In 2015, Where Did The Foreign Department Stores Go?

In March 2, 2015, Martha Department announced that it would close its 5 stores in China from March 9th to August, namely, Wanda shop, Jiangqiao, Shanghai, Changzhou new North Wanda shop, wyue Plaza store, Wenzhou Longwan Wanda shop and Wuxi Jiangyin Wanda shop.

Martha stores only entered 15 stores in China in the past 7 years. When the high-profile entry into China in 2008, it seemed that the "50 stores" seemed to be out of date. Now it has to turn off 1/3's shop in half a year, which is not good news for the biggest British clothing retailer.

Martha department store was founded in 1884. It was originally a small stall selling a penny commodity by Michael Marks in Liz, England. After joining Tom Spencer (Tom Spencer), the famous Marks & Spencer company was born in Marks.

In the same year when Martha stores entered the Chinese mainland market, it officially withdrew from the Chinese market in Taiwan. At that time, only 3 and a half years on the island had lasted for a year and a half, adhering to the idea of "pain is not as good as short pain".

While Martha store has a little "warm boiled frog" in the Chinese mainland market, the first shop that entered the Chinese mainland market in October 2008 chose Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, which coincided with the first decline in the sales volume of Shanghai department stores in the past 10 years.

Martha's position in the Chinese market is "a quality British lifestyle retailer", but its

Being regarded as "the British mother's fan" by the Chinese people, the food is neither cheap nor of short shelf life. In addition, the rise of the electricity providers in recent years and the increasing number of Chinese people choosing foreign brands, Martha's superiority in the UK is like an angry lady in the Chinese mainland.

Even in the United Kingdom, the performance of this Centennial aristocracy is hardly optimistic. In the third quarter of 2014, sales of women's clothing decreased by 5.4% compared with that of year-on-year sales, while sales in the UK dropped by 1.1%, while international sales decreased by 5.8% in the 2.8% main business sectors.

This is Martha's department store's 14 consecutive quarterly decline.

As for China's performance, Martha general store replied: "we do not divide sales in the international market or in China.

According to the first half year report of 2014/15, our overall sales in Asia increased by 6.3% at fixed exchange rates.

The report released in January showed that international sales fell by 5.8% in the third quarter, thanks to the deteriorating exchange rate and macroeconomic problems in the Middle East and Russia.

The sale of Western department stores in China is facing bottlenecks.

The opportunity to enter Shanghai also existed in the high island house opened in Shanghai in December 2012.

The Centennial enterprise founded in 1829 is Japan's second largest department store after next.

3 years ago, when the High Island House entered the Chinese market, Japan opened its free trade to Shanghai in 2009. Shanghai people who went shopping in Japan were not in the minority. With the power of Shanghai Amoy, the popularity of tau Island house has not been high.

In addition, unlike the location of the subway in the downtown area of Martha department store, the high island house has a long distance from the subway station. Although the new Hongqiao environment is good, the small environment in the business district is underestimated.

At the beginning of the operation, Shanghai's High Island house had set sales of 13 billion yen, but only a year later, it was only half of the plan.

In the first half of 2014, there was a lot of news about the withdrawal of brands from Shanghai's High Island Department store. The official explanation of the high island house was that the lease expired, while the brand side admitted that the performance was poor.

Even if we enter the Chinese market at the right time, foreign department stores may be defeated in the increasingly fierce competition.

Take China's first joint venture chain business - Hua Tang Yang Hua Tang as an example. In 1920, Ito Yang Hua Tang, founded in Japan, accounted for 3/4 of the shares. Since its entry into the Chinese market in 1997, it has always been famous for its cheap and fine quality.

But last year, it had to close 4 stores in Beijing, because Beijing consumers complained of "no Wi-Fi, parking lots congestion, organic food and too little imported food" in the mall.

At this time, Chinese consumers are different from 18 years ago. They have requirements from "price theory" to quality, environment and service.

Closed foreign stores may also encounter second "Waterloo".

In 1997, Lafayette opened a shop near a street in Wangfujing, Paris. The Chinese branch of the French high-end department store, which opened in 1893, maintained its losses for only one year because of its losses.

In the 10 month of 2013, old Buddha came back again. This time he was co operating with Hongkong I.T group, locating in Xidan, Beijing, but it lost about HK $20 million a year.

It is reported that Beijing Xidan old Buddha's position "

"But" buy out ", the brand of 3/5 in the shop is bought by the buyer team from the whole world, of which more than 200 brands are introduced into China for the first time.

This model has been very successful in developed countries in Europe and the United States, but consumers in mainland China like to buy brand names with popularity. Buyers of small stores are not well-known enough, and their sales are not satisfactory.

How long can this old Buddha stay?

Malaysia's Baisheng and Thailand's Shang Tai are also popular in China.

Among them, Parkson, with its capital background in Malaysia, has closed at least 7 stores, 4 of which closed in 2014 and 1 closed in 2015.

Therefore, Parkson also delivered the worst report card in 20 years in China: net profit plunged 58.4% to 354 million yuan.

Thailand's Shang Tai Department ended its operations in 2 Chinese stores last year.

RET director

It is pointed out that China's domestic department stores mainly rely on joint ventures, while foreign capital stores are more accustomed to adopting proprietary mode.

Under the impact of the electricity supplier, the abundance of goods no longer has the advantage. Under the fast fashion competition dominated by fast economy and fast culture, if we can not adjust in time, that will affect the overall operation of the brand.

Unfortunately, most foreign department stores make decisions overseas, and the adjustment of their business strategy is hard to cope with the timely adjustment of the regional market, which also makes them face important challenges in a more sensitive and changeable era.