent discussions with landlords

    Hong Kong beauty retailer Sa Sa is in discussion with landlords over rent reductions and will reduce staff as it tries to address falling sales.

    In a profit warning, Sa Sa chairman and CEO Simon Kwok said August was its weakest month, with sales down by 32 per cent in Hong Kong and Macau. That was the month when more than 1000 flights were cancelled after protestors crowded Hong Kong International Airport. Subsequent international publicity led to many inbound travellers cancelling their flights, resulting in 851,000 fewer passengers passing through the airport during August.

    Kwok said the group’s sales performance remained “very weak” in September with turnover from September 1 to 15 down by about 14 per cent month on month, and by 29 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

    Sales in Hong Kong for the five months to August 31 declined by about 15 per cent and in Macau by 17 per cent.

    Kwok said that while the group has sufficient cash on hand to meet current business needs at this point, it was adopting a prudent finance management approach with proactive implementation of a number of cost-control initiatives, including negotiating for rental reduction with landlords.

    Other measures include reducing operational expenses such as staffing and general administration overheads.

    “The group has also been launching more promotional campaigns with attractive discounts to boost sales and lower the inventory level to reduce holding costs and preserve cash,” he said in the profit warning.

    “At the same time, the group continues to review market conditions and close down low-efficiency stores to optimise the store network and adjust product mix and promotion strategies to stimulate sales.”

    The group is preparing to launch a WeChat mini-program to enable frontline salespersons to continuously interact with customers and sell products via the online platform without the need for the customers to visit physical stores.

    In the six months to September last year, Sa Sa reported a profit of HK$202.9 million. This year’s interim results will be released on November 30.

    “The group believes that its agility will retain its core competency, lead the group through this difficult time and lay a solid foundation for the development of new retail model in the future,” Kwok said.

    The protests, now into the 16th week, did not get all the blame for the declining sales.

    “The main reason for the group’s performance decline is the weak sales performance in its core markets in Hong Kong,” he said. “The sales performance was hit by the decline of visitor arrivals from Mainland China to Hong Kong, as well as weaker consumer sentiment, caused by continuous social incidents in Hong Kong, increasing tension of Sino-US trade war and the Renminbi depreciation.”

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  • Sa Sa launched on HKTVmall

    Sa Sa launched on HKTVmall

    SaSa has launched a flagship store on online shopping platform HKTVmall. The SaSa flagship offers more than 1200 SKUs, consisting of trendy skin care, make-up, fragrances and personal care products. The group intends to leverage the platform’s big data analytics to formulate more effective and precise sales and product strategies, as well as offer a series of in-store marketing promotions to customers.

    “As online shopping has become increasingly popular nowadays, customers embrace smart living and enjoy online shopping anytime at their fingertips,” said Sa Sa International chairman and CEO Dr Simon Kwok. “We expect that over 4000 SKUs will be offered on the platform in the short term, and we will continue to keep up with the latest trends in the consumer market trend, exploring collaboration opportunities with other third-party platforms while providing with the customers diversified trendy products, ultimately creating a more intimate shopping experience and giving new impetus to our business growth.”

    “SaSa brought a new retail model to the industry with cosmetic products being sold on open shelves as early as 40 years ago,” said HKTV chairman Ricky Wong. “HKTVmall is developing another new retailing model aiming to build a digital ecosystem encompassing business operations, trading, retailing, financial services and all aspects of daily lives, providing a ‘one-stop shop’ platform to the customers.”

    Last year, personal care and skin care products ranked third most-popular category, accounting for 17 percent of HKTVmall’s Gross Merchandise Value, and Wong believes the partnership with SaSa will introduce more international brands of beauty products, diversifying the selection of skincare and cosmetics products on HKTVmall.

    At present, the SaSa flagship complements SaSa’s physical stores and its own website, as well as its mobile app. SaSa has also been collaborating with third-party platforms in Mainland China in recent years, including Tmall, Kaola, Xiaohongshu, and JD.

    HKTVmall collaborates with more than 2800 retailers and suppliers, providing more than 270,000 products and service choices. Last year, 680,000 unique customers made purchases via HKTVmall.

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  • Sa Sa celebrates its 40th anniversary

    Sa Sa celebrates its 40th anniversary

    Sa Sa International Holdings Limited announced its collaboration with Taobao Global to develop a complete loop retail ecosystem with the integration of online and offline platform with the goal to encourage local buyers to start selling as an important role in retail industry.

    This collaboration will enhance shopping experience for mainland Chinese customers. In celebration of the Group’s 40th anniversary, Sa Sa also revamped its store image to offer customers a more comfortable and fashionable shopping environment.

    Sa Sa will join hands with Taobao Global in order to develop a new collaboration model for retail industry.

    The new collaboration will connect Taobao Global buyers, who are familiar with consumption trends, have a unique taste in merchandise selection and able to motivate their followers by adopting innovative retail technology inclusive of Taobao’s marketing tools such as live broadcast to Chinese consumers with diverse characteristics who crave for overseas products.

    Buyers from Taobao Global promote products of Sa Sa’s Hong Kong retail stores on Taobao’s online platform, while mainland customers will be able to purchase Sa Sa’ products through the buyers on the platform. This enhances Sa Sa’s brand exposure and boosts its sales by absorbing the online purchasing power.

    Taobao Global will promote the most popular products in the first-ever “Taobao Global Counter” to be opened in five of Sa Sa’s stores located in Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok and Causeway Bay. The first batch of approximately 70 Taobao Global buyers will be doing in-store live broadcast shopping and recommending the selected products to mainland consumers.

    Mainland consumers can watch the live broadcast and do online shopping at the same time. Taobao Global Counter will be gradually set up in the next batch of around 100 Sa Sa’s stores in Hong Kong, offering shopping convenience and discounts to mainland consumers.

    Dr Simon Kwok, SBS, JP, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Group , said, “Being the leading cosmetics and retail group in Hong Kong, Sa Sa possesses a strong physical retail network. Combining the strengths of Sa Sa’s retail stores and Taobao Global’s huge base of influential buyers, we will broaden our customer base through developing a new retail operation model of online-to-offline collaboration, which will bring more overseas cosmetics and beauty brands to the vast group of Chinese consumers. The Group is looking forward to bringing new cross-border online-to-offline shopping experience to customers, with an aim of catering customers’ purchasing preferences under the trend of “New Retail”. Through strengthening its brand management capabilities and expanding new marketing channels, Sa Sa’s leading position will be strengthened as the best choice of sole agent for overseas cosmetics and beauty brands entering the mainland China. This cooperation also brings more diversified products to the Group and gives impetus to its business growth.”

    Ms Wei Meng, General Manager of Taobao Global , said, “Taobao Global connects active buyers across the globe to mainland consumers and offer different array of unique oversea goods. Through Taobao Global buyers’ online recommendations, Sa Sa’s diversified and trendy products will be able to swiftly meet Chinese customer’s demands for customized goods. We expect that Taobao Global and Sa Sa can develop a new retail model with the joining of online and offline platforms and bring a more personalized and advanced shopping experience to users. The shopping model provides quality merchandise and offers an official regulated place in hope of encouraging more local residents to pursue the role of being buyers and realise their dreams of owning a business.”

    In celebration of the Group’s 40th anniversary, Sa Sa is also going to revamp image of its stores, including the 5,300 sq. ft. Grand Plaza Store in Mong Kok, 3,600 sq. ft. Grandmark Store in Tsim Sha Tsui, 1,200 sq. ft. Metro Town Store in Tseung Kwan O, 1,300 sq. ft. Tuen Mun Town Plaza Store and 1,500 sq. ft. San Hong Street Store in Sheung Shui. Six new stores in Hong Kong slated for opening in the second half of 2018 will also adopt the new design. Sa Sa’s staff will have new uniform, providing professional and attentive services to our customers in a brand new image.

    New Uniform Design
    Sa Sa has invited renowned couture designer Mr. Barney Cheng to design a new uniform for our beauty consultants, creating a vivid “making life beautiful” image.

    Similar to the uniform launched for the Group’s 35th anniversary, the new uniform will continue to adopt black as the major color to maintain Sa Sa’s elegant style and incorporate the latest “athleisure” elements into the chic and stylish 40th anniversary new uniform.

    New Store Image
    With its morale of “making life beautiful”, Sa Sa is in the hope of making every generation pretty and everyone precious eternally.

    Sa Sa’s stores will feature a brand new image, demonstrating modernity and simplicity with black and white to be the theme colors. In the counters of skin care, fragrance, make-up, hair care and body care products, counter edges will be painted in dark and gold-brass colors to have a touch of elegance and uniqueness.

    To enrich the visual, a stark color contrast and simple lines can create a sense of spaciousness and brightness in soft and warm lighting while products presented in vertical style allows a clear view at a glance.

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  • Sa Sa holiday sales numbers look positive

    Sa Sa holiday sales numbers look positive

    Sa Sa holiday sales were strong enough to fuel optimism for the beauty products retailer’s full-year performance. Its unaudited sales for the Labour Day holiday show retail sales in Hong Kong and Macau increasing by 34.4 per cent year on year. Sales attributable to mainland customers grew by 41.5 per cent, driven mainly by 23.4 per cent growth in transaction volume and a 14.6 per cent increase in average sales per transaction.

    On a same-store basis, sales rose 31.7 per cent, with sales to local and mainland customers up 12.5 and 38.9 per cent respectively. The overall sales performance was in line with expectations.

    Apart from external factors, Sa Sa says it is starting to bear fruit from the relocation and consolidation of its warehouses.  Continuing efforts to improve product offerings and the balancing of sales growth against gross profit margin have led to increased sales while containing gross profit margin within an acceptable level.

    Benefitting from the retail market recovery, the group says it will continue to optimise product offerings and enhance the customer experience.

  • Sa Sa International going uphi

    Sa Sa International going uphi

    Retail sales in Hong Kong and Macau had continuous positive growth for cosmetics retailer Sa Sa International Holdings throughout its latest fiscal year.

    Releasing its unaudited sales updates  for the fourth quarter to the end of March, the group says the upward momentum was mainly driven by increased in-store traffic and consumer consumption.

    Benefitting from the retail market recovery, Sa Sa says it remains optimistic about the Hong Kong and Macau markets and will continue to optimise product offerings and enhance
    the shopping experience for customers in the fast-changing markets.

    On a year-on-year basis, the group’s turnover grew by 14.4 per cent. The turnover in Hong Kong and Macau increased by 17.8 per cent, while same-store sales rose 15.1 per cent.

    Sa Sa says the sales performance was in line with expectations and was mainly driven by the 12.1 per cent growth in transactions. Local and mainland tourist transactions increased by 7.9 and 17.3 per cent respectively, while the average sales per transaction grew by 5.1 and 3.6 per cent respectively.

    In other markets (including Mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Sasa.com) turnover had a marginal increase of 0.8 per cent.

    At the end of the quarter, Sa Sa had a total 275 stores and counters, down from 288 at the same time a year earlier. Hong Kong and Macau, which each have a single-brand store, had two fewer stores at 118, while China lost one to end the quarter with 55. Singapore was steady with 20 outlets, while Malaysia gained one for a total of 72.

    In February, the group announced it would close all its stores in Taiwan. It had 10 at the end of the quarter compared with 25 a year earlier.

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  • It’s business as usual at Sa Sa Malaysia

    It’s business as usual at Sa Sa Malaysia

    Cosmetics retailer Sa Sa may have seen the closure of its Taiwan operations recently, but the move is not expected to affect the Malaysian business under Hong Kong Sa Sa (M) Sdn Bhd (Sa Sa Malaysia), said Sa Sa regional general manager for Malaysia & Singapore business Lisa Soon.

    “Sa Sa Malaysia is operating a total of 75 stores in Malaysia and still has plans of expanding our network nationwide in providing the best offerings of beauty products and brands internationally to our shoppers,” Soon said.

    Last month, its Hong Kong-listed parent Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd announced that it will close all its stores in Taiwan by March 31, 2018 after six consecutive years of losses, affecting 260 employees.

    With the closing of its loss-making operations in Taiwan, the group said it will concentrate on its other markets including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia markets as well as its e-commerce business.

    As at Jan 31, 2018, the retail network of Sa Sa consists of Hong Kong & Macau (118 stores), mainland China (55 stores), Singapore (19 stores), Malaysia (75 stores) and Taiwan (21 stores), all of which are solely owned and operated by the group.

    Established in 1978, the cosmetics retailing group opened its first store in Malaysia in 1998.

    According to Sa Sa International’s interim report 2017/2018 (six months ended Sept 30, 2017), the turnover for the Malaysian operations was HK$169.3 million (RM84 million), an increase of 9.2% in local currency terms over the previous period. Same-store sales growth rose a modest 1.1% in local currency.

    It noted that the reason for the conspicuous slowdown in same-store sales growth was weaker demand and purchasing power of local consumers amid the rising cost of living as a result of inflation. However, the group maintained its focus on continuous improvement with a readiness to capitalise on market recovery as and when opportunities arise.

    For the six months ended Sept 30, 2017, the Malaysian market contributed 4.6% of the group’s total turnover. The bulk of Sa Sa’s turnover comes from Hong Kong & Macau (81.5%), while the rest are from e-commerce (4.9%), mainland China (3.8%), Singapore (2.7%) and Taiwan (2.5%).

    Filings by Sa Sa Malaysia showed it posted a profit after tax of RM6.09 million for the financial year ended March 31, 2017, with revenue of RM181.52 million.

    In Malaysia, Sa Sa said it is the leading beauty specialty store in terms of number of stores and coverage. In recent times consumer sentiment has shown signs of a slowdown, necessitating a “comparatively conservative development strategy”.

    Sa Sa will continue to adjust its product portfolio and services to accelerate its penetration of the Malaysian market, it said.

    Adopting a “one-stop cosmetics specialty store” concept, Sa Sa sells more than 700 brands of skincare, fragrance, make-up and hair care, body care products, health and beauty supplements including own-brands and exclusive products. The group’s e-commerce arm sasa.com provides online shopping service to customers.

    On its business strategy, the group said with its global purchasing and sourcing capabilities, often buying in large quantities to increase bargaining power, Sa Sa manages to offer a wide selection of quality products at competitive prices. Its market leadership reflects its innovative retailing formula based on choice and convenience, it added.

    The group, which had a total workforce of around 5,000 employees as at Sept 30, 2017, considers employee training as crucial to the continued success of its operations and business expansion

  • 2018 is looking good for Sa Sa sales

    2018 is looking good for Sa Sa sales

    Sa Sa International has released sales figures combining January and February – the first true indicator of how the Hong Kong retail market is performing so far this year.

    Sa Sa sales in Hong Kong and Macau surged 14.6 per cent during the period, and same-store sales rose 11.1 per cent.

    Official government figures show Hong Kong retail sales rose 4.1 per cent in January, compared to last year, but that figure was relatively meaningless given the timing of Lunar New Year, which fell in February this year and in January last year, preventing a true comparison. A government spokesman said at the time of the data’s release that, after taking the Lunar New Year factor into account, the figures suggested consumer sentiment was “rather robust” entering 2018.

    These Sa Sa sales figures suggest a positive rebound from January 1 to February 28.

    Chairman and CEO Simon Kwok said the number of transactions through Sa Sa stores rose 9 per cent and the average sale per transaction by 5.2 per cent.

    “The overall performance was in line with our expectations. Sales growth was mainly driven by the increase in store traffic and consumer consumption. The number of transactions with locals and mainland tourists increased by 6.3 per cent and 12.5 per cent respectively, while

    their average sale per transaction also increased by 4.6 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively.”

    Kwok says Sa Sa is benefitting from Hong Kong’s retail market recovery, and  is “cautiously optimistic” about the outlook of Hong Kong and Macau markets.

    “We will continue to optimise product offerings and enhance customers’ shopping experience to cater for consumer demand in the fast changing markets,” he said in a stock exchange filing.

  • Hong Kong’s Sa Sa cosmetics retailer pulls out of Taiwan

    Hong Kong’s Sa Sa cosmetics retailer pulls out of Taiwan

    Hong Kong’s largest cosmetics retailer Sa Sa International Holdings said Wednesday it will shut all its shops in Taiwan after losing money for six consecutive years.

    Sa Sa has 20 stores across the island according to its official website, and employs about 260 local staff. All the shops are expected to be closed by the end of March, the company said in a statement.

    The retailer’s Taiwan operation has been a drag on the group’s business, with turnover decreasing by 11.5% to 154.3 million Hong Kong dollars ($19.7 million) during the 10 months ended in January.

    “The group’s performance in Taiwan has been persistently weak, and the possibility of improvements is low into the foreseeable future,” said Simon Kwok, Sa Sa chairman and CEO.

    The Hong Kong-listed retailer operates about 280 shops — mostly in Hong Kong and mainland China — and employees about 5,000 staff. It also has operations in Singapore, Malaysia and Macau.

    Exiting the Taiwan market will allow Sa Sa to rationalize its resources to gear up for better opportunities in other markets and the development of e-commerce businesses, the statement said.

    The company said it believed the retail market in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau would benefit from major infrastructure projects linking the mainland and the two special administrative regions, such as the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. Both are expected to be officially rolled out this year.

    “To fully capture the opportunities that will arise from such developments, the group has decided to reorganize its business proactively by closing its loss-making operations in Taiwan,” the company said.

    While Sa Sa expects the store closures in Taiwan to result in a loss, it said the action will have limited impact on overall financial performance, as the affected stores only contribute about 2.5% of the company’s revenue.

    Sa Sa has been a popular brand with mainland tourists to Hong Kong, who contribute roughly 60% of the group’s revenue in the city. But its sales slumped in the past two to three years, as wealthy mainland shoppers traveled further afield for more diverse experiences.

    In the past few months, the company has recorded a robust performance in Hong Kong and Macau, thanks to the recovery in tourism. Sales in the two markets rose 8.1% to HK$1.89 billion in the quarter between October and December, compared with the same period last year.

    Turnover in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia increased 13%, 3.6% and 3.9% respectively during the period.