IPSA's custom China store died in 10 weeks — then Shiseido gutted the counters

IPSA, Shiseido's high-end skincare brand famous in China for its 'gold water' lotion, was once a growth engine: revenue compounded at 35% a year from 2014 to 2018 with operating margins above 30%. But by 2023 the brand was shrinking for an eighth consecutive quarter, with full-year sales down 30% and Q4 down 44%.

In December 2023 IPSA opened its first China custom concept store, the ULX center in Shanghai's Lujiazui Center mall. It closed on 26 February 2024, roughly ten weeks later. Through early 2024 IPSA counters were pulled across the country: Shanghai's Daning Jiuguang counter went, Wuhan's QunGuang Plaza counter followed, and lower-tier city doors in Nanchang, Zhenjiang, Hefei and Taicang shrank. In 2023 the brand had opened just one store while closing four, leaving 68 counters nationwide; Shanghai's dozen was expected to fall to two by autumn.

Shiseido China called it a 'normal layout adjustment', but the group context was blunt: FY2023 net sales fell 8.8% to ¥973bn and operating profit dropped 39.6%, so Shiseido budgeted ¥40bn of cost cuts for 2024–25, about ¥8bn of it in China including store-count optimization. The freed shelf space went to the group's newer bet: Drunk Elephant rolled into Sephora China stores in April 2024.

IPSA sales fell 30% in 2023 (Q4 down 44%); Shiseido targeted about ¥8bn of its ¥40bn cost cut at China

IPSA's China fame rested on a few hero products, and shoppers trading down to value-for-money domestic skincare brands hollowed out its mid-premium position.

Shiseido's SHIFT 2025 and Beyond strategy prioritized newer fragrance, men's and prestige brands, making IPSA's counter network a cost to cut, not defend.

Japanese beauty brands faced an extra headwind in China after the 2023 Fukushima wastewater release dampened demand for Japanese cosmetics.

A prestige brand kept alive on one hero lotion becomes a cost line the moment the market turns — shrink the channel before the channel shrinks you.

Shiseido pushed on with its China restructuring through 2024, cutting store counts and favoring online channels, while Drunk Elephant took over the Sephora China shelf space IPSA vacated. IPSA remains in China as a much smaller, online-leaning brand.