00:00I want to start with your foray into international markets first because you have this permanent beauty counter in Paris.
00:06You have a flagship store in Tokyo this year.
00:09Where are you seeing the biggest growth internationally and what is your target in terms of your share of overseas sales in, say, three years' time?
00:16I think luckily till this year we're seeing double-digit growth for over the global market.
00:21Japan has remained growing very strong for us.
00:24Japan, first of all, is going to be our top market.
00:26Secondly, we shifted our strategy to Southeast Asia starting from 2025.
00:32And the third will be European markets.
00:34So you can see that our global footprint is being growing bigger and bigger.
00:39Okay.
00:39Earlier, your colleague was telling me that your products are actually extremely popular in the U.S.
00:45In fact, the highest popularity is in the U.S. in terms of engagement in social media.
00:49But the GMV sales actually not as good in the U.S. compared to Asia.
00:53Why is that?
00:54I wouldn't say it is a fair comment because up till last year, I think there's a huge political change for the global market.
01:02So we shifted our strategy from the U.S. market to the Southeast Asia.
01:05But prior to that, U.S. has remained very strong as our top one global market.
01:10You can see that we'll have 1.2 million followers on our TikTok official account.
01:14We actually work with 1,500 influencers in the U.S. market per year.
01:19So overall, U.S. has always been a very important market for us.
01:24So what is your expansion plan now in terms of which markets you are prioritizing?
01:28Does this mean that you are not looking to invest further in the U.S. then?
01:32We are luckily still remain growingly stable in the U.S. market.
01:37But as you can see that the global market has been shifted.
01:40So we are unholding the investment, but we are remaining our brand performance in the U.S. market.
01:47But as I previously shared, Japan, Southeast Asia and Europe are growing very strong.
01:53Okay.
01:53Do you have any timeline in mind in terms of when you might want to invest more in creating more offline presence in the U.S. in particular?
02:02It has always been our pipeline, and we hope that within three years you will see us in retail in the U.S.
02:09Okay.
02:10The beauty sector has been traditionally very dominated by European brands like Estee Lauder, L'Oreal.
02:18South Korean brands have also been very popular in Asia.
02:21What is the competitive edge that you bring?
02:24I think beauty today is now no longer a single-dimensional standard.
02:28People are looking for something they can resonate with.
02:31Florists bring that uniqueness on the global market.
02:34First of all, we are deeply rooted in our Asian culture and also our Oriental wisdom.
02:41So, for example, take for example for our skincare line, which just launched.
02:45It is enhanced with TCM, traditional Chinese medicine.
02:49So bringing that balance of harmony and artistry about Chinese culture.
02:54I think that's something unique for a florist always trying to tell.
02:57We are here for the long-term storytelling and also brand building.
03:01Not for a short-term gain.
03:03Let's shift over to domestic market because based on the latest data that's been disclosed,
03:08it seems like 2021 was the peak of your GMV sales.
03:11And it came down in 2022.
03:12And after that, there weren't any public numbers.
03:15Are you able to share any insights in terms of what your numbers are looking like?
03:20What is it looking like and what does it say about consumption sentiment right now?
03:25I think overall florists has been growing, walking into a more healthy growth.
03:31In domestic market, we see a healthier cycle is coming in.
03:35I think you can see that the China market has gained back the temperature.
03:39We just started our double 11 sales and it's looking really well.
03:44Okay.
03:44Are you able to share what is the percentage of growth you're looking at?
03:48For domestic market, it's not really my region.
03:51I take care of the global market.
03:53And for global market, we do are facing double-digit growth strongly.
03:56And we might be able to finish a double of the sales this year.
04:00But domestically, we are going into a more healthy cycle.
04:05There has been a lot of competition in the domestic market, the so-called involution.
04:10Do you face pressure to provide steeper discounts to attract more customers in China?
04:16That is something we are very proud of.
04:17We are very strong at the promotional standard.
04:22So for florists, we're not here to gain the short-term gains like we just shared.
04:26So it's not about price competition.
04:28It's about product quality.
04:30You can see that if you put in any of our products, among all the other brands, you can see our products stand out.
04:37Because it tells the quality, the story, and its uniqueness.
04:41And most importantly, the product ingredients is healthy to your skin.
04:46So it's very different from all the other competitors.
04:49And so far, florists has been targeting the mass market.
04:54But there has been increasingly a crop of Chinese brands that want to put themselves on par with Western brands in terms of quality and pricing.
05:02Are you at some point looking to tap into the luxury premium market in China and overseas?
05:08We are indeed working on that we call misditch line.
05:13But it is something like still in the pipeline.
05:15But on the global market, I believe that our pricing strategy has already allowed us to compete with some of the international brands.
05:22We are indeed in the misditch price.
05:24Like you said, we already opened a flagship store in the Tokyo Kinza 6.
05:29It already showed that our brand positioning is being well accepted in the Japan market.
05:34All right.
05:36Any IPO plans going forward?
05:38I think when the time is right, we are always open.
05:41But for now, we don't have any plan yet.
05:44I think what's very interesting is that your company, like the new crop of Chinese companies,
05:51you were exclusively online for many years.
05:54And you just moved into offline physical stores a couple of years ago.
05:59Is this the same sort of strategy you're taking when you break into global markets?
06:04Are you still going to be leaning heavily on live streaming and online presence first before investing in a brick-and-mortar store?
06:10I think due to the social media getting so popular, it has changed the global, we say, the game,
06:18changed the global game about how the brand to go global.
06:21Yes, indeed, we will go for e-commerce first when we're starting a new market.
06:25But retail has become more and more important for a brand like us.
06:28Because we represented the culture, heritage, it needed to have an arena to show, a venue to show to the consumer how good is our product, to tell the story.
06:38So to answer your questions, like for global market, we, in fact, put in heavily investment on the retail.
06:45So that's why the Japan, Kansas 6 flagship store, and the Paris counter is one of the key milestones for us.
06:53And it's not going to be the only one.
06:54You're going to see us everywhere in the next three years on the global market, especially in the retail presence.
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