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China. The potential of constrained travellers who spend
“In our Chinese stores, our new customers are much younger” said Jérome Bachasson, C.E.O. of German brand Hugo Boss in mainland China. For the men at the head of 150 stores in...
15 June 2020
Contactless services and customer value. Lessons from a Chinese boss
In China, Intime Retail (65 department stores and shopping centres plus the Miaojie e-commerce app.) has already reported activity back to 2019 levels. The Covid-19 crisis has allowed considerable...
15 June 2020
Alibaba’s income jumps in the 1st quarter of 2020
In the quarter ending in March 2020, Alibaba’s sales grew by 22% to 114.31 billion yuan (US$16 billion). These figures are driven by very dynamic categories (food and fresh produce), the...
15 June 2020
Underwear. The Indian demand is oriented towards comfort
During the lockdown, Indian women have switched to more comfortable lingerie products. Underwired push-ups, “balconettes” and lace varieties have given way to underwire-free bras...
15 June 2020
India. Bata bets with WhatsApp
The Czech shoe retailer Bata reopened 53% of Indian stores in a total of 1,400 units. The firm is now winning business via WhatsApp and focusing on online sales channels. “Our desire to...
15 June 2020
Sephora is engaged against racism
Sephora responded to a plea from Aurora James, founder of the Brother Vellies line of accessories, to encourage retailers to devote 15% of their sales space to black-majority businesses. As...
15 June 2020
China. Beauty is back online
Despite the coronavirus crisis, which caused cosmetics sales to fall by 80% in February 2020, international retailers are betting on the Chinese online beauty market. On Alibaba‘s...
15 June 2020
Wall Street is tightening its access to Chinese companies
After the Luckin Coffee scandal (removed from the Nasdaq after reporting more than US$310 million in false sales) and in a climate of tension between Washington and Beijing, the Senate voted...
15 June 2020
Commercial real estate. Arm wrestling over the notion of force majeure
In the U.S.A., the time is not suitable for major acquisitions. The No. 1 shopping centre operator Simon Property cancelled an acquisition of Taubman Centers (26 centres in the U.S. and Asia) for...
15 June 2020
Department stores. Rinascente goes into e-commerce
As part of the Thai Central Group, the Italian Rinascente ‘store’ is a 10th unit, but actually a website exclusively devoted to e-commerce. At the launch scheduled for mid-June in...
15 June 2020
Ikea innovates in Japan
The Swedish kit furniture giant is opening its first city centre format dedicated to urban spaces in Tokyo, Japan, where it operates a total of 11 points of sale. Located near a Uniqlo store, Ikea...
15 June 2020
Primark in discussion with landlords
Closed since March 23rd, the fast fashion retailer Primark will reopen all 189 stores in the U.K. on June 15th. The giant retailer pays around €147 million in rent per year and has lost...
15 June 2020
Harrods temporarily expands into outlet
British department store Harrods (turnover of €987.6 million for the financial year ending February 2019, up by 1%), a subsidiary of Qatar Holding LLC, announces a new temporary outlet store...
15 June 2020
To maintain customer relationships, John Lewis boosts online appointments
Since mid-April 2020, the British retailer John Lewis (turnover of €13.8 billion in 2019, -1,5%) has been transposing store services to the web. Karen Reeves, Product Services Manager at John...
15 June 2020
Furniture. What post-crisis model?
From Europe to the U.S.A., exciting lessons are being learned for home-decoration retailers. According to Neela Montgomery, C.E.O. of Crate & Barrel, “We are starting to see the...
15 June 2020
E-commerce, China, 3D designs. Which business levers work for fashion?
Faced with the Covid-19 crisis, e-commerce has proved to be a real lifeline for some fashion retailers. However, digital services are not comprehensive across the sector. According to Bain &...
15 June 2020
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