700 new SKUs every day, it sells nearly 400 million in a quarter

In the past year or even two, the enthusiasm for the cross-border listing boom has slightly declined. However, last year, several cross-border "old acquaintances" such as Savi, Zhiou, and Santai were listed one after another, becoming the new recruits of the cross-border circle in the A-share market.

Among them, San Tai once caused heated discussions by developing 838 SKUs per day on average. How is its performance now after it went public?

Develop 700 new products a day

No one would object to saying that Santai Holdings is a typical bulk seller.

The product categories cover 5 major categories and 17 subcategories, including fashion, tools and accessories, home life, digital technology, and hobbies, with nearly 100 subcategories . Santai shares maintains a very considerable number of SKUs on major platforms.

According to the earlier prospectus information , from 2019 to the first half of 2022, the number of SKUs sold by Santai on various platforms was 656,300, 599,700, 669,400, and 793,700, respectively. The average number of SKUs removed from the shelves per day during the same period was 302, 437, 309, and 152 .

With many SKUs, fast new product launches and high obsolescence rate, Santai Co., Ltd. is able to develop new products at a high speed.

Taking the above period as an example, the average number of newly developed SKUs developed by Santai Co., Ltd. per day were 648, 283, 500 and 838 respectively , and the development cycle of a new product was 3-7 days.

However, in the second half of 2022, Santai Co., Ltd. seemed to be restrained. The last prospectus before listing showed that it developed an average of 600 SKUs per day in 2022.

By 2023, Santai Co., Ltd. had 830,000 SKUs on sale, with an average of more than 700 new SKUs developed every day .

Measured based on profitability indicators over the past three months, Santai Co., Ltd. develops 700 SKUs a day, which means that the bonus period for hit products will become shorter and shorter .

If a new product fails to sell within three months, Santai Co., Ltd. will clear its inventory, reduce prices, offer discounts, or transfer sales to other platforms.

The huge number of SKUs has certain requirements for R&D. In 2023, San Tai's R&D expenses increased by 18.14% year-on-year to 45.76 million yuan, with 147 R&D personnel, accounting for 18.44% of the total number of employees. However, if these figures are spread over 5 major categories and 17 subcategories , there are actually not many.

There are also many suppliers needed for the development of a large number of new products. It is understood that there are more than 10,000 active suppliers cooperating with San Tai Co., Ltd. , and online procurement is mainly completed through 1688.

Even though new products are launched quickly, it can be seen that the sales data of many major categories of Santai Co., Ltd. were not impressive last year.

The hobbies and interests category contributed the most to its total revenue (accounting for 27.34%), with sales of 465 million yuan last year. However, the revenue has declined compared to 2022. The revenue of other categories such as tools and accessories, fashion, and digital technology are also declining.

The home living category is the only one of the five major categories that has seen growth, with revenue of 353 million yuan last year. Although it is not as high as the hobbies category, it still increased by 6.35% compared to 2022.

In terms of total revenue, there was growth last year and in the first quarter of this year.

Sold nearly 400 million yuan in one quarter

According to the announcement of Santai Co., Ltd. , in the first quarter of this year, the company's total revenue reached 389 million yuan, a slight decline (0.51%) from 391 million yuan in the same period last year.

In terms of net profit, Santai shares earned approximately 30.1 million yuan in the first quarter, and its profitability has weakened. In the same period last year, it was 37.17 million yuan, a drop of more than 19% .

In September last year , Santai Shares went public. After several twists and turns, it encountered questions such as outdated financial information, high premium for asset restructuring, discrepancies between gross profit margin and profit changes, and the company's lack of independent productivity . During the reporting period of the prospectus, Santai Shares was also repeatedly given administrative penalties for overdue tax declarations and high-risk system loopholes . Coupled with questions about "brushing orders and reviews" , Santai Shares' IPO was repeatedly suspended .

It took more than two years from June 2021 to September 2023 for Santai shares to be "difficultly" listed on the A-share market .

How was the performance of the first annual financial report after listing?

In 2023, Santai's revenue was 1.7 billion yuan, an increase of 7.08% from 1.588 billion yuan in 2022. However, net profit performed poorly, decreasing by 12.12% from 141 million yuan in 2022 to 124 million yuan in 2023 .

The growth in revenue corresponds to the increase in order volume. In 2023, Santai’s total global market sales exceeded 18.8 million units, an increase of 18.10% from 15.92 million units in 2022 .

Last year, Santai Co., Ltd.'s inventory turnover rate also increased from 7.20 to 8.57, and the inventory volume decreased by 6% compared with 2022 (from 3.84 million pieces to 3.61 million pieces).

In fact, San Tai shares has two major businesses, one is cross-border e-commerce retail, and the other is cross-border e-commerce logistics. Although the former is still its main business (accounting for 72.89%), it also brought 1.24 billion yuan to San Tai shares last year, but compared with 2022, this income has dropped by 5.71%. In contrast, the income of the logistics business has increased by 68.69%.

Some people say that in the future, will San Tai Shares abandon its retail business and completely transform itself into a logistics service provider? In the short term, this is unlikely, after all, the retail business is still the largest part, and the investment in this part of the business is still continuing.

By region, Europe ( 36.98%) is still the main market for San Tai Shares, bringing in 629 million yuan in revenue last year, up 22.13% from 515 million yuan in 2022. Revenues from other markets such as North America, Oceania, and Asia are all growing, while South America and Africa may be intentionally reduced by San Tai Shares, resulting in a sharp drop in revenue.

In terms of channels, more than 99% of revenue is generated online. If we look at the retail business, the online channel segments have not been disclosed in detail, but according to the previous prospectus, San Tai Shares may intend to reduce its layout on Amazon.

Multi-platform layout, dare not rely on Amazon

We still have to mention the " account suspension wave " , after all, this storm affected most sellers. The business adjustments of big sellers also almost started from here.

Although Santai Holdings was not directly affected, its earlier prospectus showed that its sales share on Amazon was declining.

In 2019 , Santai’s sales on Amazon accounted for 47.78% of its total sales. Subsequently, it dropped sharply to 29.06% in 2020 with revenue of 400 million yuan . In 2021 , the Amazon channel brought back 654 million yuan in revenue, and the proportion also rebounded to 35.88%. In 2022, it dropped to 409 million yuan, accounting for 31.11% .

Overall, Amazon has always been the main layout platform for San Tai Shares. However, in recent years, its sales share on platforms such as AliExpress and Shopee has increased year by year, from 4.29% and 1.02% in 2019 to 13.22% and 16.04% in 2022 , respectively .

At the same time, Santai’s revenue on platforms such as eBay and Lazada has stabilized.

In 2023, Santai’s revenue share from platforms such as Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, and Shopee will be 32.36%, 15.48%, 15.46%, and 14.07%, respectively .

It can be seen that its layout of online channels takes a multi-platform route, and the revenue structure of each platform is now relatively stable.

With precedents such as Zebao , Kuailetong, Youkeshu, and Tongtuo Technology , it is not surprising that Santai shares chose to develop on multiple platforms .

However, just after its listing, the story of Santai Shares has shown a clear downward trend. In less than a year, the stock price has fallen from a high of 21.36 yuan per share to a low of 8.43 yuan per share. How will Santai Shares' cross-border story be written in the future?

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Performance