Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to ATRenew Inc.'s Q1 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will be hosting a question and answer session after management's prepared remarks. Please note today's event is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to the first speaker today, Miss Jessie Jin , Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Thank you. Hello, everyone, welcome to ATRenew's Q1 2026 earnings conference call. Speaking first today is Kerry Chen, our Founder, Chairman, CEO. He will be followed by Rex Chen, our CFO. After that, we will open the call to questions from the analysts. The first quarter 2026 financial results were released earlier today. The earnings press release and investor slides accompanying this call are now available at our IR website, ir.atrenew.com. There will also be a transcript following this call for your convenience. For today's agenda, Kerry will share his thoughts of our quarterly performance and business strategy, followed by Rex, who will address the financial highlights. Both Kerry and Rex will participate during the Q&A session. Please note our safe harbor statement.
Some of the information you will hear during our discussion today will consist of forward-looking statements, and I refer to you our safe harbor statement in the earnings press release. Any forward-looking statements that management makes on this call are based on assumptions as of today, and that ATRenew does not take any obligations to upgrade our assumptions on these statements. This call includes discussions of certain Non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings press release, which contains a reconciliation of Non-GAAP measures to GAAP measures. Please note that unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned during this conference call are in RMB and all comparisons are on a year-over-year basis. I'd like to turn the call over to Kerry for business and strategy updates. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining ATRenew's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call.
We are pleased to review our operating results and share our latest perspective regarding capability building in the second-hand industry this year. Amid overall revenue and scale expansion, we continue to advance our 1P-centric strategy, strengthening our core foundation in the recycling and trading of secondhand consumer electronics. To drive greater value for retail users, we optimized our 1P2C ratio by securing first-hand supply sources and enhancing compliant refurbishment output.
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On the supply side, we capitalize on industry trends by prioritizing trading scenarios that deliver superior user experiences, while shifting more fulfillment to offline via two-door services. In 2026, the government maintained strong support for trade-ins and further advanced fiscal and financial coordination. Against this backdrop, AHS Recycle continues to work closely with JD.com to create industry-leading trade-in solutions, providing a seamless one-stop trade-in experience at highly competitive prices to meet diverse consumer needs. As a result, within the JD sourcing channel, trade-in orders outpaced overall growth, with volume share further expanding year over year to about 70%.
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Throughout the recycling fulfillment process, we actively guide users towards face-to-face transactions in offline settings. In the first quarter, we expanded beyond our network of 2,156 stores across major cities and scaled up our door-to-door service team to 2,248 professionals, bringing our services directly to users' doorsteps. This strategy has lifted our face-to-face fulfillment ratio to 80%, fostering deeper connection and trust through AHS Recycle's fulfillment capabilities and brand presence. Looking ahead to peak seasons, like major promotional campaigns and flagship device launches, we will further implement flexible workforce solutions to enhance face-to-face fulfillment timeliness and user experience even during the busiest times.
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During the first quarter, we leveraged our proprietary compliant refurbishment business to add depth to our supply chain, with compliant refurbished product revenue increasing 76.1% year-over-year. Our on-demand refurbishment model was a standout performer, growing by roughly 180% in revenue. Our compliant refurbishment capabilities allowed us to provide more quality secondhand devices directly to consumers. In terms of retail channels, we expanded across Paipai Selection, our official website, and new media channels, which drove nearly 150% year-over-year growth in 1P2C retail revenue from refurbished devices. March marked a significant breakthrough, with monthly retail sales of compliant refurbished products topping RMB 200 million.
As a result, 1P2C accounted for 45.1% of our product revenue in the first quarter of 2026, rising 12.1 percentage points from 33% year-over-year and 3.4 percentage points from 41.7% quarter-over-quarter. This strategic pivot toward direct-to-consumer sales allows us to align our recycling prices with real-time retail trends, ensuring we offer better recycling prices, maintain a strong price advantage, and create greater value for end users.
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Regarding high-quality products from older generations, specifically M minus three and M minus four models, we targeted differentiated demand for device generations in the international markets to drive compliant exports. This strategy allows us to steadily expand our global scale and unlock an additional, over 4% gross profit margin.
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Turning to our 3P business. PJT Marketplace also delivered healthy and rapid growth in both scale and revenue, further reinforcing its position as industry infrastructure. As we onboarded more new users, we offered free shipping on the first three orders to those new users on PJT Marketplace. We are also replicating the operational capabilities PJT Marketplace has built in serving large clients and extending them to small and medium-sized merchants. By streamlining platform processes, we have lowered the barrier to using platform and improved both transaction efficiency and convenience, enabling small and medium-sized merchants to sell their products at better prices.
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Leveraging PJT Marketplace's robust supply chain capabilities as the industry's leading B2B platform, we deliver high-quality supplies to those merchants while reaching fragmented markets through Douyin's user base. By the end of the first quarter, the number of total registered merchants on PJT Marketplace nearly doubled year-over-year to almost 2 million. Notably, the number of registered contracted buyers surged by over 120% as an influx of small and micro buyers seeking high-quality value for money products came up to the platform. This validates the effective implementation of our PJT Marketplace supply chain strategy to penetrate fragmented markets.
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In our overall 3P business model, Paipai continues to shift toward the consignment model. Under this model, the Paipai team provides merchants with standardized operational services, making the pre-owned retail easier for them to manage. Since the 2nd quarter of last year, Paipai Consignment has continued to provide merchants with broader access to curated retail channels. In the 1st quarter, the consignment business maintained a rapid double-digit growth, helping pre-owned retail merchants move closer to consumers.
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Multi-category recycling sustained rapid growth in the first quarter, with overall recycling GMV up 81.5% year-over-year. Among them, gold recycling GMV grew 83.3%, and secondhand luxury recycling GMV grew 58.8%, both showing solid growth momentum. By the end of March, we launched multi-category recycling services across 966 AHS stores, adding nearly 300 stores compared to the end of March last year. Looking ahead, we expect to roll out this capacity to more self-operated AHS stores through the rest of the year, while also working with more franchisees to build gold recycling service capabilities. Alongside the growth of our multi-category business, we are also upgrading the locations and layouts of our stores, creating a better fulfillment experience and conveying greater brand value to both new and existing users.
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In summary, the overall 3P service take rate was 4.92% in the first quarter, in line with our expectations.
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These results validated the effectiveness of the 3-stage development strategy we previously shared. Based on 2026 market dynamics, let me revisit the long-term nature of our strategy. Stage 1, we continue to solidify the healthy growth of our core second-hand consumer electronics business. In our category assessment within the second-hand industry, we identified second-hand consumer electronics as a category with both scale and enormous room for further penetration. As national trade-in policies promote consumption and industry upgrades, we are actively positioning ourselves in recycling and trade-in scenarios. Strengthening the brand recognition of AHS Recycle to serve broader user replacement and upgrade needs, enabling more electronic products to achieve a second life cycle and creating greater value for society.
Throughout this process, we are steadfastly building our 1P business capabilities, increasing our use of AI tools, optimizing pricing experiences and end user services and supply chain efficiency, while expanding our industry value chain through compliant refurbishment and creating more value to retail users through higher portion of retail sales.
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Stage 2, we are strengthening AHS Recycle's position as China's leading recycling brand. We believe that in the second-hand service industry, pricing, trust, and convenience are the 3 core pillars that define the long-term user experience. In an industry's long-term development path, brand equity holds enduring value. Young trade-in scenarios, we maintain independent and prudent brand investments in AHS Recycle across Douyin and Xiaohongshu. Combined with the revived initiatives, AHS Recycle has partnered with an increasing number of consumer brands to penetrate more mainstream commercial districts, from local communities to shopping districts, from campuses to workplaces. By securing these unique scenarios and locations, AHS Recycle encourages more younger users to participate in recycling and green consumption.
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Stage 3, we continue to advance breakthroughs in our overseas strategy. The B2B business in overseas markets represents a business model we are familiar with. By accumulating reputation and capabilities of export of China source supplies, we continue to explore global version of PJT Marketplace and product development while systematically building capabilities to directly serve end consumers.
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Now, let me share a few thoughts on the 2026 market environment. In-industry data shows that new device shipments in China have dipped slightly this year by about 4%. However, if we look at the brand mix, Apple and Huawei remain mainstream brands in the pre-owned market. Both grew against the broader trend in the new device market, supported by their supply chain capabilities and pricing advantages. This has validated the 3 opportunities we previously identified. First, pricing trends in the pre-owned market remain broadly stable and resilient, laying a solid foundation for the long term healthy development for the industry. Second, Apple products, which are closely tied to our core business drivers, have demonstrated market share advantages. Third, brands and platforms continue to place greater emphasis on trade-in programs. Their increased investment here supports our efficiency in acquiring firsthand recycling supply.
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Taking these together, we expect to deliver robust and rapid growth this year. By leveraging our efficient automated quality inspection technology and value-added supply chain capabilities, we will further unlock economies of scale.
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Now I'd like to turn the call over to our CFO Rex for financial updates.
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Good day, everyone. I'm pleased to share our financial performance for the first quarter of 2026. Our revenues grew rapidly and profits reached a record high. As China's circular economy continues to advance and trade-in programs for consumer electronics remain ongoing, we sustained strong growth momentum in the first quarter. During the quarter, we leveraged our direct to customer recycling scenarios and face-to-face fulfillment capabilities, enhanced our supply chain and retail capabilities, and further strengthened user mindshare of the AHS Recycle brands.
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In the first quarter, total revenue exceeded the high end of our guidance, increasing by 32.4% to RMB 6.16 billion, while Non-GAAP operating income surged by 70.2% to over RMB 190 million.
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Before we review the financials in detail, please note that all figures are in RMB and all comparisons are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise stated.
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In the first quarter, total revenue growth was primarily driven by continued growth in net product revenue. Net product revenues increased by 34.4% to RMB 5.73 billion, largely attributable to the growth in online sales of pre-owned consumer electronics.
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Net service revenues were RMB 430 million in the first quarter, representing an increase of 10.4%. The increase was largely driven by PJT Marketplace and multi-category recycling business. The overall take rate of our marketplace was 4.92% for the first quarter of 2026. During the quarter, our multi-category recycling business contributed over RMB 83 million in revenue, accounting for 19.3% of service revenues.
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Now let's discuss operating expenses. To provide greater clarity on the trends of our actual operating based expenses, we will mainly discuss our Non-GAAP operating expenses, which better reflect how management views our operating results. The reconciliations of GAAP to Non-GAAP results are available in our earnings release and the corresponding form 6-K is furnished with the U.S. SEC.
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Merchandise costs increased by 33.2% to RMB 4.82 billion, in line with the growth in product sales. Gross profit margin for our 1P business was 15.9%, compared with what 15.2% in the same period last year. The gross margin improvement in our 1P business, this was primarily driven by high efficiency C2B recycling scenarios, combined refurbishment capabilities incorporated in our supply chains and an increasingly diversified retail channel mix. This allowed us to increase the proportion of higher margin retail sales, with 1P2C revenue accounting for 45.1% of product revenue in the first quarter of 2026, up from 33% in the same period last year.
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Fulfillment expenses increased by 22.5% to RMB 520 million. Non-GAAP fulfillment expenses increased by 22.7% to RMB 520 million. Under the Non-GAAP measures, the increase was mainly driven by higher personnel costs, driven by the growth of our business compared to the same period in 2025. Additionally, operating center related expenses rose along with the increasing volumes of recycling and transactions. Non-GAAP fulfillment expenses as a percentage of total revenues decreased to 8.5% from 9.1%.
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Selling and marketing expenses increased by 17.9% to RMB 490 million. Non-GAAP selling and marketing expenses increased by 27% to RMB 490 million, primarily driven by an increase in commission expenses in relation to channel service fees. Non-GAAP selling and marketing expenses as a percentage of total revenues decreased to 8% from 8.3%.
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General administrative expenses increased by 25.9% to RMB 79.8 million. Non-GAAP G&A expenses also increased by 33% to RMB 79 million, primarily due to an increase in personnel costs. Non-GAAP G&A expenses as a percentage of total revenues remain flat year-over-year at 1.3%.
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Research and development expenses increased by 33.5% to RMB 73.4 million. Non-GAAP R&D expenses increased by 36.4% to RMB 72.3 million, primarily due to an increase in personnel costs. Non-GAAP R&D expenses as a percentage of total revenues increased to 1.2% from 1.1%.
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As a result, our Non-GAAP operating income exceeded RMB 190 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to Non-GAAP operating income of RMB 110 million in the first quarter of 2025, representing an increase of 70.2% year-over-year. Non-GAAP operating profit margin was 3.1% for the quarter, compared to 2.4% in the first quarter of 2025, representing an increase of 69 basis points.
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As of March 31st, 2026, cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short term investments, and funds receivable from third party payment service providers totaled RMB 1.72 billion. Our financial reserves are sufficient to support reinvestment in business development and shareholder returns.
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During the first quarter of 2026, we repurchased a total of approximately 0.5 million ADSs for approximately $2.7 million. On June 30th, 2025, the board has authorized a Share Repurchase Program under which the company may repurchase up to $50 million of our shares over 12 months. As of March 30th, 2026, we repurchased approximately $11 million under this program. Today, the board has authorized the extension of the existing Share Repurchase Program for 12 months from June 30th, 2026, with key terms unchanged.
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Turning to the business outlook. For the second quarter of 2026, we anticipate total revenues to be between RMB 6,240 million to RMB 6,340 million, representing an increase of 25%-27% year-over-year. Please note that this forecast only reflects our current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.
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This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then 2. When asking a question, please state your question in Chinese first, then repeat your question in English for the convenience of everyone on the call. The first question today comes from Raphael Lim with DBS. Please go ahead.
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[Non-English content] I'll recap in English. Congratulations for the brilliant first quarter results. Does management have any updated guidance on revenue and profit growth for the full year of 2026? Thank you.
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Thank you for the question. We continue to actively pursue our full year operating targets. From a strategic perspective, we will continue to prioritize our 1P business, which spans the end-to-end value chain and enables us to deliver a better user experience and create greater value.
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In terms of scale growth, we've seen the government's continued promotion of consumer electronics trading programs, the expansion of eligible categories, and meaningful subsidy support together with dedicated investments by brand manufacturers and platforms, including JD.com in trading scenarios. These factors allows us to capitalize on this momentum and secure more for first-hand supply efficiently and at lower cost. They also reduce our reliance on traffic-driven marketing and performance advertising for high-value, low-frequency consumer electronics categories.
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For our international business, we are advancing at a steady pace. In the first quarter, overseas revenue grew rapidly year-over-year. This was largely driven by our solid domestic inventory base as our compliant export supply chain capabilities gradually strengthen. Meanwhile, we are exploring opportunities to bring more of the capabilities we have built in China to overseas markets. These include resourcing fulfillment, platform capabilities, and export opportunities of automation technologies and among others. We will also remain disciplined in our international expansion investments while actively applying new AI technologies to accelerate business from the incubation stage towards rapid growth.
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As a forecast, we look forward to update you with more development from the overseas business during the next earnings conference call.
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Regarding efficiency improvements, building flexible fulfillment capabilities in our 1P scenarios, as well as integrating AI across automated quality inspection, R&D and operations will be key priorities as we strengthen our 1P model. In terms of AI enabled productivity, we actively encourage AI learning and knowledge sharing across the organization. We have already made progress in areas such as in store compliance, audits and risk control, recycling pricing algorithm optimization and coding efficiency. Going forward, we will gradually expand these applications, laying the groundwork for long term organizational efficiency gains and improved profitability.
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Taken together, we expect to scale in 2026 at a pace faster than what we expected internally at the beginning of the year. We also expect to achieve meaningful margin improvement.
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Thank you for the question.
The next question comes from Wan Jiao with CICC. Please go ahead.
[Non-English content] Congratulations for the strong results. I have one question. Could you please give us more color about your plan for store expansion and your fulfillment capacity increase in 2026? Thank you.
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Thank you for the question. During the first quarter, we reviewed our nationwide store network based on factors such as location, quality and traffic performance. We optimized our store footprint by phasing out certain underperforming stores while further improving the efficiency of our high quality stores so they can better and more efficiently capture online traffic. We also maintain focus on store quality. By expanding service categories, we continue to increase the proportion of stores capable of providing multi-category recycling services.
By the end of the first quarter, 841 of our 965 self-operated AHS stores had enabled multi-category service capabilities. Alongside more user-friendly store layouts and upgraded in-store experiences, further strengthening AHS's recycled brand image and fulfillment experience. We have our AHS velocity at store openings. It follows a leapfrog pattern, opening new stores, solidifying store performance, then further ramping up store openings. We will continue to follow this rhythm based on our past experience. Looking at the long term, our goal of reaching 5,000 stores in China remains unchanged.
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At the same time, we added nearly 500 door-to-door service teams nationwide year-over-year. This helped increase the proportion of face-to-face fulfillment in key service scenarios, including JD's trading services, expand fulfillment coverage, improve service speed, and further reinforce our industry leading fulfillment experience. In addition, we are also building our flexible workforce capacity. During peak seasons, such as major promotional campaigns and flagship device launches, we can quickly activate additional door-to-door capacity to ensure fulfillment experience and quality while meeting face-to-face demand. Thank you for the question.
The next question comes from Brian Lantier with Zacks Small-Cap Research. Please go ahead.
Good evening, and I'll add my congratulations on the strong performance this quarter. I was wondering if you could provide some insight into the growth of inventory in the first quarter. Specifically, is the inventory build mostly due to anticipated demand growth or changes in the product mix? How should we think about normalized inventory going forward?
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Thank you for the question. Our recycling and trading business continue to gain user recognition, especially during the trading scenarios. As we build stronger user mindshare, we are also enhancing the customer experience by offering more attractive pricing. Against the backdrop of the rising upstream costs for new devices, especially memory price hikes, second-hand market prices have remained relatively stable compared to past cycles, and we have even seen price increases in some products. We are not in a hurry to reprice our high-quality inventory for faster turnover, and part of it will be sold in the second quarter as inventory will normalize. The increase in inventory is consistent with our strategy of strengthening 1P2C sales. On average, inventory turnover days for 1P2C retail are longer than those of bulk sales.
Therefore, as our revenue mix continues to shift towards 1P2C, inventory turnover days may increase to some extent. That said, as PJT Marketplace remains an important piece of industry infrastructure, it supports our strong pricing capabilities. Therefore, the increase in inventory is not expected to have significant impact on turnover in our core businesses. Thank you for the question.
This concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks.
Thank you all again for joining us. A replay of today's call will be available on our IR website shortly, followed by a transcript when ready. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to email us at ir@atrenew.com. Have a good day.
This conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.