Business

Natura & Co sees its second-quarter online sales grow 225% and raises BRL 2 billion to invest even more in digitization

With digital strategies combined and the partial reopening of physical stores from June, the group was able to offset 82% of the pandemic's impacts in Latin America

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14.Aug.2020 15:19 BRT
UPDATED 15:53 BRT

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Consolidated sales stood at BRL7 billion, down only 12.7% despite the unprecedented global impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic;
The online sales channels of the group’s army of consultants also grew during the period.

One of the largest multi-brand groups of beauty products in the world, Natura & Co, is investing heavily in the digitalization of its operations. The second-quarter results, released on Thursday, show an increase of 225% compared to the same period last year in sales through e-commerce channels. Consolidated sales stood at BRL7 billion, down only 12.7% despite the unprecedented global impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During this second quarter, the group, which it’s formed by four major brands (Avon, Natura, The Body Shop, and Aesop) completed a BRL 2 billion capital raise which will allow a BRL 400 million investment in the coming six months in digital and IT, with further significant investments planned over the next four years.

“To further develop our omnichannel model, we will continue making significant investments in digital and IT thanks to our successful capital raise, and I’m also delighted to announce two strategic partnerships, one with Vayner Media, a global powerhouse in social media, which will include digital support for the Avon brand relaunch, and another with Singu, a leading Brazilian digital platform for at-home beauty services”, said Roberto Marques, Executive Chairman, and Natura&Co CEO, during the disclosure of the second-quarter results.

The investment in Singu, the value of which has not been revealed, but which gives Natura the right to acquire 100% of the company in the future, is another step towards the further digitization of the brands’ e-commerce channel and also an opportunity to develop new digital sales solutions to the group’s army of partner beauty consultants. Between April and June, the online sales by these workers tripled, following a 65% growth in the number of online stores opened by them.

With these digital strategies combined with the partial reopening of physical stores in June, Natura&Co said that it was able to offset 82% of the COVID-19 pandemic impacts in Latin America.