(Yicai Global) June 1 -- Yves Saint Laurent, L’Oreal’s high-end cosmetics brand, opened its global flagship store in Shanghai’s Xintiandi Plaza today after L’Oreal’s sales in China bucked the coronavirus downturn.

L’Oreal’s revenue from the Chinese market rose 6.4 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, compared with a 4.8 percent decline worldwide, according to the French cosmetic giant’s latest earnings report.

L’Oreal aims to exploit the huge disparity between China’s population, which accounts for 20 percent of the world’s total, and its perfume consumption, which is just 1 percent of the global market.

The new city center store will focus on perfume lines, Xing Xiachun, general manager of YSL’s Chinese business, told Yicai Global.

Chinese consumers are moving closer to the international market for beauty and skincare, and the structure of the country’s perfume market is also approaching that of the global market, said Chen Jiaqi from L’Oreal China’s public relations department, adding that its share of the perfume market will expand further.

Editor: Peter Thomas