Is Martha'S Department Exit Or Readjustment?

Martha's department store, which entered the Chinese market in 2008, has opened its stores to two or three cities, such as Qingdao, Changzhou, Ningbo, Wuhan, Wenzhou and Suzhou, in addition to being stationed in Shanghai.

"In fact, when Martha just entered the Chinese market, because of its brand advantage, the cost of getting goods is much lower than that of general department stores."

According to the insiders, Martha stores closed shop because of poor management caused by acclimatization.

Martha's official explanation explains that this is not a move to withdraw from the Chinese market, but a resource integration.

While reducing the number of shops in the surrounding cities of Shanghai, Martha still has plans to open new stores in Beijing and Guangzhou.

In addition, Martha will assess the potential local partners in the region and consider expanding the brand awareness in China through online sales.

However, the dilemma of Martha's department store is not an isolated case. The operation of British retailers in the Chinese market does not seem to be going well.

Before that, Tesco, a British retailer, was once in a difficult position in the Chinese market, and only a minority stake in its joint venture with Huarun Wan.

B&Q, a building material giant, sold its 70% stake in the Chinese company to the Wumart group after years of losses.

Although the above three enterprises belong to different industries and are facing different problems, they are all criticized by the industry as "inefficient decision making" and "acclimatization".

RET's director, Mr Susan shin, said that the adjustment of the international brand decision making abroad is difficult to deal with the changes in the regional market in time. This is also an important challenge they encounter in the more sensitive and changeable times of consumers.

Today's situation also reflects the gradual decline of department stores in the Chinese market.

Parkson has closed at least 7 stores in China before Martha announced the closure of 5 stores in Shanghai.

In December 1, 2014, the Japanese department store department store in Beijing Xizhimen business district officially closed shop, which is the third branch of the traditional department store recently closed in Beijing.

According to RET ruyd China commercial real estate research center, only in 2014, large chain stores

The sample closes 26 stores throughout the year.

Among them, Baisheng department store, Zhong Du department store and Ito Yang Hua hall closed 3 each. Other including baailai department store, Shang Tai Department store, Xinguang department store, Wangfujing department store and so on were closed in the two or three line cities.

There are only 1 Baisheng and 3 Hua Tang stores in only the first tier cities in Beijing.

Statistics also show that in 2013, the largest number of chain store stores had a growth rate of only 7.6%, the lowest growth rate in 15 years, compared with around 5% in 2014.

"The golden age of department stores is over."

Li Zhiqi, chairman of Beijing future marketing consultancy group, said that, first of all, the impact of e-commerce on traditional department stores is increasing, and the diversion effect on consumers is more and more obvious.

Secondly, department stores are not as good as shopping centers in consumer experience, but no convenience stores in convenience.

Finally, department stores developed too fast in the past few years, but in fact, the industry cake was not so large, and also led to today's closing shop trend.

Suo Shan also pointed out that under the impact of the electricity supplier, the common problem of "1000 stores and one side" under the joint operation mode has become an important reason for the difficult operation of today's department stores.