Old Buddha Returned To Xidan, Beijing, &Nbsp; He Opened 15 Stores In 5 Years.

　　 "Lord Buddha" came.

French Lafayette general store announced that its first Asian store will be located in Xidan commercial street, Beijing, which represents a 14 year old Lafayette department store's return to China.

Buddha chose to return to Beijing at this time, because the investigation team found that the location of the site of the opening of old Buddha's department store has discovered that in the three years after the end of the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing has rapidly grown into the most active in the Asia Pacific region. Luxury goods The capital of consumption

"Eleven golden week, the LV team of Lafayette department store is all Chinese tourists. I estimate that it will take more than an hour to enter the store. Start counting. "

In early October, Chinese netizens in Paris published a message on micro-blog and attached a picture. The carved colored glass in the picture, with gold painted windows and a splendid shopping mall, has a very Chinese translation.

As one of the largest retail groups in Europe, the French luxury department store Lord Buddha was born in 1893, next to The Paris Opera House. It was a hit by Byzantine luxury court decorating. Lord Buddha first advocated the concept of "making shopping to be enjoyable" in the world. The old department store, which has 96 departments in Paris Avenue, is the second largest place for French traffic, only for Eiffel Tower.

　　 In 5 years, 15 stores are opened in China.

Here, not only can a group of Chinese people rush to buy LV and GUCCI, but also queue up in front of the rebate counter, and even the buildings are full of tired and waiting Chinese tourists. The famous Lafayette department store, which is lined up by luxury brands, is Chinese. "There is a Chinese shopping guide at every store, and there are also Chinese announcers in shopping malls." Season Zou, who worked in the Department of Lafayette department store, said that during the eleven golden week, almost every day inside the old Buddha, the meeting often included how to distinguish the Chinese from the similar Asians. The reason is simple: "even if the overall sales of the company have declined, the number of Chinese customers has increased significantly, and sales have been considerable."

To this end, in the eleven golden week of China, even on Sunday, the usual practice of old Buddha's department store was specially opened for Chinese tourists. Before that, when Obama and his wife visited France, under the special request of the French president, Michel opened the door to Michel on Sunday.

In the view of Lord Buddha, it is absolutely worthwhile for Chinese tourists to enjoy this kind of treatment.

Recently, the World Luxury Association released 2011 latest report, the total consumption of luxury goods in mainland China last year has reached US $10 billion 700 million, accounting for 1/4 of global share. China is expected to overtake Japan in 2012 to become the world's largest luxury item. consumption Country.

"This is only the data of mainland consumption. If we buy overseas, China has already become the number one." Ouyang Kun, China Representative Office of the World Luxury Association, said CEO. During the eleven period, he went to Paris for third times to do research. He had seen many strange things about buying crowds. But careful Ouyang Kun still found that the locals who were curious about the grand occasion still took out their cameras to take pictures outside the door.

There is no doubt that Lord Buddha has tasted too much sweetness from the Chinese consumer group, but he will never be satisfied with it. As with many international luxury brands, they have turned their attention to the rapidly developing Chinese market. "The prospect of China's luxury market is very optimistic because it has jumped out of the traditional consumer group, and more diversified means greater. Business opportunity China's huge consumer population is something that no brand wants to miss. Season said.

For this piece of "hot earth", which is neither willing nor missed, Lord Buddha has made his own steps. In many of the golden week of fans to Paris's old Buddha to sweep the goods, in Beijing, people also found that a wall in Xidan, "old Buddha's department store is about to open" business building will soon be completed.

The Xidan square, which covers 48 million square meters of Xidan North Street, was rented by old Buddha at the end of last year, and claimed to build a department store with "new department store concept". It opened in 2013 and became a new landmark of Beijing department store. Not only that, Lord Buddha showed his greater ambition: in 15 years, he opened 15 department stores in China.

But beyond ambition, the Buddha seems to have forgotten the gloomy taste of his withdrawal from the Chinese market 13 years ago.

　　 Gloomy past

In 1997, Lord Buddha entered Beijing and chose the address on a side street in Wangfujing.

"In that year, the domestic reform and opening up will soon usher in 20th anniversary, and the overall economy will continue to develop at a high speed." This is why Yang Min, a researcher at the luxury research center of University of International Business and Economics, explains why he is looking forward to China. Before that, Cartire, Zegna, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Chanel and Gucci were all hit by Chinese brands.

"Even though the luxury brands of these big companies could spend a year or even a year's income on luxury brands, they could not be accepted by domestic consumers, but they all had a foothold in China and opened stores in all the first tier cities."

But reality is more brutal than what Buddha thought. In less than a year, The Buddha He was forced to close the Beijing store because of a disorderly operation and never entered the Asian market again.

"The market and experience caused by various problems acclimatized, as well as the prediction of China's luxury consumption ability at that time led to the failure of Buddha." Yang Min and other industry experts almost agree. Yang Min said that Chinese consumers at the end of the 90s did not have enough spending power on such luxury stores as old Buddha, or that they lacked interest in consumption. The vast majority of competent consumers are still ignorant of luxury consumption.

This is almost the same as LaurentChemla, managing director of the Asia Pacific region, and reminds us of the situation of that year. LaurentChemla attributed the failure to the prevailing circumstances. 13 years ago, LaurentChemla stood on the streets of Xidan and photographed all kinds of Chinese clothes and dresses with cameras. To his regret, the number of fashionable people in line with his mind is very few.

In addition to the ignorance of Chinese consumers' attitude towards fashion, there was also the reason why the policy was limited. Department store Inexperienced and not open enough local companies as partners.

"Now it seems that the domestic consumers' awareness of international luxury goods, or the popularity of international luxury goods in Chinese consumer groups, has been amazing in the past few years." Yang Min said that over the past decade, China has undergone tremendous changes, and now undoubtedly has the market acceptance of high-end fashion department stores.

"Beijing has already formed a good business atmosphere and is China's largest luxury consumer city." Yang Min, for example, has many mature and successful high-end shopping circles in Beijing, such as China World Trade Center CBD business circle, Sanyuanqiao Yansha business circle, Wangfujing shopping center business circle and Financial Street Xidan business circle. One shopping mall or another department store was built in a flash. It is not necessary to enter the Chinese market. "In these business circles, the daily passenger volume can guarantee more than 30 million."

However, Ouyang Kun and many people familiar with the old Buddha's brand were puzzled that the site of the old Buddha was chosen in the Xidan business circle. He can not help but ask: in the past recession, become the uncompleted residential quarter of the Xidan square, can really hold up the Buddha's day?

People who have been to Beijing know that this is a place where students and white-collar workers like to have a lower overall positioning. Even though there are some high-end high-end fashion brands, it is only an ornament for the entire business circle. "For Lord Buddha, it is a bit of a decline." Ouyang Kun said that what worries him is that with the increasingly clear positioning of various business circles, the aggregation of consumer groups will also form grade characteristics. If we want to carry out high-end consumption, consumers may habitually go to China World Trade Center, Beijing. Yansha New landmark world.

The young and fashionable business positioning of Xidan business circle has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. How to break this passenger consumption pattern is the key factor for the survival of high-end business. You know, there are many examples of failure, and the most famous one is the US Department Store in the Capital Times Square on the southern side of the Xidan commercial circle as early as 6 years ago.

At that time, the United States and the United States Department Store introduced Diesel, Gerry Weber and many other international debut cards in Beijing. The lineup made up of luxury brands such as Gucci, Versace, Ferragamo and HugoBoss is also luxurious in the Beijing shopping malls. However, these big international cards did not help Meimei department to succeed. The stores in times square of the capital have long been deserted.

However, he did not take the view of improper site selection. Laurent Chemla retorted, "can you think of the Joy City in Xidan three years ago and be so successful?"

　　 Working with I.T. to overcome "acclimatized"

The seemingly fast Xidan entry plan is actually a field visit and research conducted by the old Buddha's team for many years.

CEO Paul della, a French department store, said that when he chose to return to Beijing at that time, the investigation team found that the site of the opening of the shop was found that in the three years after the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing has rapidly grown into the most active luxury goods consumer in the Asia Pacific Region. The world's top luxury brands such as LV, GUCCI and LOEWE are no longer strange to Chinese people. "Xidan fashion circle's fashion people and the world's top brands show great business opportunities."

In the view of LaurentChemla, young people who are accustomed to spending in Xidan now may spontaneously produce the demand for more high-end products in three years. "You can't anticipate changes that will happen in the future. We have seen such changes in the mature markets of the West." LaurentChemla added: "we really hope this change will be quicker."

It is said that while continuing the characteristics of French old Buddha, the "made in China" Buddha built in Xidan will also take special care of Chinese aesthetic standards and import some new brands from Europe, the United States and other Asian countries. "Our market positioning is mainly based on Beijing customers. Some brands in Paris will appear in Beijing stores, but we will also seek more Asian brands. " Paul della said.

It is not hard to see that Lord of Buddha has close and careful plans and plans for the future. After all, China is still a strange land for this old department store industry.

Moreover, Lord Buddha knew that he could not fall two times in one place.

"Unlike the last policy, Lord Buddha not only invested himself, but also opened his own business." Yang Min said. In order to reduce the risk of entering the Chinese market, and to cope with climate change, Lord Buddha chose a business partner who knows more about the Chinese market to work together: Hongkong I.T. group.

When selecting partners, a total of more than 100 retail outlets in the Chinese market and Hongkong I.T., which matched with the high-end positioning of Lord Buddha, finally moved the old Buddha. The French department store believes that I.T. has become a fashion symbol for young people in the Greater China region for more than 10 years. It must have a deep understanding of retail, fashion and today's Chinese consumers.

In Yang Min's view, Lord Buddha chose Hongkong I.T. as a partner. This cooperation mode is equivalent to the integration of European brand influence and Asian market experience. According to the agreement, Lord Buddha and Hongkong I.T. Group invested HK $300 million, and set up a joint venture company in Hongkong, each 50% of which is mainly used to develop China's high-end department stores. Paul della said that Lord laowai will rely on his five years of business experience in the Chinese market to promote the expansion of Lord Buddha's market in Beijing.

Now, Lord Buddha has been actively locating in Shanghai, and has set eyes on Hangzhou, Macao, Chengdu, Tianjin and other cities in the future.

It seems that this time for China's "back gun", Lord Buddha really took the time.