Nu Skin Enterprises Inc (NUS) Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

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Nu Skin Enterprises Inc (NUS 2.21%)
Q4 2020 Earnings Call
Feb 11, 2021, 12:00 p.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Scott Pond -- Vice President, Investor Relations

During today's presentation, comments will be made that include forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those discussed or anticipated. For a complete discussion of these risks, please refer to the earnings release that we issued yesterday or to our Form 10-K that we filed with the SEC this morning.

Also, during today's presentation, certain financial numbers may be discussed that differ from comparable numbers obtained in our financial statements. We believe these non-GAAP financial numbers assist in comparing period-to-period results. Please refer to our Investor Relations page at ir.nuskin.com for any required reconciliation of non-GAAP numbers.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Hello, everybody. I'm Ruth Todd, Senior Vice President of Global Public Affairs. And on behalf of our entire team, we welcome you to Nu Skin Investor Day 2021.

We appreciate you spending some time with us today as we discuss our business, our plans for this next year, and ultimately, why we believe that Nu Skin is a strong investment option for you.

We wish we were altogether in New York or at Nu Skin or somewhere in person. But as we collectively find our way through the challenges of a global pandemic, we all do the best we can. And we're just grateful today for technology that allows us at least a virtual gathering.

We appreciate our relationship with you and look forward to sharing our vision for the future during this broadcast. We also want to extend a special welcome to members of our Board of Directors and our company founders, who are also joining us virtually today.

Like many companies around the world, we began 2020 with great optimism and a plan to return our business to growth by the second half of the year. When we heard rumblings of a new virus strain, we wondered if it could impact our people and our business. Who could have imagined that COVID-19 would become a full blown global pandemic that would disrupt any semblance of normal life as we knew it.

Last year was uncharted territory for everyone and the breadth and duration of the virus outbreak impacted our world in ways no one could have foreseen. But humans are resilient; and if history teaches us anything, it's that, together, people find a way forward.

Even in the wake of tragedy around us and losing some of our own Nu Skin family, our management team has been inspired by stories all around the world of courage, kindness and resilience among people, and we've been equally moved by the humanity of our own global employees and sales leaders who have rallied together to take care of others, all while keeping our business growing and thriving. It's been remarkable.

I think I speak for our entire management team when I say, we are in awe at the goodness of our global team. Indeed, they embody Nu Skin's mission to be a force for good, and we thank them.

Now, onto the business of today. Our leadership is going to share with you our vision for the coming year and beyond. We will outline the strategies that will help us achieve this vision, such as expanding our growth strategy of products, programs and platform, executing an aggressive digital strategy, balancing our geographic profile, and building on our CSR and sustainability efforts.

Our agenda will begin with an accountability report from our CEO, Ritch Wood. I'm sure you've seen our announcement. Ritch will begin the process of transitioning the CEO position to our President, Ryan Napierski, later this year. It has been a privilege to work with both of these outstanding leaders and the capable leadership team they've built to support them.

Ritch will speak to the state of the business, then review our results for the fourth quarter and the full year and explain how these build on our long-term strategy. After Ritch, I'll be back to share our latest efforts in sustainability and CSR. We will then hear from our President and incoming CEO, Ryan Napierski.

Just a word about Ryan as he assumes this new position. We are confident, because he has been so well prepared as a key successor for this role. He has more than 25 years with the company, during which time he has earned the trust of our sales leaders and has acquired an in-depth understanding of their needs. He has held leadership positions while living abroad in Europe and Asia for more than a decade, which gave him deep insight into our global business. He has been mentored by other great leaders and has worked side by side with Ritch, executing our growth strategy over the past several years. And on top of all of that, Ryan has great vision, leadership and integrity, and he is ready to lead Nu Skin into its next chapter.

Ryan will then go into some more detail on the strategies we're putting in place to accomplish goals for growth, particularly in the areas of innovative products, global programs and digital platform. He will also introduce you to some experts we have in some of those areas. And then, Mark Lawrence, our Chief Financial Officer, will walk you through details of our Q4 and 2020 performance and share our modeling and guidance going forward. After that, we'll take a short break and finish up the day with some Q&A.

So, with all of that, let's welcome Ritch Wood.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Ruth, and thanks to each of you for joining us today. We're grateful to you and are excited to share our vision of the future with you. I'd like to start off by echoing Ruth's sentiments on our heroic efforts and resiliency we have seen this past year in our communities. It has been especially gratifying to me to see the strength of our global Nu Skin family as we have rallied together to face this challenge.

Together, we have cared for the most vulnerable among us and have taken steps to safeguard the health and lives of our employees and sales leaders. Through it all, we've also found a way to continue providing products that combine the best of science in nature and technology and new innovative ways to consumers everywhere.

As you saw in our releases yesterday alongside our financial results, we also announced a management transition where Ryan Napierski will assume the roles of President and CEO on September 1. Congratulations, Ryan, on this well-deserved appointment.

We have worked together for 25 years and very closely in senior leadership roles for the past 15. But much more than that, he's always been and will always be a close friend of mine. I truly feel like we have the right leadership and strategy in place to move the business into the future.

With a strong foundation in place, and as I recently celebrated my 30th year with Nu Skin, it is a perfect time for me to retire and pass the mantle of leadership as I remain closely involved with the company through early 2022, to aid in a smooth transition.

Ryan is the right person to take this company to the next level. He knows our business better than anyone, and he understands how to grow it and, more importantly, how to improve lives all over the world as we have been doing for nearly four decades.

As Ryan and I have worked together in our current roles for the past four years, we've developed a vision and growth strategy together, and it is centered on attracting and retaining customers, really focusing on being a customer-obsessed organization and providing opportunity for all.

We've made significant changes around our sales incentive structure, pricing, technology, product pipeline, and leveraging social commerce. I am pleased with the progress we've made over the last several years.

For example, our focus on customer growth has empowered our affiliates to attract many more customers to our products and our business. To accomplish this, we first and foremost have continued Nu Skin's history of developing effective and innovative products that help people look and feel their best. Then, we placed a great emphasis on delivering products through digitally enabled social commerce platform. This has led to growth in our active customer base from 980,000 in Q1 of 2017 to 1,560,000 in Q4 of 2020. That's growth of nearly 60% over this four-year period.

We've also focused on making adjustments in our business to appeal to a wider customer base and specifically attracting a younger demographic of customers and brand affiliates. We identify the gig economy and this younger demographic as key to our ability to accelerate growth into the future. We've been successful in engaging with younger customers as we've reduced the average age of our customer by five years, which has also attracted a younger sales leader to the business.

This younger demographic and a relentless customer focus will be the key to powering the company's future growth. In addition, we've made a concerted strategic effort to achieve greater balance in our geographic profile of our business. We believe this positions us to drive more consistent and sustained revenue growth in the future.

I would like to recognize our management teams and sales leaders in the West, who will provide a visionary leadership in these key regions to shift the balance of our geographic profile over the past four years.

Note that our Mainland China business now accounts for 23% of our revenue compared to 28% four years ago. And with our West region, together with our manufacturing segment now accounting for 38% today compared to 21% four years ago. We've added manufacturing revenue and strategic investments intended to secure our supply chain. We've experienced significant benefits from these manufacturing assets and talents as the agility and flexibility of our supply chain have been particularly valuable with the disruptions caused by COVID.

Mark will talk a little more to our continued investments in this segment, which currently account for 6% of our revenue and we believe they will be a key enabler to our future growth.

Execution of our strategic vision generated great results and momentum for our business in 2020. For the fourth quarter, strong customer and sales leader growth drove our largest quarterly revenue in seven years and helped us achieve $1.40 in earnings per share. That's 94% growth.

We are benefiting from growth and profit in the U.S., which has lowered our overall tax rate. I'm particularly pleased with the sequential improvement in sales leaders, which will support continued growth as we move forward.

Our strong fourth quarter results benefited from successful, limited product introductions of both the new Boost device and Nutricentials. These products are launching in the first half of 2021, and we anticipate they will continue to help us grow.

The West continue to power our growth, but I'm particularly pleased that we were able to report growth in each reporting segment in the fourth quarter, including Mainland China, as we had projected.

We benefited from a weaker U.S. dollar in the fourth quarter and anticipate this will continue to provide some benefit in 2021.

For the year, our strategic focus and continued investment in technology enabled us to grow ahead of plan, as we reported revenue growth of 7% during 2020 and EPS growth of 17%. This performance was all the more impressive considering the uncertainty of the global pandemic.

We were able to introduce our latest product innovations as scheduled and, for the most part, keep our products in stock throughout the year, thanks to the strength and adaptability of our global supply chain and investments in manufacturing. More importantly, we have leaned into key areas of our strategy, which we believe will accelerate our growth in the future.

With our planned improvements in operating margin and strong revenue growth expectations, we believe we can produce double-digit EPS growth going forward.

Our confidence in the business is focused on three key points that you will hear throughout our presentation today. Our strategy is focused on growing customers through our three pillars of products, programs and platform. A balanced geographic profile will generate more sustainable growth going forward; and third, our ongoing efforts to lead out in sustainability and CSR initiatives. For all these reasons, we are extremely optimistic to deliver a very successful 2021.

Our guidance indicates that we anticipate strong growth in both revenue, which we forecast to grow between 5% and 9%, or approximately $200 million, and earnings-per-share growth of 5% to 13%. We have the right strategy, we have the right team, and the global trends are moving in our favor.

Before Ryan joins us to lay out our growth strategy, I've asked Ruth to come back up and review our progress and goals related to sustainability, ESG and our global Force for Good efforts. Ruth?

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

If you've been following Nu Skin for any length of time, then you know how seriously we take our mission to be a force for good in the world. That fire began with our founders, and its flame seem to grow brighter every year. It is an absolute privilege for me to lead the team that oversees our corporate social responsibility efforts around the world, and I'm incredibly proud of what they've accomplished collectively over the past year.

Nu Skin has been about the business of CSR from its earliest days, and we strive to keep doing more and becoming better as the needs of people and the planet we all share continue to evolve. We endeavor to live our mission every day. We do it in many countries, in myriad ways. Here is a sample.

[Video Presentation]

That passion and innovation is a huge reason people love working at Nu Skin. And what you just saw, well, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Other highlights from our charitable giving over the years include, training 8,700 parents in Malawi about agriculture principles that build their self-reliance and teach them how to grow enough food for their families; donations from employees and sales leaders that funded more than 100 water wells for villages in Malawi, as well as more than 50,000 fruit trees planted there this year alone. Also, in Africa, we provided approximately 1,000 scholarships for young students.

Through our partnership with Seacology, we've built schools and helped preserve natural habitats for island nations, and we built our 25th Nu Hope Library in Korea.

Throughout Asia, our donations have provided more than 25,000 life-saving heart surgeries for children. And in Latin America, we've been able to provide children with more than 50,000 vision screenings for new glasses.

Our Nourish the Children for-profit initiative was mentioned in that video you just saw. Since this program was introduced, our customers, employees and sales leaders have purchased and donated 700 million meals to children around the world, and 46 million of those were just this past year.

We also help build strong communities wherever we do business by supporting many local charity projects and continuing to strengthen our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. From a DEI perspective, we remain committed to making meaningful change in our workplace and our local communities.

This past year, we organized employee resource groups, we created leadership trainings. We also provided listen and learn sessions, so that our employees could hear and learn from a variety of diverse perspectives. And we are establishing DE&I standards for our partners and suppliers.

We are also committed to caring for our planet through our sustainability initiatives. I want to spend just a few minutes focused on our work in this area and share with you some of our accomplishments from 2020.

Now back in October of 2019, we announced several sustainability commitments. Our main focus was to assess, score and improve the environmental impact of our products and packaging with the goal of ensuring that all of our packaging will become either recycled, recyclable, reusable, reduced or renewable by the year 2030. I'm happy to report that we delivered on the first milestone of that commitment with our top 20 products during 2020. Already, we have started to see the impact globally with a reduction in paper and plastic in tonnage, and we look forward to further reductions every year.

Now one example of just what we're doing is this, our refreshed Epoch line packaging that we'll start rolling out in March. It features environmentally friendly Eco-Pac tubes that are made from sugarcane rather than fossil fuels. They also reduce carbon emissions by 83% per product. They reduce plastic usage. In fact, our favorite example of this is the transition of the Epoch Baobab Body Butter from a jar to the Eco-Pac tube. And that resulted in 72% less plastic per tube, and we are the first beauty company to use this new Eco-Pac packaging. This all builds on the sustainability focus of our Epoch line, which is celebrating 25 years of safe, natural and effective ingredients. Now that's what you call, getting better with age.

We are energized about the direction we're heading and the moves we're making in packaging improvement, and we're not alone in celebrating this. In 2020, we secured nine Sustainability Awards for our waste and packaging reductions, Clean Beauty products and sustainable programs. It's nice to be recognized for the efforts we're making in these areas. And like I said, we feel like we are just getting started.

To learn more about our progress, you can visit nuskin.com/sustainability and nuskin.com/forceforgood.

As I turn it over now to Ryan, let's watch a short video, highlighting some of our other sustainability efforts.

[Video Presentation]

Ryan Napierski -- President

Thank you, Ruth, and hello, everyone. For the past four years, Ritch and I have worked together to redefine Nu Skin's vision of becoming the world's leading innovative beauty and wellness company, powered by our dynamic business opportunity platform. He has been an outstanding partner as I returned to our headquarters after years of operating in our global markets and has introduced me to many of you.

What inspires me most about Ritch is his ambition of realizing our potential throughout his tenure both as CFO and as our CEO. Living around the world throughout my career, I've listened to countless people from Korea, Germany, the U.K. and Japan and beyond, talking about their need for a better life, their desire to look, feel and live better. I believe that the greatest need on this planet is empowerment. And at the heart of Nu Skin is our mission of empowering people to improve lives.

At the end of the day, every product we create, every affiliate we empower and every strategy we enact is aimed at this central goal. This is what first attracted me to Nu Skin as a working college student, who's ambition was to learn to surf in Mexico after graduation. That all changed when I got to know a few Nu Skin executives who impressed me with their commitment to their purpose-driven work. 25 years later with a couple of degrees and several expat toward under my belt, I remain committed to those same purpose-driven ideals. I'm more passionate than ever about the value of Nu Skin and what we have to offer in improving people's lives.

The world needs what we have to offer. Our world is changing at an accelerated pace in virtually every way for everyone. Who would have imagined even 12 months ago that a food delivery app would become the most frequented restaurant or that major blockbuster movies would be released in our own homes. We are experiencing seismic global shifts in consumer preferences and trends, digital, social and mobile connections and economic landscapes.

And according to Deloitte Digital, our current belt with the global pandemic has accelerated these behavior shifts by nearly five years. The way we live, work and shop online, has changed in every way, providing even greater opportunity for people to live better, more balanced lives.

There are three major macro trends that are shaping this future. First, emerging millennials and Gen Z's are the largest demographic groups of consumer goods, according to Boston Consulting Group. They are driving product innovation to new levels as people seek personalized solutions to their beauty and wellness needs. The integration of connected devices and data provides consumers insights at a deeper level, so companies can help meet their needs. Millennials and Gen Z's are also reshaping the way we connect, work and play.

Second, we live in a digital, social, mobile-first world, one that connects people at a scale and pace unmatched by prior economic stages. Over 60% of the world's population now have mobile phones, 3.6 billion of whom are connected by a handful of social media platforms, and social media is transforming the way we learn about shop-for and share products that we love. In fact, over 60% of consumers now first learn about products socially.

Social media has also disrupted the traditional advertising and promotion model that is placing far greater weight on influencers and micro influencers, which is giving rise to the affiliate marketing model.

Social commerce is also rapidly evolving, reshaping the traditional eCommerce business. To be clear, the digital, social, mobile revolution is well under way and gaining momentum as it impacts nearly every corner of our lives.

And lastly and perhaps as landscape changing as anything, is the disruption of what has come to be known as the gig economy. We are all seeking greater flexibility and a fulfillment in the way we live, work and play. Younger generations are embracing this ideal in the way they work. Millennials and Gen Z's made up 59% of the workforce in 2020, and they are expanding quickly. Their expectations of a more balanced and flexible life are presenting new opportunities for companies to rethink traditional work in the form of a more flexible job or gig.

A recent survey found that approximately 57 million people in the U.S. alone were freelancers in 2019, approximately one-third of the entire U.S. workforce, and this is just the tip of the iceberg as Gen Z will not reach its full force and scale for another 15 years.

For Nu Skin, we see the convergence of these macro trends as a unique opportunity to expand our empowerment mission by meeting the needs of both our consumers and our aspiring entrepreneurs. People want beauty and wellness products that help them look and feel their best, and they want opportunities that help them live a more flexible and balanced life. Nu Skin can offer both.

We leveraged these trends to reimagine our vision three years ago, to become the world's leading innovative beauty and wellness company, powered by our dynamic business opportunity platform. In essence, our affiliates help consumers look and feel their best by connecting them with our innovative beauty and wellness products, enabled by our proprietary business opportunity platform.

Our transformation to this vision began three years ago as we rebuilt our business model and our technology foundation. We are now focused on expanding our new social commerce business model, combining the best of our traditional person-to-person model and expanding it into a socially enabled digital-first affiliate business.

We've been working to align our business, processes, organization and capabilities to enable and accelerate this evolution, relying heavily on our globally diverse, highly entrepreneurial sales leaders to make this pivot. We are leveraging technology to scale our business, to grow our customers to new segments, and to expand our affiliate business to younger demographics. This is coming to life and has been driving our accelerated customer growth to 1.5 million active customers this past year.

Over 90% of our revenue transactions now flow online, with approximately half of our revenue coming through personal product subscriptions and loyalty programs that are also managed online. Our social commerce business combined with macro environmental factors has accelerated this transformation. We will continue to invest in personal product experiences, flexible affiliate opportunities and our proprietary global opportunity platform, which we anticipate will extend our global growth while improving operational efficiency.

So, let's dive deeper into our plans to enable this sustainable growth. For over 36 years now, we've carved our own path forward in every dimension of our business, from our innovative products to our powerful global sales channel and -- more recently -- our scalable business platform. The key to our success and ultimately the achievement of our mission will be our focus on sustaining this commitment to innovation across all aspects of our business, beginning with our products.

Since our inception in 1984, Nu Skin has been a company obsessed with providing innovative products to meet consumer needs. From our founding philosophy of, "All of the good, none of the bad", our clean label commitment before clean was even acknowledged as a consumer need, to the acquisition of Pharmanex, where we began to apply a higher level of quality and discipline to as then under regulated nutrition marketplace. We have remained committed to innovating across our entire portfolio.

Our introduction of ageLOC was yet another innovation conceived from our research of gene expression through our acquisition of LifeGen, well before genomics became a field of consumer application. More recently, we've focused our innovation around Beauty Device Systems, as we built a device, product, subscription model, helping us more effectively serve the needs of our customers.

In 2018, with our introduction of LumiSpa, Euromonitor acknowledged our work by naming Nu Skin as the world's number-one at-home Beauty Device Systems brand. Since then, we've expanded our leadership position with the introduction of ageLOC Boost late last year, which generated approximately $100 million in the second half.

And as sustainability has become increasingly vital to our existence on this planet, as Ruth mentioned, we have continued to innovate in our Packaging, in reducing carbon emissions and in sustainable sourcing requirements. We also pursued Controlled Environment Agriculture or CEA, leading out with growing our innovative ingredient sourcing initiative, which now provides ingredients to a number of our products, including the new Nutricentials Bioadaptive's and Epoch skincare lines. It's all part of our commitment to improve our planet.

With all of these achievements, I am particularly excited to introduce our next big innovation, Empower Me, our product personalization strategy. We first began exploring personalization with the introduction of ageLOC Me in 2015, which provided personal product regimens based on individual skin assessments, and was quickly copied by other major beauty players. This past year, we introduced our new personalization technology in Vera, our AI-powered personal product recommendation tool.

Vera provides a deeper layer of self-discovery, helping our customers find products that meet their individual needs. These innovations are combined with our unique ability to provide consumers with personal product solutions via our enJoy loyalty and subscription model to form our new Empower Me product strategy.

To further explain Empower Me, along with our next product innovations, let me introduce Yoko Little, our Vice President of Global Product Marketing. Yoko?

Yoko Little -- Vice President of Global Product Marketing

Thank you, Ryan. The digital ecosystem is what gives us the ability to connect and expand, especially given the global barrier that we have faced over the past year. I tell you that as someone who's been in the global beauty and wellness industry for over 20 years. We're at a unique moment in time. We're seeing an explosive demand for beauty devices that meets the trend for at-home self-care.

Global research firms like Mintel, CIENCE, and Euromonitor, all reported growth in anti-ageing beauty devices in 2020 in key markets, including United States and China.

In November last year, The NPD Group reported that the people most likely to buy in the beauty category are also the most likely to be stressed out. For many consumers, beauty and wellness is a way to unwind, ease the stress and enjoy a moment of comfort and self-care at home.

In addition, we have seen increasing trends in three specific areas: first, personalized solutions for beauty and wellness; second, adoption of technology in eCommerce worldwide; third, credibility of the brand and clinically proven results.

Nu Skin has historically delivered on advanced science and clinically validated products, and now we're introducing our digital ecosystem for personalized solutions called Empower Me. Empower Me offers personalized beauty and wellness solutions through an interactive and engaging digital experiences. With the introduction of our skin assessment tool called Vera, we're helping our global customers identify their own unique skin care needs to provide personalized solutions.

Let's take a look at Empower Me experience through the eyes of a potential customer. We'll call her Sara.

Sara is a millennial customer with access to many skincare options, but she is looking for a simple, effective solution for glowing skin. She sees her friend's social posts about Nu Skin product and becomes interested in Nu Skin's award-winning beauty devices. After reaching out to her friends, Sara receives a personalized link, where she takes a sample skin assessment using Vera to find the right product. She receives a recommendation for LumiSpa in a special promotional offer. She signs up for a monthly subscription.

As she enjoys her daily LumiSpa experience, she becomes a believer in Nu Skin's effective skincare treatment and wants to discover more solutions, trying her full skin care regimen that promotes soft, smooth and hydrated skin, as recommended by Vera. With a personalized regimen of scientifically proven product, she becomes a satisfied customer, and in the future moves on to discover color cosmetics through virtual try-ons or fitness regimens through the Vera wellness assessment. She is able to sign up for built in subscription offer to try out the personalized recommendations.

As the world shifted from in-person meetings and retail experiences to digital, online and social media connections, customer experiences like Sara's have helped Nu Skin grow significantly in many markets over the last year.

At Nu Skin, as Ryan mentioned, about half of our monthly orders come from our product subscription and loyalty model. When you add these unique strength in digital connections and global subscription model, you begin to see what we believe is the exponential power of the Empower Me strategy, as we develop deeper relationship to surprise and delight our customers.

Now, let's talk about products. In the U.S., EMEA and North Asia, we just launched our Nutricentials Bioadaptive skincare to consumers, with other markets to follow through the second quarter.

Nutricentials help make your skin resilient and adapt to its environment. The line features natural ingredients to help protect your skin from UV and blue light-rays. From the very beginning, Nu Skin's product philosophy has been -- all of the good and none of the bad. Nutricentials Bioadaptive skin care extends our philosophy with clean formulas and also features sustainable packaging for more conscious consumers.

Another key strength for Nu Skin is its ability to innovate and lead with technology. Nu Skin was also certified by Euromonitor as the world's number-one at-home Beauty Device Systems brand in 2017 and 2018. This is a valuable claim for our sales force worldwide, validating the leadership position for Nu Skin. Euromonitor is currently evaluating our 2019 and 2020 numbers.

This year, we are launching the latest innovation by our R&D scientists and engineering team, ageLOC Boost in majority of our markets. Let's take a look at the video.

[Video Presentation]

AgeLOC Boost is a simple, two-minute daily skin treatment to promote brighter, youthful and glowing complexion. In global market introduction of Boost at the end of last year, there was a tremendous energy among our sales force, as we grew revenue, active customers and new sales leaders. ageLOC Boost has already won several awards. And in fact, today, the highly coveted Edison Awards are announcing that Boost is a finalist in the skincare category.

At-home beauty treatment and self-care have become a global beauty trend, and we have a full line of beauty devices to help customers with daily treatment, weekly anti-aging treatment, scalp and hair treatment, and body spot treatment in the comfort of their own home.

This beauty device category has grown tremendously with triple-digit growth in the United States and EMEA last year. And our Beauty Device System currently generate 30% of the overall Nu Skin revenue.

All of our beauty devices have patented or patent pending technology and clinically proven results. Each device is paired with a topical product, with a focus on improving the delivery and efficacy. We believe this scientific rigor and focus on both the device and ingredient delivery is a unique strength that cannot be easily duplicated by other beauty brands.

We will continue to grow and innovate to solidify our leadership position in the Beauty & Wellness category.

So, what's next for Nu Skin from a product perspective? Let's start with what you can expect to see from us this year. In 2021, we are beginning to make our devices smarter. How are we doing this? With connected features to personalize user experience for optimal benefits.

With connected devices, consumers can gain deeper insights into their personal needs, while tracking the progress and results to enhance their experience.

We're also preparing for a leadership preview of a new ageLOC science that helps to promote healthy metabolism and reset your healthy lifestyle. This will be our first big Pharmanex product launch since ageLOC Youth in 2015.

We also have an opportunity to bring the power of our Nu Skin and Pharmanex science together. Our recent study shows LumiSpa in a unique collagen peptide supplement, promote visible improvements in skin radiance and texture. Collagen is a popular category throughout the world and the Nutrition Business Journal estimated 37% growth in 2020 in the U.S.

I believe Nu Skin is uniquely positioned to approach the beauty from the inside out, given our core competencies and proven track record. In addition, we will continue to support accelerated growth across our existing portfolio in refresh key brands such as LifePak and new color skin matting foundations.

Epoch refresh is another great opportunity to drive unique expert botanical benefits with new sustainable packaging made with bio resin and our global Force for Good initiatives. All of our portfolio introductions tie back to our goal to drive our beauty and wellness opportunity for global affiliates and consumers.

Beyond 2021, without giving too much away, our Empower Me innovation roadmap is robust. We have plans in place to further support body treatment and personalized program for fitness and mental illness, all accessive through and enabled by our digital tools.

This really is a unique and exciting moment in time with the convergence of consumer insights with science, technology and social commerce.

Thanks for allowing me to share our global product marketing vision for Nu Skin. And with that, I will turn it back over to Ryan.

Ryan Napierski -- President

Thanks, Yoko. Brilliant work. I can't wait to see what Empower Me and our next product innovations will bring to consumers around the world. Next, as the traditional retail landscape continues to be disrupted, we'll continue to win by expanding on the value of our unique and powerful sales channel. We are taking the best of our face-to-face, person-to-person, direct selling model, including a passionate sales force, personal touch, trusted product recommendations and a connected community and transforming it into a digital-first affiliate marketing engine, powered by our socially enabled global sales force.

For over 35 years, Nu Skin has relied upon the power of word-of-mouth marketing to promote our innovative beauty and wellness products through our passionate brand advocates. As the digital, mobile and social revolutions accelerate, our unique style of commerce is becoming more mainstream as traditional advertising moves toward influencer and affiliate marketing, and as our retail and eCommerce moves toward social commerce.

Our passionate brand affiliates can now share our products with people everywhere, socially enabled and digital-first. We are experiencing accelerated growth in our business across our Western markets and in pockets throughout the East, where our affiliates are embracing social commerce and they're building their own online beauty and wellness businesses.

We've been incubating the social commerce business model for the past few years in various parts of the world. It first surfaced in the U.K., as young mantrapreneurs began working from home, socially connecting with others to share products that they love. They found communities of others who were just like them.

To enable this new form of social commerce, we reimagined virtually every aspect of our value creation model, from our product and promotion strategy to our sales compensation programs, with a particular focus on digital platforms. By leveraging our innovative velocity compensation program that was implemented in 2018 and 2019, we provide a flexible business opportunity to aspiring entrepreneurs, influencers and micro influencers.

Fast forward to 2020, the global pandemic dramatically changed the way we live, work and interact. Our traditional face-to-face business model was no longer possible. So, our highly entrepreneurial sales force leaned further into our social commerce strategy. They leveraged their global networks to share best practices and approaches and found that they could not only survive but thrive in this new digital-first world.

Because we invested at the right time in the right things, our sales leaders and affiliates have been able to innovate a new approach to market that is accelerating our business in a very volatile world. We are all familiar with platform theory in business, and the scalable value that platforms enable as they service the needs of two-sided customer markets. We've seen platforms disrupt every industry where they've been applied, from Apple and Microsoft in the hardware and software businesses, to marketplaces like Amazon, Shopify and Walmart.

Platforms are fundamentally changing industries across the board, including transportation with Uber, hotels with Airbnb, and fitness with the likes of Peloton and iFit. Each of these platforms have driven enormous value creation by connecting customers, users, partners and developers into a scalable value creation ecosystem.

At Nu Skin, we've been applying platform theory to the Beauty & Wellness industries. Our powerful business opportunity platform connects consumers, those seeking innovative beauty and wellness products, with brand affiliates who help them navigate their personal journey. And it's all handled within the digital ecosystem that enables our affiliates to attract, connect, transact and service consumers in nearly 50 markets.

In this opportunity platform, affiliates and leaders can access hundreds of Nu Skin personal care and Pharmanex wellness products from our manufacturers and partners to meet their customers' personal needs. In short, our unique opportunity platform provides them with their own socially enabled online beauty and wellness businesses.

Roughly three years ago, we began our technology transformation with our newly formed partnerships with Amazon Web Services and Ali Baba. To build this platform, we recognized that our vision required a complete overhaul of our approach to technology. We had to rebuild our infrastructure, lifting it to the cloud. We refactored legacy systems and doubled down on our.com properties, expanding their load and scale. We are now leaning further into our customer-facing digital experiences with new tools like Vera, our personal product recommendation tool; My Site, our personal product storefront, and other digital innovations to expand the reach and capability of our brand affiliates.

To take us through Nu Skin's digital journey, I'd like to introduce Emily Evangelista, our Vice President of Digital. Emily, take it away.

Emily Evangelista -- Global Vice President, Digital

Thank you, Ryan. It's an honor to represent our digital and technology teams, and I'm thrilled to discuss our digital vision and strategy moving forward. Based on my 15 years in technology and my experience coaching global Fortune 100 companies through their digital transformations, I know the fastest way for Nu Skin to realize new growth is by creating seamless, integrated digital experiences that cross boundaries.

Even in my first year with Nu Skin, during a time when we set new records for online sales transactions despite a global P&L, I know we are on the right path to making this happen.

Our organization impresses me daily with their openness to ideas and sheer tenacity to pursue growth. I've also been delighted by our products. I love them. Now, my bathroom looks like a Nu Skin experience center.

Just as important as our products are Nu Skin's powerful sales leaders, who can drive trends globally with their collective social networks. We enable these incredible sales leaders by delivering a robust digital ecosystem that connects them directly with consumers and personalized high touch ways that deepen their long-term relationship with them.

When we do this effectively, we see increased engagement, higher retention rates, higher lifetime value of customers and exponential revenue growth. For example, during a Black Friday event in EMEA, we sold four months of inventory of our Galvanic Spa in just 90 minutes.

Customers are at the heart of everything we do. Digital partners closely with our CX teams to drive decisions informed by data. I recently contributed to an e-book on digital transformation and highlighted that based on the high points in my career, the point where CX, digital and technology intersect really is the catalyst for innovation, the space where we are forging new digital experiences that delight customers.

Our end game is to anticipate shifts and be able to quickly pivot our affiliates. By building an agile platform and engaging with key partners, we can quickly pivot as needed. Getting to where we are on our digital journey has taken significant partnership and work of cross-functional teams from across the business.

This past year, we launched new digital experiences on nuskin.com for sign up and shop, which is arguably our most important touch point of all. With a simplified user flow, we saw conversion rates doubled. We also launched new loyalty and subscription programs in several markets that are improving customer retention.

We know that when a customer subscribes, they become more closely tied to their affiliates. While product personalization is important for our consumers, personalization of the business is equally critical to our affiliates. This is why we are launching new mine sites, where our sales leaders and affiliates can set up a site, customize their product offerings to their consumers' wants and needs, deliver personal offers via direct message on chat, SMS or social platforms.

In the second half of the year, our China business will also be launching social commerce shops on WeChat and Tmall. Perhaps most innovative of all is the beta launch of Vera, our personalized skin consultation tool.

A recent survey showed that 80% of people said they are more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized health and beauty experiences.

Using a combination of AI, personal preferences and our custom algorithm, Vera delivers personalized recommendations to the consumer, and our beta testers are loving the experience and the connection it creates to their consumers. 89% of them say they are likely to very likely to use this tool with their customers.

Now, let's give you a preview of what Vera looks like.

[Video Presentation]

Moving into 2021, we see Vera as the engine that drives the Empower Me personalization strategy, and connects our digital touch points to our physical products, as Yoko outlined. We plan to build out new experiences in Vera, including the connection to smarter devices.

Consumer behavior has shifted significantly, and data shows that when you combine a beauty shopping experience with AR/VR and live consultation, conversion rates quadruple. Towards the end of 2021, we also hope to expand the Vera experience to include a wellness journey, that will connect to other parts of the Nu Skin portfolio.

We are currently engaged in consumer research to understand gaps in the market and where we can add differentiated value. With over 30 years of data and insights, we can create a personalized offering that connects health from within to wellbeing.

The pace of digital is on a fast track, as we weave together each touch point and message across the customers' digital journey from rethinking our website to creating a cohesive story that creates a unified experience that delights. Our teams are up for the task and eager to deliver value for the business and our customers.

And with that, I'll turn it back over to Ryan.

Ryan Napierski -- President

Thanks, Emily. Our technology transformation is well under way and central to our business opportunity platform vision. Next, it's important to describe how our strategy is performing around the world as we leverage our innovative products, empowering programs and digital platform to accelerate growth.

Before we hear from our CFO, Mark Lawrence, let me take a few minutes to review performance of our geographic segments. I'll also cover their general progress toward our strategy and plans.

Every market is at a different place in their transitions to our social commerce business model, and each market will continue to refine its approach as local demographic, economic and commercial environments evolve.

As Ritch noted, one of our more significant accomplishments in 2020 has been the further balancing of our geographic portfolio with accelerated growth in the West and stabilization in China and Korea. This balance provides a healthier, more stable revenue footprint, making us less susceptible to individual market and geopolitical issues.

We also experienced significant growth in our active customers, finishing the year up 34% year-over-year to over 1.5 million, and sales leaders up 29% year-over-year to more than 70,000; positioning us well for 2021.

So, beginning with the West. In the Americas and Pacific, our accelerated performance is being driven by our brand affiliates embracing social commerce throughout the region, which posted record constant currency revenue growth of 53% year over year.

North America led the charge while Latin America also contributed significantly to the region and is making up a greater portion of global revenue in this important emerging segment. Three-month active customers ended the year up 84% year-over-year, while sales leaders finished up 90%.

Pacific remains a very bright spot as leaders continue to claim market share. Europe, Middle East and Africa also posted record constant currency revenue growth of 35% year-over-year as leaders embrace social commerce throughout the region. The U.K., Germany, Poland were particularly impressive with South Africa, our first market, on the African continent posting impressive growth.

Three-month customers ended the year up 69% and sales leaders up 53% year-over-year. Together, the West, including our manufacturing segment accounted for 35% of global business last quarter.

Next, we're pleased with the improving trends in Mainland China throughout the year and the return to growth of the business in Q4 with ageLOC Boost preview. Mainland China closed out the year with three-month active customers reporting up 30%, and sales leaders up 22% year-over-year. While China struggled in 2020 due to ongoing effects of COVID on in-person meetings, we leaned heavily into promoting a digital-first business model.

As Emily mentioned, we are investing in new social commerce technologies in the market, which we believe will better enable our sales representatives to attract, connect and transact with consumers within China's own digital ecosystem.

Hong Kong and Taiwan also continue their journey toward social commerce, reporting moderate growth for the year with expected similar growth in 2021.

South Korea experienced significant adverse conditions due to COVID. This is a close proximity market where our business has relied more heavily on in-person meetings and trainings. Despite these setbacks, the market remained relatively stable with a slight decline for the year.

We continue to work with local leaders in South Korea to expand our consumer and affiliate reach to new segments. We are particularly focusing on younger, more socially inclined demographics.

Southeast Asia also shows encouraging potential as social commerce is beginning to surface in key markets like Indonesia and the Philippines. Modest 1% year-over-year constant currency revenue growth in 2020 was related both to the expanding adoption of social commerce and the Boost preview that took place in several markets in Q4.

For 2021, we anticipate increasing social commerce adoption in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and other markets. The gig economy is particularly attractive in these markets and they have younger demographics that are seeking innovative products. I am particularly pleased about the 3% year-over-year local currency revenue growth in Japan, especially considering my long tenure in this particularly unique market.

Our growth was largely related to new and younger demographics of consumers who are into beauty and wellness, and new brand affiliates who are socially inclined. And although Japan's broader economic and socio-economic headwinds remain, the future is growing brighter.

So, to wrap up, today you've heard us speak about our vision of becoming the world's leading innovative beauty and wellness company, powered by our dynamic business opportunity platform. You heard some of our specific plans to achieve this vision in 2021 and beyond.

In closing, I want to reiterate the key pillars of our strategy that will help us along this path. One, our innovative product strategy, leading out with Empower Me and supported by our next round of product innovations later this year and an emphasis on growing our customer product subscriptions with our ongoing commitment to sustainability across our portfolio.

Two, our empowering programs strategy, as we align our markets around the globe to social commerce and geographically balance our business. And three, our enabling platform strategy, as we provide our brand affiliates with a digital ecosystem of tools to enhance their ability to attract, connect, transact and service our customers around the globe.

We also remain acutely focused on improving our operating margins through operational excellence, and we will continue to invest in our business transformation to return long-term value to shareholders.

While Nu Skin Enterprises has been in business for more than 35 years, I can say that our horizons are far more expansive today than they've ever been. We are leaning into our mission to empower more people with our opportunity platform Vision, digital-first and socially enabled. We are anxious to see how our strategy, our 2021 plans, innovative investments and commitment to operational excellence will drive greater value for our customers, affiliates, employees and shareholders.

And with that, I'll turn the time over to Mark, to provide more detail about our manufacturing business, which has played a pivotal role in shoring up our value chain throughout 2020. He will also go over our financial results and how we are modeling 2021. Mark, take it away.

Mark Lawrence -- Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President

Thank you, Ryan. I want to start by expressing my thanks to each of you for joining us today. I'm also very grateful for our sales leaders and employees around the world.

The Q4 and 2020 results created in a year of extreme uncertainty, reflect the work and sacrifices of our people. I'm excited to share our results and guidance and the dialog in our Q&A session after our prepared remarks.

I will first provide some color regarding our manufacturing entities, their strategy and how we think about this growing segment moving forward. I will then offer some additional color regarding our Q4 and 2020 financial results; and finally, provide initial Q1 and 2021 guidance.

Ritch has asked that I overview our progress with our manufacturing segment. I've been intimately involved with our manufacturing companies over the past three years. If you remember, our primary purpose of making these strategic investments was to secure the supply chain for our core Nu Skin products. We believed an investment in manufacturing would increase our innovation capability, enhance our speed to market and generate helpful U.S. profits. That hypothesis has played out and it is evident in our results today that I will share shortly.

We've seen tremendous performance from these manufacturing companies during the past year, as we have responded to significant COVID disruptions combined with substantial increases in demand for many of our products.

Our manufacturing entities have also acquired a number of new customers and deepened relationships with existing customers, as they have helped them through the challenges of this past year.

In 2020, we added new capabilities with liquid pouches and the recent acquisition of ingredient enhancement technology. I am confident that we have the most talented manufacturing teams in Personal Care, nutrition and packaging, where we have invested significantly in equipment, facilities and technology to enhance those capabilities.

Our manufacturing revenue grew 22% in 2020 over the prior year, and 42% in the fourth quarter. Booked orders continued to grow, showing great promise for the future of this business. We will continue to invest in additional capabilities going forward.

I will now move on to the highlights of our fourth quarter and full year 2020. For additional detail, I refer you to our earnings release and the supplemental information found on our Investor Relations website.

Fourth quarter revenue was $748.2 million, a 28% improvement over the prior year, and benefited by a 4% favorable foreign currency impact. Gross margin was 74% and continues to be impacted by increased freight costs and geographic mix. While our gross margin was negatively impacted by growth in the West, this is largely offset by the lower tax rate generated by increased profit in those markets, specifically the U.S.

Our operating margin was 11.9%, a 250 basis point improvement, and Q4 EPS was $1.40, a 94% increase over the prior year. Shifting attention to the full-year, revenue increased 7% to $2.58 billion with a negative foreign currency impact of less than 1%. Gross margin was 74.5% for the year, and similar to the quarterly results, was negatively impacted by freight and geographic mix. This lower margin was offset by a 670 basis point tax rate improvement due to -- once again -- growth in the west. Our annual operating margin was 10% and earnings per share was $3.63, a 17% improvement over the prior year.

Our balance sheet remains strong with a positive net cash position. During the year, we repurchased $144 million of our stock or 9% of our outstanding shares, generated $379 million of cash from operations, and yesterday we announced we are increasing our dividend for the 20th consecutive year.

I will now provide Q1 and 2021 annual guidance ranges for revenue and EPS and give some more detail in our P&L and balance sheet models. Our guidance ranges will continue to be slightly wider than our norm, reflective of the increased uncertainty we are all operating in due to the global pandemic.

For 2021, we are projecting revenue of $2.71 billion to $2.81 billion growth in the 5% to 9% range for the year, which includes a 2% to 3% favorable FX impact. We are also expecting earnings per share to improve 5% to 13% or $3.80 to $4.10 with operating margin improvement of 50 to 100 basis points and a tax rate estimate of 26% to 32%.

For Q1 2021, our revenue guidance is $610 million to $640 million, growth of 18% to 24%, inclusive of a 3% to 4% favorable FX impact, with EPS of $0.65 to $0.75, growth of 81% to 108%. We are projecting our Q1 tax rate to be in the 26% to 30% range.

To dive a little deeper, I'll now go through revenue guidance by market segment. Note that we factored in uncertainties related to COVID, and have been conservative with broader guidance ranges. A couple of items worth noting. We see potential for growth in every market segment, with steady growth in the Americas specific, and EMEA as they lap difficult comparisons. China continues its recovery returning to growth, and our other markets to grow in the low single digits.

We also project our manufacturing entities to continue their strong growth between 10% and 20%.

Moving now on to the full income statement. I will walk through some of the line items to provide additional detail for your models. We project 2021 gross margin to be roughly flat, in a range of 74% to 75%, with pressure similar to 2020 from continued shipping and logistics costs, continued growth in our Western markets and an increased percentage of revenue coming from our manufacturing entities. This pressure will be offset by benefits from a weaker dollar, favorable product mix and our continued focus on improving product costs.

We anticipate that selling expense will continue to hold in the 39% to 40% range. General and administrative expense is an area where we continue to focus and drive efficiencies. With our guided revenue range, we are projecting a 10 to 60 basis point improvement in 2021 to 24.5% to 25%.

This leads to operating margin, and this is an area where many of you have heard me speak to our mid-term goal of 13%. We closed 2020 at 10%, yet we made steady improvement throughout the year. We are projecting our 2021 operating margin to be in the 10.5% to 11% range. We would anticipate that we can improve operating margin by a minimum of 50 basis points each year moving forward to our 13% goal.

We often receive requests to provide more color on the other income expense line. There is some variability in this line item, depending on how currency moves, particularly at the end of the reporting period. We are projecting interest income of $3 million to $4 million, interest expense of $7 million to $8 million, FX gains or losses of $0 million to $4 million. Together, bringing the range of other income expense to $0 million to $5 million of expense for the year.

We are projecting our 2021 tax rate to be in the 26% to 32% range. Our tax rate will fluctuate depending on where geographically profit is earned. We anticipate we can continue to see better than historical rates due to the projected growth in the West and associated improvements in the U.S. profit. Our EPS guidance for 2021 is $3.80 to $4.10 or a 5% to 13% increase over 2020. As Ritch and Ryan have highlighted, we remain focused in our commitment to increasing shareholder value through EPS growth.

From a use of cash perspective, our number one priority remains investing to grow our business. We will continue to invest in our digital initiatives, emerging growth markets and our manufacturing capacity.

We then plan to pay a healthy dividend, where we increased our dividend for the 20th consecutive year. We then evaluate leveraging the balance of our excess cash between repurchasing our stock and paying down our debt. We project cash from operations of $300 million to $350 million. Depreciation and amortization will be roughly flat versus 2020 in the $75 million to $85 million range. Capital expenses will be between $70 million and $90 million. We planned debt reduction of $30 million to $35 million, and then the dividend at approximately $78 million.

And with that, we will take a short three-minute break and take your questions when we return. To ask a question, type it in the question box on your screen, and we will get to as many of you as possible.

Questions and Answers:

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Welcome back, everybody. Our first question today comes from Olivia Tong from Bank of America, Ritch.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. Olivia? Sorry, Olivia, we're not hearing you yet.

Olivia Tong -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Hi, how are you?

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Olivia.

Olivia Tong -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Appreciate it. I have two questions. First one is just around China and how you're thinking about your expectations there, what's going to drive it? And particularly given that we're obviously, still many of us are working from home and there's still a lot of restrictions on mobility in that market being more about in-person events, more about mobility, so just first question is just around China. Thank you.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Thank you very much, Olivia. Great to hear from you. And we actually were really encouraged that China turned to growth in the fourth quarter. It's what we had projected at the beginning of the year. And I think we have a really good plan going forward. And Ryan, why don't you speak to our China plan?

Ryan Napierski -- President

Yes, absolutely, Olivia. Yes, we continue to be very focused on a digital-first approach to market there, as I mentioned earlier. COVID continues to restrict in-person meetings. We've made a pretty strong pivot in 2020. But we have a lot more work to do in 2021. And so, as Emily mentioned, we'll be launching a new series of digital tools within the WeChat ecosystem and Tmall, that are really going to enable us throughout -- mainly the second half of the year, move even further to that digital-first. But we'll be relying heavily on our digital-first approach through promotions in the first half and the launch of our Boost product in Q2 as well. So, we're optimistic, but it's going to take more time in China, obviously, as we continue to navigate the uncertainty there.

Olivia Tong -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Great, thanks. And then the Vera program, the app looks really interesting. I'm just curious in terms of the rollout, whether is it global or is it market by market where you've come to tier it; how do you think about the rollout out there? And is this something that you think all of your leaders and your sales consultants will be using or is there something -- or is this sort of tiered as well in terms of the rollout there?

Ryan Napierski -- President

Yes, Vera -- and I can comment and maybe have Emily speak to the specific rollout plan. Yes, Vera is a very interesting tool for us, this personal invitation and recommendation tool that's out there. Very much in a beta form right now, but as Emily mentioned, very strong adoption interest from that product. And so, we will be rolling it out around the globe. But maybe Emily will give more detail.

Emily Evangelista -- Global Vice President, Digital

Yes. Thank you, Ryan. So, we're in 10 markets in an open beta now, globally. We're seeing really interesting adoption in Asia, actually. And China has actually rebuilt the Vera experience within the Chinese ecosystem. And they are just -- they are loving it and they've actually innovated the experience and we're actually learning from them and now adopting it here. So, that's been exciting.

So, in 10 markets now. I think by mid-year, we'll be in almost all of our markets. So, it is absolutely a tool that we anticipate all sales leaders will want to adopt. It really does become kind of the engine of our personalization story going forward. And so, like Yoko talked about, it's going to connect with our products. It's really that digital connection point for a sales affiliate to their consumer for 24/7 contact, right? So it's going to become even more critical, pandemic or not. So, yes, we're excited about it.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Our next question comes from Stephanie Wissink from Jefferies.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Go ahead, Steph, if you can?

Stephanie Wissink -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Thanks for taking our question.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Go ahead, Olivia.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Okay. Go ahead, Olivia. Sorry.

Olivia Tong -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Great. Thank you so much. Sorry. I'm sorry, I almost got cut off. But I wanted to say, first, congratulations, Ritch, on your retirement, and best of luck. And then Ryan, congrats to you as well on the new role.

I'm curious, Ryan, if you have any thoughts so far -- I suspect there is not going to be a ton of change in terms of strategy, certainly continue with the plan that you guys have done so far. But just curious, if there -- as you look at your leadership, how you think things may or may not change?

Ryan Napierski -- President

Sure. Yes. No, absolutely. And is this Olivia, by the way? We can't see pictures. It's Olivia. Sorry, Olivia.

Yes, no, very interesting question. Actually, Ritch and I were reflecting on this and have been actually over the last several weeks in discussions around this. You'll remember when we transitioned into these new roles and Ritch took the CEO spot and I took the President spot, we really spent a lot of time evaluating the state of the business. And you'll recall the years of really challenging growth, and we came up with this area of focus where we had 13 key areas of our business that we needed to begin to transform.

So, we started down that path and we continue to be on that path. We're pivoting as we go. We're learning quarter by quarter, especially in the social-first digitally enabled world, it's moving quickly. But I will say the core focus and direction that we've built over the last four years together remains in intact. I think there will continue to be pivot's that we're making along the way. But I -- and frankly, I'm really encouraged by the external environment in helping us move more quickly toward the transformation that we envisioned a few years ago.

And so, I don't see significant pivot. I see us leaning further and further in and really leveraging the power of our enterprise. These manufacturing partners have been phenomenal in enabling our growth, as Mark talked about and Ritch talked about. How do we leverage them further to drive innovation into our products, drive our product efficiencies more effectively? There are those sorts of opportunities. But I just see continued progress and focus in this direction as the world continues to shift.

And Ritch, I don't know if you'd add anything?

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

No, I love that. Ryan will be a great leader to carry this forward and we look forward to -- I mean, you have to be able to adapt and adopt and move quickly in today's world and we're in good hands. This business is in very good hands.

Olivia Tong -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Great. Thank you so much. Thanks a lot.

Ryan Napierski -- President

Thank you, Olivia. Thank you.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Okay. Thanks, Olivia. And now we'll go to Stephanie Wissink from Jefferies. Hi, Stephanie.

Stephanie Wissink -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking our questions. Just a couple of them, if we could. The first is on your comments on remixing the geographic balance. I was struck specifically by the comments around more stability and sustained growth. So, I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about what that top line growth algorithm could look like in the context of a more stable, more balanced East and West geographic mix? Thank you.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, thank you, Steph. Great to hear from you. This is something we wanted for a long time. Remember when I started as the CFO in 2002, it was all Japan. And whatever happened in Japan, sort of, shifted the whole world for us. And then China became the really key driver to our business. It's so nice to have a number of markets that are sizable enough that they can really push the success of the organization. And today, we're getting to that point where the Americas is growing strong and has a great base. We're getting to a point where even Latin America is making a difference. EMEA really has helped.

So today, it's about 35% in the West, 65% in the East. That gives us a chance where we have a number of significant markets that can provide opportunity to grow.

Now, as we forecast out this year, what can that mean going forward? Certainly, it can mean a much more stable opportunity to grow. So, you're not fully dependent on the shifts in one market, you rather have several that can drive that growth going forward. But our view is really, we can create double-digit EPS growth. And in order to do that, we're going to need to have high single-digit revenue growth going forward with the geographic balance that's more in line with what we're seeing today, we have a lot better chance to do that.

Stephanie Wissink -- Jefferies -- Analyst

As for second question, Mark, actually one tactical and then one more visionary. But on the manufacturing business, I think you had given us a statistic a while back regarding what percentage of the manufacturing revenues are tied to Nu Skin versus external partners. If you could just update us on that number given the growth you've seen in the manufacturing segment?

And then on the 2021 guidance, I think I'm a little confused on the strength that you're seeing in your sales leader and your customer counts and the launch of Boost, and how we should reconcile the degree of conservatism in your guidance versus where you have a degree of visibility and confidence to deliver on that?

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, really great question. Thank, Steph. I'll have Mark speak to the manufacturing percentage and then come back. And I'd like to make just a couple of comments on our guidance.

Mark Lawrence -- Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President

Great. Thanks, Stephanie. For manufacturing, the only reported revenue is revenue to external partners. So, that's the first thing to keep in mind. When we set out with our investment strategy with manufacturing, we wanted about 15% to 20% of their business to come to Nu Skin. That number will fluctuate up and down depending on demand. So this last year, we saw tremendous demand in our own core business, and so that number trickled up to about 25% of what they made during this year came to core Nu Skin, but I like it to be in about that 15% to 20% range going forward.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, Steph, let me comment on guidance. And then Mark, feel free to add anything to that. But when we start a year and we really plan out where things -- we expect things to go, we want to be very confident in giving guidance that we feel we can deliver on, even when things don't go perfectly. We look at the pandemic, that continues, a lot of uncertainty in the world. However, we end the year with a lot of momentum, and that momentum includes our sales leader growth, that could be our customer base that we, which is going to definitely give us a leg up in terms of driving growth this year.

We've been conservative in forecasting out the Americas and our Western region, because they grew at very high rates, so we'll have more difficult comps going through the year. We've been very careful at forecasting out what we think will happen in China.

Although we continue to see some encouraging signs, even as this year has kicked off, and as we finished up last year with the Boost launch, we've tried to be very cautious in looking at the overall world that we live in, the uncertainty, and give guidance that we feel really confident.

The other area is just what happens with the dollar. We have built in a very conservative 2% to 3% into our guidance. It's highly likely if the dollar remains about where it's at today. We will have an additional upside, about 1% or 2% there.

So again, we've started out with the number we think we can hit. We hope this turns out like it was in 2020, where we're able to exceed. We certainly don't want to go out overly aggressive this early in the year.

Mark Lawrence -- Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President

I would just add to that and echo everything that Ritch said. If you remember back a year ago, many companies were in a situation where they had given guidance and now they were pulling annual guidance or many companies decided not to give annual guidance. And we went ahead and gave annual guidance last year and then we adjusted it throughout the year. This year, we have that same debate. There are still many companies out there that aren't giving annual guidance, because the world is still a very uncertain place.

We believe it's important to put guidance out in the market to help you as you build your models, as well as to signal to our sales leaders and people around the world, what we expect to do. There is obviously opportunity. And if we reach our potential, we should beat the numbers that we put out there.

Stephanie Wissink -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Thank you very much, everyone.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

You bet. Thank you, Steph.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Our next question comes from Wendy Nicholson from Citi. Hi, Wendy.

Wendy Nicholson -- Citi -- Analyst

Hi. Can you hear me?

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

We can.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Wendy.

Wendy Nicholson -- Citi -- Analyst

Great. Terrific. Hi, good afternoon. My question, kind of a couple of follow-ups there. First, on the manufacturing segment. Mark, what's your kind of longer-term kind of two to three to five-year outlook for that business? Can it continue to grow double-digits, maybe you wanted to just. And then sort of related to that, I know you have your long-term sort of range, particularly the operating margins, 50 basis points a year. But can you still do that even if that manufacturing segment weighs on your profit margins? Thank you.

Mark Lawrence -- Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President

Yes, that's a really good question. We are so happy with the way our manufacturers are performing. We believe they can grow in double digits for the foreseeable future. There are still some technologies and functionality that we would like to add. For example, we'd like to add powders, gummies stick packs. There's a number of different things that we can still add to that manufacturing platform and enable us to grow.

And then from an operating margin perspective, they are actually accretive to us. While the gross margins are in the 30-percentile range, their operating margin is north of that 13% target today. So, they're pulling us up. And as Nu Skin continues to improve its operating margin, we believe collectively we can get to that 13% target.

Wendy Nicholson -- Citi -- Analyst

Okay, fantastic. And then second, just thinking about the Americas business, the growth was so strong in 2020, and I think everybody is a little bit eager to see what happens as people go back to work -- and agree definitely won't go back to the way life was pre-pandemic all at once. But are you seeing anything -- and I'm sure you've factored this into your guidance. But I'm just wondering, are there any anecdotes or even regions of the country that might be more open than others? Have you seen your sales leaders remain more involved, less involved, anything you can give us anecdotal way to sort of support the outlook for continued growth in the Americas?

Ryan Napierski -- President

Yes., Wendy, that's a great question. And you know, I'm still reflecting on Olivia's question. So, I'm going to tie the two together. I mean, I think we need to be very clear that this new social commerce business model that's driving growth in the West is really an essential strategic move toward future growth in the West. Americas, Europe, Latin America, Pacific are all really relying heavily on social commerce. We're learning those most essential key critical success factors that we're then applying to other areas of the world, from Southeast Asia, where we see tremendous opportunity there. Japan, that's starting to accelerate. Korea, that really needs and is actually infrastructurally set up to be very successful with social commerce from a market perspective. And then of course, China, that has really the largest social commerce ecosystem with the WeChat ecosystem.

And so, when you talk about sustaining growth in the West, obviously the comps are difficult as we get into Q2, three and four. But in terms of the business model adoption, the social commerce business model adoption and really leaning into this socially enabled affiliate marketing business model that's really driving this growth, we don't see or I don't see the pandemic really in a slowing there of shifting away from a consumer behavior that's really relying heavily upon influencer and affiliate marketing. I think if anything, as we see the likes of Amazon and Ali Baba standing up affiliate marketing programs, our model just becomes more and more and more mainstream.

And so, it will be important for us to continue to lean into the social commerce model in the West. Again, it's evolving as rapidly as algorithms evolve on social media, so our digital team is directly engaged in that, and then proliferating those practices out into other markets around the globe. That's really a central focus of ours. And so, I hope that also gives Olivia maybe a little more context as well to her question of what's different. It's really this strategy we've devised and continuing to push that through as social commerce is really becoming more and more and more mainstream.

Wendy Nicholson -- Citi -- Analyst

Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you so much.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Wendy.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Thanks, Wendy. Our next question comes from Linda Bolton Weiser from D.A. Davidson. Hi, Linda.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Go ahead, Linda. We can't hear you yet.

Linda Bolton Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Okay. Hi. Can you hear me?

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Here we go.

Linda Bolton Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Okay, great. It's Linda Bolton Weiser with D.A. Davidson. And I just wanted to ask you in terms of you mentioned that you're selling now on social commerce shops, WeChat and Tmall in China. Can you talk how that links back to the sales reps and how they get credit from there, if they do at all?

Ryan Napierski -- President

Yes, maybe let me clarify that and then have Emily back that up. So, what we're referring to -- so, to be clear, all of our revenue flows or is attributed as to our sales representatives in China or elsewhere. What we're talking about when we talk about these additional Tmall, WeChat, MyShop, WeShop initiatives that Emily mentioned in her presentation, we're really talking about additional tools that will enable our sales representatives to utilize WeChat, Tmall, in order to actually propel their businesses.

And so, very similar to what we do in the U.S. with a technology or a digital property called MySite, which give someone a personal commerce site. WeChat will -- this WeChat partnership will have similar dynamics to that in China. And that isn't in place today. We do live broadcast and live video selling there, but this new tool is something that's new. But Emily, maybe a little more color?

Emily Evangelista -- Global Vice President, Digital

Yes, maybe I can add a little bit more detail, Linda. So, thank you for that question. Really what the roadmap looks like with our partnerships in China is that, within the first half we hope to roll out a corporate store that has an attribution models, so that as sales leaders send their consumers a personal offer link, it's attributed to that sales leader. So, that's how that revenue attribution happens. And then down the road, actually, they'll be able to take that corporate store and just like he was describing with MySite, they can personalize it to their own brand. We hope to launch that in the second half of the year. So then again, it's just, again, another personal touch point.

Vera again is at the heart of all this, because what we're finding is that the experience really starts with the Vera invitation to take a skin consultation. They sent that on WeChat, right? And then they go through the skin consultation and makes recommendations of products. They click to buy. They can buy right there within the WeChat environment. So, super easy, super, super-fast to check out. We removed as much friction as possible. So, it's pretty exciting to see it come together.

Ryan Napierski -- President

So, I think, Linda, just to clarify then that, what Emily's describing are there two specific initiatives. We have the WeShop that will go up in the first half of this year, I think late second quarter; and then in second half of this year, is the MyShop model, which is that personalized sales rep.

Emily Evangelista -- Global Vice President, Digital

I'm sorry, I should add one more thing. I was remiss. There is one more important component. So, on nuskin.com, we have attribution modeling. So, if a sales leader sends someone to the website from anywhere, from Instagram, from a text message, from an email, wherever, they are always tied to their consumer. And so, we have that attribution modeling across the website, not just in the China ecosystem.

Ryan Napierski -- President

And that's really paramount and essential to our competitive advantage, Linda. We're very much committed to evolving the channel and ensuring that that affiliate role or affiliate marketing model remains intact, because we believe that is the power of social commerce. You remove that element too, and it's not as scalable. It's just a traditional e-commerce model of the 2000s.

Linda Bolton Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Great. Can I ask a second question?

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Absolutely. Go ahead.

Wendy Nicholson -- Citi -- Analyst

Sure. It has a little bit more to do with the near-term guidance. You have said that Boost and Nutricentials were expected to add $70 million to 80 million of incremental revenues to the fourth quarter. Can you say how much it ended up being? And then, can you give the similar type of quantification of what you expect those to contribute in the first quarter of '21?

Mark Lawrence -- Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President

Yes, so to answer the first question, the first part of that question, Boost performed roughly in line with what we expected. Boost and Nutricentials contributed about $74 million to our Q4 reported results. And then if you remember, we did about $30 million of Boost in the third quarter. So, collectively was just over $100 million, which is similar to the way LumiSpa performed when we launched LumiSpa.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

I think just speak to the other portion of your question is what is the plan as we begin this year. We'll be rolling out into most of our markets. Those two products will all be launched here in the first half of the year. We haven't quantified what we anticipate, but it will help our business to grow. And both products performed really well, both in terms of sales. But that's obviously a small piece of it. What really matters is what happened with our sales reps, what happened with our customer balance, both which were driven up nicely in the last half of the year. So, we anticipate there'll be good additions to our product portfolio this year as well.

Linda Bolton Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Can I sneak in a third question?

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

You bet.

Linda Bolton Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

So, you had mentioned new ageLOC Pharmanex launch this year in 2021. Can you talk about the timing of that? Is it coming later in the year? And is the magnitude going to be similar to the Boost and Nutricentials, or can you kind of put some parameters around how big that launch might be?

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

It's a great question, Linda. We're so excited to have a Pharmanex launch. It's been a few years and our sales reps are really excited about that. Ryan, do you want to speak to the timing and our plans for that?

Ryan Napierski -- President

You bet. Yes, so you'll remember, Linda, just as we did in the past year, we reestablished that opportunity renewal cadence, which is how we bring new product innovations to market. So, the three products that Yoko talked about, which include that Pharmanex innovation around metabolism, which is a very strong category for growth, lot of interest in metabolism products, as well as our connected devices and then our collagen product. All of -- each of those will be launched together in a series using our opportunity renewal strategy. So global previews of those products will start in the second half. Very similar in Q3 to Q4, and then rolling out in different cadences at different market. So, not all three products will go in each market at the same time, but we'll be leveraging that launch process.

Yoko, anything you would add to that?

Yoko Little -- Vice President of Global Product Marketing

Yes, right now we're in the process of working out the optimal positioning and branding and messaging around that product launch coming up toward the end of the year. But like Ritch and Ryan mentioned, this is the first Pharmanex, new technology around Pharmanex and the ageLOC technology in Pharmanex for us since the past five years. So, we're very excited for the opportunity. And then we'll be rolling it out into just a number of markets.

Pharmanex energy really varies and it's very strong in Asia and several other spot. So, we'll partner very closely with key target markets to optimize the opportunity.

Mark Lawrence -- Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President

But we are forecasting Linda, to answer the end of the question, very similar to what we saw this past year with our launches in -- previews in Q3 and Q4. Obviously, year-over-year, we're going to be up against those comparisons, but a similar contribution to that.

Linda Bolton Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Thank you. That's it from me. Thank you. Congratulations.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Linda.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Thanks, Linda. Okay, we have a question now from our chat Line, and that question is, "Why do you think your western markets are growing faster than your Eastern markets?"

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

This is a great question, Ryan, for you to speak to.

Ryan Napierski -- President

Yes, absolutely. No. And we spoke on it just briefly to Olivia's question. I mean, really the key factor of growth right now has been the adoption of our social commerce business models throughout the West. That has really driven growth in those markets more quickly. I also think that the nature of COVID and just environmental factors have played a part of that.

I mentioned in China, our in-person meetings or the end market meetings where China's business model was much more oriented toward larger group meetings, or even Korea where training centers are such a central part of our business there; and in close proximity markets like Singapore, where COVID tends to restrict those face-to-face interactions. Whereas in the West, where our business is much more spread out geographically, as we know, the U.S. is -- you have a couple of larger cities or throughout Europe. But generally speaking, our business is much more broadly distributed throughout those geographies. So, social commerce is really a much more tenable model.

Again, our focus now is and has been throughout the 2022 period is taking those best practices and localizing them into the Eastern markets as well. So, we hope to see those improving trends there as well.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Okay. Perfect.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

I think we have another question now, also from our chat line. And that is, "What is the focus for sustainability going forward?" And can I take crack at this one?

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

[Speech Overlap] and we have been committed to sustainability. You saw those goals that we set in 2019. And we have milestones all along the way to finally hit that ultimate goal in 2030 of really having assessed and scored all of our products and make sure we're having major environmental impact with our packaging, with our products, the ingredients, the sourcing, all of it. And so, the focus is keep focusing and keep growing and leaning into it and learning as we go, because we share this planet together. We feel a stewardship over this planet and the people on it, and so we are totally committed to sustainability.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

We're gaining momentum.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

We are gaining.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

This is an area that we feel is really critical to our customers. And again, in terms of trying to be customer obsessed, we have identified sustainability is one of those things that was nice yesterday, is really necessary today, and just becomes paramount to our success going forward. So, we'll continue to do better and better.

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

And it matters. It matters to everybody. Matters to our employees, they talk about it all the time. It matters to our sales leaders, they ask us, they are continually saying, how can -- here's an idea, what can we do to get better? I saw this company. Our Board of Directors is totally committed to sustainability. So, at every level, we are kind of -- there is this ground swell of support and desire to just be better and learn more as we go.

Okay. We have time for one more question, and it is -- it's from the chat line. "Can you give me a little bit more color on what Empower Me is all about?"

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

I'm excited actually to everybody to understand this. It's really this focus around personalization. And Ryan, Yoko, help us better understand.

Ryan Napierski -- President

In fact, I think Yoko texted this one in, because we can't end our Q&A without having her talk a little bit more about Empower Me. I would add to what Ritch just said. I mean, we have been playing around or -- playing around maybe an understatement. We've been trying to understand what personalization truly means in the age of the new consumer, and how we need to meet their needs, and the growing demand to personalize in all aspects of our lives? We look at what's going on with devices and IoT devices around the globe in helping to make us smarter as consumers. And so, this has been something again since 2015. The launch of ageLOC Me, Joe Chang and our R&D team has been focused on figuring this out. And throughout our experimentation, these product launches and learning, this new Vera approach leveraging data on the consumer to make them smarter and make us smarter in how we build products for them is really we believe is going to be a truly advantageous position that frankly no other beauty company in the world has the ability.

You have to remember, we have 1.5 million registered customers. I mean, if you think about that in the context of the amount of data and knowledge and insight that we can gather through our customers, leveraging the data that we have to make products better for them, allow them to personalize their products, we believe we can create lifetime value, customers that never want to leave because we delight them in every way. And we don't see other beauty players, frankly, with that capability of having direct access and line of sight to customers who are really seeking innovative beauty and wellness products. But Yoko, what would you -- what excites you about Empower Me, and maybe give a little bit more detail on what actually Empower Me is?

Yoko Little -- Vice President of Global Product Marketing

Yes, for sure. So, we really feel that this personalization trend is something that's just exciting, it's growing and it's going to continue to grow. So, the exciting opportunity here is being able to really merge the technology into this platform and give our distributor's ability to help people personalize their skin care regimen and -- in the future -- wellness regimens, through a very simple app and personalization system. So that opportunity is really coming into fruition.

But also in addition to that, we've been working on this for quite some time now. ageLOC Me was a great attempt for personalized skin care treatment. It's based on the advanced anti-anti-aging formulations, and we actually did a refresh of that last year too. The BioPhotonic Scanner is also a great way to really assess your personal health and give recommendation on different supplement health and so forth too. So just all of it, continue -- ongoing support from technology perspective, from the scientific perspective and marketing perspective coming together. I think we're really excited for the future in this area.

Ryan Napierski -- President

And I think just to make it clear, and we didn't share with you the full product line up for the next five years, but Empower Me sits at the heart of our product innovation pipeline. So, you can imagine over the next five years, as we continue to invest in our Device Systems, as we continue to invest in our portfolio on both the Nu Skin and Pharmanex sites, Empower Me will be central to that. And we have to remember, almost half our revenue is in subscriptions to registered customers. And so, the amount of data, if you think about a Netflix experience where you go in, you get personalized content fed to you on what you like to watch. That's a very similar model that we are applying to the innovative beauty and wellness space, where through Empower Me and the use of data, our connected devices through all of the insights of our BioPhotonic scanner that we've generated over 15 to 20 years, all of that insight coming into our data lake, enables us to be a smarter company and provide our consumers with very much with content or products, in our case that is direct to their needs and being able to build that through a subscription model, which is what we already have, again and have that business. It really gets exciting for us to be able to surprise and delight people with products that are truly personalized to them. So, it's exciting.

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Thank you very much. And I think we're at the end of our questions. So, we just especially want to express to all of you, your interest -- thank you very much for your interest in this day. It's going to be an amazing year. We've kicked off a lot of years, I have as a CFO or as the CEO, and as I go into 2021, I've never felt so confident in our ability to really deliver successful results for shareholders, especially in our earnings per share.

I think there's a lot of opportunity with the shares we bought back, with the opportunity to improve our operating margin as we start to scale our revenue. We have the dollar moving in our favor, which really hasn't done for a number of years. All those things can come together to make this a really special year and look forward to delivering that for all of us and especially think our strategy is right on, our team is right on. And those things all play together to make for a very successful year.

So, thank you to every one of you and let's go have an amazing 2021 together.

Duration: 114 minutes

Call participants:

Ruth Todd -- Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

Ritch N. Wood -- Chief Executive Officer

Ryan Napierski -- President

Yoko Little -- Vice President of Global Product Marketing

Emily Evangelista -- Global Vice President, Digital

Mark Lawrence -- Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President

Scott Pond -- Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. -- Vice President, Investor Relations

Olivia Tong -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Stephanie Wissink -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Wendy Nicholson -- Citi -- Analyst

Linda Bolton Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

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