Can Children'S Theme Stores Escape Their Predestined Fate?

August 18th, known as Asia's largest marine theme children's department store conch Bay children.

Large market demand

"There are 700 thousand children aged 0 to 16 years old in Xiamen, who produce nearly 10 billion yuan per year, but there is no children's themed shopping mall in Xiamen. The conch children's department store will fill this market gap."

At the signing ceremony and press conference of the children's department store in conch Bay, Xiao Bin, the representative of the conch Bay holdings and general manager of Zhongtian investment, assessed from the perspective of market demand that Xiamen had arrived at the critical point of the children's department store two or three years ago.

Market demand is large, which is the main reason why many businesses decide to make children's theme department stores.

In July 18th, the children's city in Shenzhen, which was opened in July 18th, found that there were 620 thousand primary school pupils, 300 thousand junior high school students, 400 thousand children aged 0-5, and a large number of children under 14 years old.

However, market demand does not mean that children's theme stores will flourishing.

Reporters call Shenzhen to seize the customer service manager Xiong Wei City, he admitted that "the operation is not very good."

Xiong Wei said, grasping the majority of brand names of children's cities during trial operation.

It is understood that the 1/3 brand in children's clothing is related to clothing, and all of them are children's wear brands. Currently, there are brand names such as Ann, Barbara, Disney, Anta and so on, and the 80% is factory outlets.

Catch the children's city and charge more than 24% points to the brand.

Xiong Wei said that in order to change the current situation of insufficient passenger flow, the children's city has recently held a model of catching children's models, hoping to improve the popularity and traffic of children's cities through sports activities, laying the foundation for the official opening in September.

Similarly, the Tong Tong children's world of Suzhou, which was opened in July this year, also encountered the same problem.

Luo Yun, director of investment promotion, also told reporters that the business situation was "not very ideal".

He said that at present, the brand of children entering the children's world is mainly clothing and toys, and there are more than 60 children's clothing brands, including seven wolf boy clothes, Snoopy and so on.

Other formats are still being filled, for example, children's training projects are being discussed.

"There will be a breeding period in the new shopping malls, and the daily sales volume will increase by 8%.

We are optimistic about the market potential of children's theme stores.

Luo Yun said, "children's theme department stores are not successful templates can learn from, rely on their own slowly grope."

At present, Tong Ling children's world will organize activities with local children's palace and kindergarten every week to enhance the popularity of the mall.

Children's enthusiasm experts believe that the market potential is limited.

The children's trend in Guangzhou is more turbulent than other cities. The Guangzhou 5 apron project has been basically finalized, introducing the children's experience Museum "week eight town"; the Zhujiang New Town Underground Space and the Mexico children's theme park KidZania (Qu Zhijia) are still "in love"; Gao de Mei is in the middle of the heart, simply from the team, personally handling the children's theme park's R & D, design and investment construction.

Just before the start of the Plaza, the whole "good department store" pushed back and reloaded into a one-stop shopping "children's world", while the "baby city" under the concept of "the creation of children's theme" was also attracting investment.

Before that, Guangzhou has also launched several waves of construction of women's and infant shops.

The first thing that came to the top was nine women's and infant department stores. The theme of "women's children and children's shopping malls" was the theme of Zheng Jia Department store, but for various reasons, the children's plate of Zheng Jia Department store had never really done it.

Wang Xianqing, director of the Institute of circulation economics of Guangdong University of Business and director of Guangdong Business Research Center, believes that the concept of children plays a limited role in a business, including three aspects, namely, customer groups, purchasing power and expansion potential.

"Parents know that children spend most of their money on milk powder and paper diapers during their infancy. The biggest cost is the kindergarten education. In addition, parents are rational most of the time.

For example, in children's clothing, children grow faster and clothes do not fit quickly. Most parents buy children products that are "not too expensive". Secondly, children are so large that they have been developing for many years and assigned to various shopping malls. The number is obviously limited. Finally, because children's market development is relatively early and relatively mature, at present, there is even a tendency of over exploitation.

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In an interview with our reporter, Prof. Wang Xianqing said that the reason why domestic children's theme stores were not operating well was that most businesses overestimated the capacity and potential of the children's market, and regarded a fairly mature market as an emerging market, resulting in a deviation in the management strategy.

In addition, in terms of personality and characteristics, some businesses blindly imitate and copy foreign practices, and have not worked hard in localization, China's national conditions and characteristics.

Wang Xianqing suggested that children's theme shopping centres must prevent one-sided pursuit of Westernization, fashion and luxury.

Emphasis should be placed on the differentiation and sustainability of business, and the marketing value of children's sports and children's tourism should be explored to expand the scope and market of children's shopping malls.

For those businesses that are not well located or are not suitable for the development of children's themed shopping malls, it is recommended that they be pformed as soon as possible after being assessed.

By summing up the failure cases of children's shopping malls, we can find that the proportion of old children's shopping malls is very large, and the proportion of their shopping is very small.

But the new children's experience museum is "going against the road". The commercial flavor is not so heavy, but it is more likely to succeed.

"With the decline of China's birth rate, the continuous development of e-commerce and the blurring of the boundaries of thematic shopping centers, the potential of children's theme department stores is limited.

In the past few decades, China's retail industry has extensively developed the market for children's products and women's supplies, while the market for the products for middle and old age and adult men is not enough. Therefore, businesses should conduct extensive investigations into the composition, capacity and channels of local children's products market, and then make market decisions.

Wang Xianqing suggested.

Major and scale theme department stores insist

Looking at the development of department stores, "theme department stores" were once considered to be a good medicine to find market space, because they could compete with general merchandise stores, which was once popular among businessmen.

However, its development is not smooth sailing, but has encountered embarrassment repeatedly. Many female theme shops have lost Mai City.

As early as 2001, Wangfu women's department store played the banner of "creating a dream factory for women's consumption" and appeared in Beijing golden street. But in 2007, it closed the door with the pformation of Wangfujing street.

In 2003, Shanghai's Champs Elysee fashion theme store, which was the theme of the wedding, failed to get consumers' approval even though it failed to attract new brands.

Although these are only cases, but because of the lack of investment, the types of commodities are not complete, and the commodities are highly identical, so they do not form their own characteristics. Compared with the comprehensive department stores, thematic shopping malls do not have an advantage.

Moreover, in the field of theme shopping, the problem of talent shortage is still hard to solve at one time.

For the target customers, the attraction of the theme mall is specialization and scale.

Due to the relative concentration of the theme shopping malls, the choice of brands is more targeted.

However, the theme shopping mall is not a simple brand collection, but also a combination of commodities. It requires operators to screen all kinds of commodities beforehand, and put different brands of the same kind of goods in the same counter, so that customers can choose the theme of shopping malls.

Characterized by professional management, it has changed the past full sales model in terms of business philosophy, reflecting the unique theme.

It should be pointed out that, as a new retail mode, both operators and consumers need to have a familiar process. If the theme shopping mall is high enough, the environment is good enough and the combination of formats is reasonable, consumers will still be interested, which is the advantage of theme positioning.

If the theme shopping mall can find out the potential capacity of the market, it is still very promising to persist in cultivating the market.

New shopping centres with children's theme everywhere

Grasping children's City

Location: intersection of Baoan road and Yu An Road, Shenzhen.

Opening hours: July 2010 trial business, September officially opened

Operator: Shenzhen darling Investment Co., Ltd.

Area: nearly 20000 square meters {page_break}

Location: Children's one-stop shopping mall

Business contents: Children's wear, children's shoes / socks, toys, children's furniture, baby carriage / bed, bedding for children, maternity and infant products, baby food, stationery and sports products, electronic audio-visual, children's photography, children's entertainment city, parent-child paradise, family catering, parent child education and training institutions.

Child collar children's world

Venue: A building, Suzhou aquatic world commercial plaza.

Opening hours: July 2010 trial business, September officially opened

Operator: Suzhou leading commercial development Co., Ltd.

Area: more than 10000 square meters

Location: Suzhou first stop shopping mall for children

Business: brand children's clothing, toys, specialty stores, theme restaurants, water bar, nail, children photography, children's furniture, children's books, audio-visual products, parent-child interaction area, education and training.

Conch Bay children's department store

Location: Zhongshan Road, Xiamen

Opening hours: end of 2010

Operator: Xiamen Zhongtian Cci Capital Ltd

Area: 12000 square meters, 600 independent stores.

Location: 0-16 year old children's (baby pregnancy) supplies one-stop shopping center

Business: Children's toys, maternity products, baby products, children's fine products, children's theme restaurants, children's food, children's wear, jewelry, stationery, books, audio-visual, early education, training, children's furniture home textiles, children's photography, amusement, parent-child, 3D hall, marine science and technology Museum, role experience Museum, etc.

Baby City

Venue: Middle Road, Yuexiu, Guangzhou.

Opening hours: planned opening at the end of the year

Operator: Guangzhou Dongmen Real Estate Development Co., Ltd.

Area: nearly 10000 square meters

Location: Guangzhou's first large-scale children's theme Mall

Business: infant and maternity products, children's clothing, animation and electronic products, toys, cultural and educational supplies, amusement centers, fashion restaurants, early childhood training, children's photography, etc.