The Impact Of Hongkong'S Occupy Central Events On Hongkong'S Clothing Retailing Industry

The events in Hongkong accounted for 10 percent of the retail sales week, and the pressure on retailers to frighten Chinese tourists further increased the pressure for retailers to slow down.

Amid the chaos in central Hongkong, demonstrators gathered and the protests coincided with the National Day holiday. An important consumption season was severely defeated.

"We can expect that the heavy gunpowder smell on the streets of Hongkong will drag on the retail sales in October," Tim Condon, head of ING Group Asia Research Group, said in a report.

Caroline Mak.

The most influential Mongkok and Lockhart road and Wan Chai jewelry shops closed on Monday.

In the central region, such as clothing brands Joyce and Club Monaco, some retailers still close their doors during the day, and only open at 1 p.m.

Most shops in Pacific Place shopping center and Lab Concept are open on Monday, and some are closed or adjusted for opening hours.

Urban Outfitters original plan (6-10-2014) opened on Monday at Admiralty Lane Crawford Joyce Groups Lab Concept, and now postponed the opening event.

"Coach has been closely observing the situation. The safety of customers and staff is the top priority. We have launched contingency plans to deal with different locations and different management scenarios.

In view of what we see today, two shops in central and Admiralty have been closed, and the rest of our stores in Hongkong remain open. Our team will continue to monitor and assess the situation as it continues to develop and we need to act quickly in response to changes, "a Coach spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for the clothing brand Giorgio Armani said the brand store will be open on Monday (6-10-2014) in central and Admiralty square, but warned that public pit diversions will affect traffic.

A spokeswoman for Lane Crawford Joyce Group said that the company is doing its best to "maintain customer experience and service quality during this period", but if it is to ensure the safety of customers and employees, it will close its stores.

Erbert Chong, a fashion designer based in Hongkong, said he was watching to see if he could hold his own spring and summer fashion show as scheduled. The show was originally scheduled for October 15th at Mott 32, a restaurant in central.

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We are affected by the shops in the city centre. We will consider taking measures to shorten the business hours so as to ensure the safety of our employees and customers and avoid shop losses, "said Zhou Dafu jewelry spokeswoman.

Travel agencies said that the number of Chinese tourists dropped to 30%, which was a bad omen for the Golden Week holidays started in October, usually the busiest period of the month, and retailers relied on them to revive sales.

"For overseas tourists, they do not know much about the inside of occupy central, but they are worried about whether there will be any riots or large-scale gatherings. They are worried about whether the refund policy has changed," said Paul Leung, chairman of Hongkong inbound tourism reception Association, referring to those tax rebate tour groups.

It is not surprising to see the decline of 20-30% in China. He added that the size of the group has dropped from 40 to 20 to 30.

The slowdown in economic growth has already had a negative impact on luxury goods manufacturers and retail related stocks in Hongkong. Dickson Poon, executive chairman of 00113.HK, said that Zhong Zhong believes that it will have an impact on businesses in central.

Hongkong's retail industry relies heavily on tourists from mainland China. According to Credit Suisse, they contributed about 1/3 of the city's retail sales in 2013.

The outlook is still not optimistic, because the demand for luxury goods continues to decline, while local consumption is still in the doldrums.

The Retail Management Association revised the growth of retail sales in the city from 12% to 5% in 2014, while Hang Seng Bank declined from 13% to 5%.

Global luxury director general manager and department head Luca Solca report that luxury companies are highly concentrated in Hongkong and the industry sales are slowing down. The further escalation of turbulence will bring more negative factors.