Maria Serves As General Manager Of Martha General Store China.

For Britain's largest Apparel retail group In Martha's department store, the summer of 2014 is doomed to be a "summer of events". First, it was announced that it planned to close all 15 stores in China. After that, it was confirmed that the senior executives were leaving. It was a speculation that Martha's department would withdraw from China for a while. The Chinese market was regarded as an important part of its overseas expansion, and was regarded as an important stop for the continuation of Martha's myth in the future.

　　 Eventful summer performance decline

In recent years, the performance of Martha stores in the UK has continued to decline. By the end of May 12th, the Marks and Spencer Group Plc Martha stock price was 458.5 pounds, down 2.54 pounds from the opening price of the day (-0.55%), and the share price of that day fell 8.48% compared with that of six months ago. Although half a year's decline does not account for too many problems, in April 10th, Martha's Department issued 2013/2014's fourth quarter earnings report, and some clues emerged.

According to the information released by the London Stock Exchange, Martha's Department's fourth quarter financial report shows that sales of non food business sector declined for the eleventh consecutive quarter in 1~3 this year. Although sales in the international market actually increased by 2.1%, it was regarded as one of the most important markets in China.

　　 Marks & Spencer Since its entry into the Chinese market in 2008, it has opened 15 retail stores in 6 years, including 7 in Shanghai, 2 in Changzhou, and 1 in Ningbo, Wuhan, Qingdao, Jiangyin, Wenzhou and Suzhou. Martha has provided clothing, home and food products to Chinese consumers.

April, chief executive officer of Martha store. Mark Brender A statement said that it may close several stores around Shanghai and disclose or abandon its direct mode in China instead of seeking partners to expand the Chinese market. It can be seen that the closure of Chinese stores is not a rumor, but it is not all stores that are closed but part. However, it is an indisputable fact that it has encountered bottlenecks and difficulties in the development of the Chinese market.

　　 Fuzzy location ambiguity

According to Ms. Ma, who has returned from studying in Britain, "Martha stores in China feel" old and heavy. " Although abroad, Martha's mainstream consumer group is also a large age group, but 25~60 year old consumers can find a more suitable style. But because of the different stature, temperament and living environment, domestic products make people feel that 30~40 years old Chinese consumers are wearing old-fashioned spirits, while consumers over the age of 50 are outdated. Moreover, the products here are all European design, and the height and shape of the middle and old aged people in China are difficult to support the larger size of European clothing, and it is difficult to reflect the quality of clothing.

In addition, Martha stores have a slightly different format in China and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, Martha stores are richer and more complete, not only selling clothing, household products, food and daily necessities, but also restaurants. Reporters in England often see a family buying goods in Martha and enjoying food in restaurants. In China, Martha is more like a store, losing the characteristics of the medium-sized department store built by the self built brand, and losing the middle and high-end department stores.

In the final analysis, Martha's department store did not find an accurate location in China. The vague concept and the copying mode made the consumers who had gone abroad to experience Martha's knowledge very strange, but those who did not know Martha were all at a loss.

　　 Contrary to localization and acclimatization

Insiders say that this has great bearing on Martha's management in China. It is reported that its executives in China are British, and the products, pricing, publicity and sales patterns in the Chinese market almost follow the British model and fail to suit the local conditions.

Not only in China but also around the world, Martha stores are facing a huge challenge, namely, the impact of fast fashion brands. On the one hand, fast fashion brands are well designed and low in price. On the other hand, these brands are paying great attention to localization while developing rapidly. China has long been regarded as the most potential market by brands such as ZARA, H&M and Uniqlo, so they have spared no effort in developing the Chinese market.

Take ASOS, which has just entered the Chinese market in November last year as an example. ASOS is also a fashion group from the United Kingdom. The difference is that the group only does e-commerce. Sean Mccabe, President of ASOS international affairs, said: "after entering China, I must rethink the strategy in China. Simply copying the British model can not satisfy Chinese consumers. For example, China has Alipay, cash on delivery policy and so on, which is unique in the world. Therefore, we should constantly learn from the actual situation of the Chinese market to better understand and approach Chinese consumers. We need to provide more convenient services to Chinese consumers, including online shopping experience on Chinese web pages and more convenient payment methods.

In order to improve the defects of localization, Martha also made some changes. Recently, Martha hired Maria, who has extensive retail experience in the Chinese market as the general manager of China. Maria served as the human resources director of Asia Pacific region of Inditex group, the parent company of ZARA. Her entry will push Martha department store into a more fashionable format. However, only by changing one or two managers to speed up the transformation of the entire department store, the effect is limited, I am afraid Martha wants to catch up with the pace of fast fashion brands, and needs to be completely changed.