Photo/Shetuwang

July 23 (NBD) -- Cosmetics and beauty products maker Revlon, which once exited the Chinese market, is now coming back with the opening of its flagship store on China's largest e-commerce marketplace.

National Business Daily (NBD) noticed that the store has 13,390 followers as of press time but shelves a mere 6 products. The New York-based company kissed China goodbye back in late 2013 due to falling sales, 51 years after its debut in the country in 1962.

Later in September 2016, Revlon opened an overseas flagship store on Alibaba's Tmall Global platform. In the eyes of new retail expert Yun Yangzi, the company at the time was taking a test run via cross-border e-commerce before returning to China. And the launch of the Tmall store now indicated the cosmetics maker's satisfaction with its e-commerce business, Yun added.

Economist Song Qinghui held that the move revealed Revlon's great confidence in the Chinese market.

From Revlon's financial reports for the first quarter of 2019, NBD found that the company's operating loss stood at 23.3 million U.S. dollars, compared to a 61.7-million-U.S. dollar loss during the prior-year period, representing a 62.2 percent improvement. The cosmetics firm attributed the improved operational performance to areas such as e-commerce, the Chinese market and Travel Retail.

In the views of industry insiders, e-commerce channels for cosmetics products have brought about significant opportunities for Revlon to turn the table in China. But Song thought that the company's performance remains to be observed since the cosmetics sector in China sees cut-throat competition.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn