Last Year, The Performance Of Japanese Department Stores Fell Sharply.

According to the data released by Japan's general merchandise Association 19, the turnover of Japanese department stores in 2008 was 73813 billion yen (1 US dollars or 91 yen), a decrease of 4.3% over the same period last year, the third largest decline since 1965, and has fallen below last year's level for 12 consecutive years.

At the same time, the total sales volume of national department stores in December 2008 was 794 billion 700 million yen, a decrease of 9.4% over the same period last year.

As the month was 2 days shorter than the same period in the previous year, the number of customers visiting the mall decreased.

In addition, although the major department stores have started year-end promotional activities earlier than in previous years, sales of clothing and high-end goods are still sluggish under the cloud of financial crisis.

In the end of the year, sales of food and cosmetics, which had been relatively well sold, turned to a year-on-year decline. So almost all kinds of merchandise sales declined in December.

Due to the further aggravation of the economic recession, the low performance of enterprises has led to an increase in unemployment and a decrease in income expectations. As a result, the consumption orientation of consumers has been increasing. The business mode of department stores with high-end products as the center has been challenged unprecedentedly.

Yang Jing: editor in charge