NEW YORK, United States — Estée Lauder Cos Inc. beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit on Friday, as the M.A.C owner benefited from online sales amid widespread lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The La Mer cosmetics maker said it expected most of its retail stores to be closed for most of the current quarter and warned that global prestige beauty products would be “adversely impacted.”

Cosmetics companies dealing with the fallout from the closure of department stores, airport duty free shops and beauty parlours due to Covid-19 led lockdowns have been ramping up their online business.

Estée Lauder too has been tapping in on its massive online presence and saw a double-digit rise in global online sales as more consumers flocked to websites.

Net sales fell 10.7 percent to $3.35 billion.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 85 cents per share, beating the estimate of 73 cents.

By Aditi Sebastian and Praveen Paramasivam; editor: Bernard Orr