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Pandora A/S - Are China Sales Slowing?

Danish jewelry company Pandora A/S has had a fairly good run in China over the last year. Year-over-year growth in China was well north of 100% for 2016, making China the a bright spot as sales in the US and UK slowed. However, Sandalwood data is showing signs that even the ebullient China market is showing signs of slowing down.  After years of triple-digit growth, the last three months have shown a significant decline in y/y growth rates.  Tough comps? Or is something else at play?  

  The above chart shows our offline sales to Chinese consumers, indicating a significant slowdown in growth. In fact, June 2017 is the first time that we've seen a y/y growth rate of less than 50%, ever since our first y/y datapoint in January 2014. While offline appears to be slowing down, it's worth highlighting that Pandora officially launched on Tmall.com in late 2016. Chinese consumers are buying more of everything online, and Tmall is an increasingly important channel for brands looking to capture the Chinese market.  However, looking at our online sales numbers for Pandora on Tmall, we see a sequential quarter-over-quarter dip.  Sales of Pandora products on Tmall were down over 30% in 2Q17 vs. 1Q17. It will be interesting to see how Pandora's China ambitions progress, and we will be keeping a close eye on both its offline and online performance. For more information about our Pandora A/S tracking for China, please contact us here. Sandalwood Advisors is Asia’s first alternative data platform. You can also follow us on Twitter @sandalwooddata or on LinkedIn.