Foreign Department Stores Get Together To Open Luxury Luxe, China To Take Civilian Road

In the past six years, Wang Zhirong, general manager of the famous jewelry brand in North China, has been waiting for P to enter the Beijing Xinguang World Shopping Center.

But when he heard that the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, France, would open shop in China, Wang Zhirong's first reaction was that the new China World Trade Center world and its China World Trade Center business district, which were just one stop, would no longer be the only choice for high-end customers in Beijing.

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< p > at the confluence of Ling Hutong and Xidan North Street, a black main tone building is covered by one and two layers of red fence. This is even more abrupt in the traditional Xidan business circle. It is not in harmony with Xidan shopping malls, Jun Tai Department stores and Zhongyou department stores separated from a few meters away.

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< p > the day of opening was scheduled for September this year, but the decoration of the shopping mall was completed last year.

"According to reason, this year is not the time to open stores, the retail industry is generally in a state of continued downturn."

Wang Zhirong also hesitated.

But the location was fixed at least one or two years ago, and the investment must be done this year.

So, last year, it was renovated and not opened yet.

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There are also foreign business tycoons such as Martha Spencer (P & amp; Spencer) and the old department store Macy (s) in the United Kingdom, which will be explored in the next 100 years from June to September. They will be unveiled in the mainland of China in the form of open shop or electronic business in June.

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< p > why is it now < /p >

< p > in the year when the old Buddha did not start their business, the large department stores in Beijing and Shanghai were closed down.

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In 2012, China's retail industry experienced an extremely cold year. The average rent cost of Chinese retail businesses increased by 30%, and labor cost increased by 15%. The total sales volume of China's 81 large and medium-sized retail enterprises in 2012 was 228 billion 270 million yuan, up 8.92% from the same period last year, and the total profit decreased by 6.14% over the same period last year.

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The strategy of P to enter China was formulated after the 2008 financial crisis.

At that time, the Chinese mainland market was seen as the last place for the global commercial giants to compete fiercely.

However, the Chinese mainland market, which is known as the global luxury growth engine, is also beginning to slump. The international brands have gradually stopped the pace of opening stores, and the investment in shopping malls has become difficult. Some of the original negotiation projects have not been realized.

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< p > except for the recession, the main reason for the decline of department stores is that consumers' shopping habits have changed, and the cost of e-commerce has been squeezed seriously, and their cost pressures have increased year by year.

It is understood that the average net profit of traditional department stores is only around 3% now.

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< p > why Laurent was chosen to start business at this poor time this year, Laurent Chemla, Asia Pacific director general of department store in Lafayette, now calls it an "interesting" time point.

In May 7th, he told the economic observer, "I can not comment on the motives and plans of other retailers, but our project is now opening in Beijing, which is an interesting time point.

Because we have to introduce a completely different store mode, shopping experience and collocation will be different from the players in the market now.

The old Buddha's flagship store, 40 Osman Road, Paris, was once a hit by Byzantine luxury court decorating. Laurent Chemla also wanted to bring such a lifestyle to Beijing, "making consumers go shopping as if they were going to a medieval party".

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< p > this is not the first time that Buddha has entered Beijing.

13 years ago, Laurent Chemla did an interesting thing. He photographed the fashion of Chinese people with cameras in the busy streets of Xidan, Beijing.

To his regret, the number of fashionable people in line with his mind is very few.

At that time, the whole family stroll around Xidan shopping malls and Wangfujing department store is the high-end consumption mode of Beijing residents.

Later, Yansha and Seth became one of the few Beijing department stores that could buy fashionable brands, and Nike and Adidas were the representatives of famous brands.

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< p >, therefore, the first Chinese shop in Wangfujing on a side street soon died, opened in 1997 and closed in 1998 because of a loss. It has never had the courage to enter the Asian market.

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< p > Martha, the famous British department store, had almost the same fate as Lord Buddha, but failed to expand in the mainland after he opened his first store in Hongkong in 1988.

Now is the same time point. Martha's department store has announced that it will start expanding in large numbers, with the goal of doubling the number of stores in mainland China by the end of 2013 compared with last June.

Stanly Shen, general manager of Cci Capital Ltd, Shanghai Rui Yong enterprise, said that it was the most suitable time to choose conservatism, and now that the crisis is going to work hard or be busy, it will only get the business into one.

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< p > Why did you choose to return to Beijing at this time? Paul della CEO, a department store of Lafayette department store, once said that it was because of the site selection of the department store, that the Beijing team has rapidly grown into the most expensive luxury consumer in the Asia Pacific region in the three years after the end of the 2008 Olympic Games.

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< p > in fact, as early as 2002, the situation of Chinese fashion began to appear. The Japanese brand Uniqlo took the lead in Shanghai.

In 2006, ZARA, a Spanish fashion giant, opened its first branch store in Shanghai.

A year later, the fast fashion brand H&M of Sweden followed.

These international fashion brands have not only been successful in Shanghai, but also rapidly expanded throughout the country.

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< p > it seems that China's fashionable soil has sprouted.

Laurent Chemla was appointed as managing director of the Asia Pacific region quickly, and was set up in Hongkong to redevelop the Asian market.

When he returned to Xidan in 2010, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the trend of the street was already overwhelmed.

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< p > this Frenchman, who has many years of experience in fashion industry, has a special liking for the subway in Xidan and Xidan. He is surprised that Beijing has only spent three years from the national bus to the national subway, which is why the old Buddha is relocating on the line 4 of the Ling Hutong station. He hopes that the fashionable people who come to the old Buddha's shop do not have to be too luxurious and high-end to come in by subway.

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At P, shopping center is no longer the representative of high-end shopping. The department store and Xidan department store are in the bottleneck of pformation. Beijing's high-end shopping is only left by shinguang world and China World Trade Center business circle.

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< p > Laurent Chemla believes that compared with the Korean and Japanese markets, several large department stores have already formed, and the department store market in Beijing is relatively fragmented and insufficient concentration. This is an opportunity for Lord Buddha.

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< p > this is also a problem that has been bothering Beijing's SASAC. The SASAC has a wish to cultivate a 100 billion retail giant in Beijing to resist foreign capital and seize the market.

But until Lord Buddha arrived at Beijing two degrees now, Beijing's 100 billion tycoons had not yet been integrated.

In general, Beijing SASAC has been accelerating the pace of integration of retail sales.

From the failure of the Xidan shopping center to match Wangfujing, and the successful acquisition of new Lufthansa in Xidan, it is predicted that larger mergers and restructuring will still be behind.

Even so, Laurent Chemla said he did not worry about such an integration. Instead, Shopping Mall, such as COFCO Joy City, orient Xintiandi and Huamao center, was listed as the main competitor of future Buddha.

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< p > the probability of breaking down is less than /p.

There are many international retailing giants like P, who have similar ideas.

Martha opened the first flagship store in Shanghai in 2008 in Nanjing West Road, which is different from the mainstream mode rental counters of local department stores. Martha stores mainly operate their own brands.

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What P did not expect was that from 2008 to 2012, just a few years ago, China's retail business was no longer a consumption engine.

From the fourth quarter of 2011, China's retail business listed companies overall growth slowed down, net profit fell.

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< p > especially the main category of Martha's department store is "a target=" _blank "href=" http://www.91se91.com/ "> clothing" /a "and food. However, its entry into Shanghai is late, and is influenced by fashion brands such as ZARA and H&M.

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< p > in June this year, we will also occupy the Chinese mainland market through the electricity supplier channel, as well as the US Department Store Messi.

As early as 2011, the official website of Messi's Department opened international pportation service, and Chinese consumers could buy directly from the official website.

In May 2012, Messi's department stores invested in the luxury goods business in China. In March of this year, Jiapin net announced that it would be pformed into a "Messi" department store in China in June.

This means that when considering the expansion of the Chinese market, every step taken by the giants is carefully calculated.

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"P" Japan's West Wu department store is a failure case in the Chinese market, because of acclimatization, continuous losses gradually withdraw from all cities in China.

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< p > strategy < /p >

P, though fashion is a worldwide business, retailing must be a local thing.

This is a concept firmly believed by Laurent Chemla, so it took him quite a long time to recruit local teams for Lord Buddha in Beijing.

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< p > however, the continuous downturn of Chinese consumption has increased the pressure of Lord Buddha.

Wang Zhirong revealed that old Buddha had been renovated last year but has not yet started his business. He has been groping for it. He does not want to be a model of Chinese department stores, nor can he move to Europe.

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< p > the so-called "set in Europe", for example, the whole negative layer is women's underwear, children's products can occupy two levels, household products can occupy a full three floors, because European consumers are pursuing the quality of life, while Chinese consumers are still in the stage of "showing off to others".

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< p > "Lord Buddha is spoiled by the Chinese in Paris."

Wang Zhirong said, "if we move Paris to Beijing, we will die."

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< p > in fact, Lord Buddha did change the original position for the Beijing market.

In order to distinguish from the positioning of top luxury brands, Sir John's position in Beijing is more "civilian" and includes all price segments.

In terms of investment, Laurent Chelma hopes to bring fresh Asian and American brands to Chinese consumers and Asian brands suitable for Chinese people. Many of these brands are only seen in Paris, Milan or Tokyo. They may be small and medium European a target= "_blank" href= "http://www.91se91.com/" > designer /a, or asian designer brand.

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In order to reduce the risk of entering the Chinese market and to cope with climate change, P chose a business partner who knows more about the Chinese market to work together: Hongkong I.T group.

The two sides formed a joint venture of 50% rights and interests in Paris, the Department Store (China).

Laurent Chelma believes that in the future, Lord Buddha does not rule out a push to China's two or three tier cities and needs a mature helmsman.

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