Reasons For Martha'S Losing Market In Mainland China

"

On the eve of the British "time-honored brand"

After announcing its Greater China strategic assessment, after conducting a comprehensive assessment of all 466 international shops, the results show that Martha, in Hongkong, China, has a comprehensive look at the Greater China business.

Profits were realized, but 10 shops in the mainland of China continued to suffer losses.

Therefore, Martha plans to close all 10 shops in the mainland of China and consult with the relevant staff.

While the Group continues to evaluate the best way to maintain the mainland's online business, mainland customers can continue to buy Marsha's products through two main online platforms, Tmall and Jingdong.

"There has been a continuous loss in our shops in the mainland of China, which makes it impossible for us to continue to maintain local businesses.

We are well aware that these plans will have an impact on local staff, so we will keep in touch with them throughout the whole process and listen carefully to their views.

Martha, managing director of Greater China, said AdamColton.

Why did the world famous Marsha general store lose the Chinese market?

After many surveys and interviews, the reporter learned that from the beginning, there was a congenital deficiency in Marsha's Department of the Chinese mainland market. No matter location, location or backstage goods supply, there seemed to be some problems. The biggest pain was that the private brand goods as the core competitiveness of Martha's department could not play a role in the Chinese mainland market.

Pain of site selection

Public information shows that Martha's department store was born in Britain in 1884 and has been in existence for over 130 years.

In 2008, Marsha general store officially entered the Chinese mainland market. The first store opened in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai.

At the height of the peak, the number of stores in the mainland of China reached 20.

However, it is not too early to enter the mainland market in 2008.

Many foreign retail brands have entered the Chinese mainland market in the 90s of last century. After many years of development, whether they are super stores or department stores, they have occupied the location of the second tier cities.

Reporters learned that in the past, Marsha general store took the store in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai as a flagship store, which is of great significance to the strategy of mainland China market in Martha's department store. There is also a flagship store in GAP and a large shop in UNIQLO. Such a series of big brand stores are concentrated. In fact, the biggest significance of Martha's department store lies in the marketing brand -- buying an advertising position, while Nanjing West Road's rent is very high, so it is not easy for the store to break even.

"Nanjing West Road shops, along the street, a few years ago, more than 30 yuan per square meter per day, and later signed a price increase. Under such circumstances, many passenger prices are not high enough, and profitable general stores in Nanjing West Road or similar prosperous business circle are actually losing money. This is also one of the reasons why Shanghai's Huaihailu Road business circle had a large number of shops.

It is impossible for all stores to choose such a prime location.

However, some of the better locations have been occupied. If the low price business circle is short of passenger flow, the location of Martha shop is a difficult problem.

RET Durbin, director of Business Services Department, said.

A careful study of the development of Martha's market in the mainland of China has resulted in the expansion of many locations in the remote areas of the first tier cities or the sinking of the two or three tier cities.

The industry believes that this may also be Martha's retreat in the mainland market as far as possible to expand the territory.

Unfortunately, the lack of geographical location is bound to bring Marsha's management difficulties. Even the flagship store in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, has not been able to achieve its expectations for a long time.

Marsha has said that 5 stores will be closed by August 2015, including Wanda shop in Jiangqiao, Shanghai, Wanda store in Changzhou and Changzhou Yuyue Plaza.

Awkward position and supply

"Marsha should be a clothing store." "isn't Marsha selling clothes?"

In a simple survey of some customers, the reporter found that the highest frequency is the above answer.

"Martha is a department store, that is to say, Martha is not a single seller in the UK. Martha has a lot of advantages in food. Many customers in mainland China do not understand Martha at all.

Of course, this is because Marsha general store entered the Chinese mainland market from the very beginning to store a large area of the store as a clothing area, making many people mistakenly think that Marsha and UNIQLO, GAP are also selling clothes.

Shen Jun, a senior retailer, pointed out.

Reporters once saw in the UK that the shops of Marsha are very wide, and there are many stores in MATHA stores that have the main food in many pportation hubs. There are a lot of goods in the shop, and many buyers.

{page_break}

In the interview, the reporter was informed that because of the relative complexity of the inspection and Quarantine of food, there are still some commodities that need to be operated through parallel trade, which makes it difficult for Martha's major food products to enter the stores in the mainland in large quantities, so the dress becomes the main category.

However, this subversion of the original core commodity structure of Martha's department and its market positioning is very unclear. Many consumers in mainland China did not know the real position of Martha from beginning to end.

In addition to embarrassing positioning, there is another embarrassing thing for Martha: the supply of goods is unacceptable.

Shortly after Marsha's entry into the mainland market, customers were pointed out that the size and style of the products did not meet the needs of consumers.

Because the layout of Europe is mostly large, and some low - cut and dress styles are not very suitable for mainland Chinese consumers.

In Europe and the United States, people like to party or attend some activities, buy some small dresses and formal clothes are common. Journalists have seen many formal dress stores and regular counters in many European and American local department stores, which are moderately priced and sell well.

In addition, at one time, the fashion style that Martha introduced into the mainland market is not a global new product, which makes its sales not ideal.

After that, marks and Spencer improved, and the goods were kept in pace with the world and improved in size.

But the basic style of Marsha's department is difficult to completely change, because its mode is that there are R & D design centers around the world, and the design of clothing packages is made to the global factories. It is more difficult to change the global design for a certain market.

Private brand advantage is difficult to embody.

On the official website of Marsha general store, you can see such a slogan: "Marsha sells 1 million 600 thousand ladies' skirts every year and sells 4 million 900 thousand pairs of women's shoes every year.

1/3 British women have Marsha bra.

Since 2002, the eggs used in Marsha foods have come from wild chickens.

Sell 50 million pairs of underwear every year, averaging 2 points per second.

1/5 British men have Marsha's underwear.

The limited edition of Rossi underwear and pajamas, designed in collaboration with international model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, is the fastest selling underwear series for Martha.

In the first year of selling, they sold 430 thousand pieces.

This description shows that the core competitiveness of Martha lies in its own brand goods.

Unfortunately, private brands do not have a strong advantage in the Chinese mainland market.

"High quality private label products are popular in the US and Europe. Not only are Marsha and Messi stores selling well, but most consumers in Europe and the United States do not fully see popular brands or first-line brands. Some private brand goods sell well as long as they are well prepared.

But comparatively speaking, the consumers in the mainland of China are not mature enough. They generally believe that buying a product is more popular.

For example, when buying a paper towel from a supermarket, people will tend to buy Qingfeng, Hygienix and so on instead of Tesco's own brand goods. If they buy toiletries, they will buy large brands such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever, and they will not buy their own supermarket brands.

Similarly, many of the brand clothing or food in Marsha's department stores are far less well-known than those of the popular brands in the mainland market. Due to the purchasing habits of mainland Chinese consumers, their own brand goods are difficult to play an advantage.

Shen Jun revealed.

In fact, Messi's department stores have encountered similar problems.

Reporters learned that Messi's department store had long coveted the Chinese mainland market. However, after its research, it found that its own brand goods are very low in the mainland market. I'm afraid many consumers may not pay the bills, which slowed down the pace of entering the Chinese mainland market for a while.

Many foreign brand retailers are generally less than 10% of their own brand goods in the Chinese mainland market, or less than 5%. This ratio is very low, which means that it is difficult to bring their own brand advantages into play.

In some stores of Marsha's department store, our reporter saw that many high-quality imported foods were rarely bought - many brands were too strange for Chinese consumers and the prices were not cheap.

From the point of view of passenger flow, even at weekends, there are few guests in the Marsha department store and fewer customers.

"Location difficulties, positioning and supply also exist problems, the core of its own brand merchandise value is difficult to highlight.

Despite the efforts made by Marsha, and the introduction of fair trade goods to the Chinese mainland market, it is a very careful operation. Unfortunately, this does not change the overall performance of Martha's market in the mainland of China.

Durbin admits that Martha's failure to take the Chinese mainland market seems unexpected, but in reality it is reasonable.