Retail News CRM

Category: General

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest General Retail news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Hong Kong mall coated in chocolate

    Hong Kong mall coated in chocolate

    Hong Kong’s Harbour City shopping centre is hosting its sixth annual Chocolate Trail until March 1.

    For five weeks Hong Kong’s largest shopping destination has been transformed into ‘ChocoLand’, offering visitors a unique ‘Bean-To-Bar’ journey to deepen their appreciation of how premium chocolate is produced and how to ‘maximise the tasting pleasure’.

    Chocolate Trail highlights will include an immersive and educational Chocolate Factory installation, chocolate workshops and seminars, live demonstrations by local and visiting chocolate master chefs, and interactive art exhibitions — all set against a backdrop of close to 30 participating Asian and European chocolate brands.

    Harbour City is home to 17 branded chocolate stores – the largest range under one roof in the city – including  Bvlgari Il Cioccolato (Italy), Dalloyau (France), The Library Cafe – Prestat Chocolates (England), Chapon (France) and Frederic Blondeel (Belgium).

    For the promotional period, another 10 pop-up stores have opened from chocolate brands originating in France, Belgium, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Chocolate Trail will also celebrate the Hong Kong launch of The Royal Touch by Carolyn Robb (England) and zChocolat (France).

    The Chocolate Factory will take visitors of all ages on an interactive step-by-step “Bean-to-Bar” journey where they can experience the full chocolate production process – from planting a cocoa tree, fermentation and drying, to roasting, cracking, moulding and packaging. The Chocolate Factory will be in the mall, and will incorporate an interactive Chocolate Experience Gallery as well as a ChocoVan Cafe for visitors to sample a wide range of premium chocolate.

    The chocolate workshops will provide insights on subjects such as chocolate culture, awarded chocolate tasting from The International Chocolate Awards and chocolate and Chinese tea pairing recommendations. Topics include chocolate tea-pairing workshops, fine chocolate tasting, chocolate kids college and a Muji chocolate snacks cooking class.

    And the centre will host an interactive art exhibition From Cocoa to Choco – taking you through the Journey of Love by Belgian artist Ben Heine. With his original ‘Pencil vs Camera’ and ‘Flesh and Acrylic’ art forms, digital artist Heine will show a new series of artwork exclusively created  for the Chocolate Trail.

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  • India’s Snapdeal ventures into TV commerce shopping

    India’s Snapdeal ventures into TV commerce shopping

    India’s online marketplace Snapdeal.com recently launched a 50:50 joint venture with DEN networks to launch a TV Commerce channel.

    The DEN Snapdeal TV shop is urrently available for viewers on channel number 132 on DEN cable network and will be extended to other cable and DTH networks in the course of the next six months.

    The move is seen to benefit customers who have limited access to Internet services, particularly in Tier 2 and 3 cities further hampered by lack of physical access to top retail products and brands at competitive prices.

    DEN Networks Ltd. reaches about 13 million households in over 200 cities across 13 states in the country. Snapdeal.com said it will use this distribution network to provide customers easy access to products across home, lifestyle and electronics categories with great value deals.

    “India is a country with many heterogeneous segments of consumers, and we believe that by reaching 150 million households with 600 million people that have a TV, we can create another revolution through TV Commerce,” Kunal Bahl, Co-founder and CEO Snapdeal.com said.

    The pilot was launched in September in select geographies and so far the channel has posted a growth rate of 200 percent month-on-month since inception.

    Sameer Manchanda, CMD, DEN Networks, said the response to the pilot has been very encouraging and the parters are confident the DEN Snapdeal TV Shop will be received well by viewers.

    The plan is to take the DEN Snapdeal TV shop to 100 million households across India over the next 12 months.

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  • AmorePacific sold one Cushion product every 1.2 seconds in 2014, driving Asia Cushion frenzy

    AmorePacific sold one Cushion product every 1.2 seconds in 2014, driving Asia Cushion frenzy

    Craze for Cushion, which started in Korea, is now drawing worldwide attention and revolutionising the makeup routine for women around the world.
    Amore Pacific Group said on Tuesday that the global sales of Cushion products under its brands are expected to exceed 50 million units on a cumulative basis during January 2015. With the total sales of Cushion products increasing 105 percent year on year (YoY) to 26 million units, an AmorePacific Group’s Cushion was sold every 1.2 seconds in 2014. In particular, the sales of the Cushion products outside of Korea surged a whopping approximately 140 percent YoY and led a remarkable growth in the global market. The three largest markets outside of Korea comprised Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, where Cushion products have become an essential for every makeup bag.

    According to 2013 survey conducted by the Korea Tourism Organisation, more than 50 percent of the foreign visitors to Korea have purchased Korean cosmetics products, indicating that the influence of K-Beauty (Korean beauty) is ever-growing. Among the Korean cosmetics products, Cushion, which has changed the way Korean women wear makeup, is now creating a global beauty trend beyond its popularity in Korea.
    Another study conducted by the global research firm TNS Korea that interviewed 800 Korean female consumers found that 75 percent of Korean women have used or are currently using Cushion products. The respondents chose the portability and the convenience of creating the natural-looking flawless skin as their reasons for choosing Cushion.

    Moreover, the survey showed that Cushion was in fact has changed the makeup habits of Korean women by reducing the steps and time needed in creating the skin-looks they prefer. 75 percent said that since using Cushion their makeup routine was shortened, and 76 percent replied that they were now easily reapplying makeup and sunscreen with Cushions. 55 percent of women responded that their sole base makeup product was Cushion. The survey showed more than 8 out of 10 most-favoured Cushion brands were from the category creator AmorePacific Group, including IOPE and LANEIGE.

    Cushion refers to a makeup compact built with a specially-designed urethane foam that safely contains and preserves makeup liquid comprised of foundation, sunscreen and skincare formula. Already popular as the “must-have” item in Korea for easy, flawless skin makeup, Cushion has more recently gained keen attentions in the global cosmetics market.

    Amore Pacific Group began its research and development for Cushion in January 2007 and introduced the “IOPE AIR CUSHION” in March 2008. The sales of IOPE AIR CUSHION totalled 3.8 billion KRW in the first year launched and surpassed 200 billion KRW in 2014, which made it one of the best-selling items in the Korean cosmetics market.

    And with the industry-leading technology, AmorePacific has launched numerous Cushion products with different functional benefits through its brands, such as the LANEIGE BB Cushion, Sulwhasoo Evenfair Perfecting Cushion, Innisfree Mineral Melting BB Cushion and ETUDE HOUSE Precious Mineral Any Cushion.

    The LANEIGE BB Cushion series in particular was re-tailored for each global market to meet local skin conditions. As a result of localised marketing strategy, about 1.17 million units of LANEIGE BB Cushion were sold in China in 2014. As of January 2015, AmorePacific Group offers a total of 19 Cushion products from its 13 brands in more than ten countries in the Asian and North American regions, leading the “globalisation” of the Korean-born Cushion.
    “Cushion, created from AmorePacific Group’s innovative technology, is a revolutionary product that is changing the makeup routines of women across the world and is going to be at the centre of global beauty trend in 2015,” said Suh Kyung-Bae, Chairman & CEO of AMOREPACIFIC Group. “AMOREPACIFIC Group will continue to pioneer and lead the global Cushion market with the company’s unparalleled technology and superior products.” he added.

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  • Tesco launches new online supplier community

    Tesco launches new online supplier community

    Tesco recently launched a new interactive platform that is expected to collaboration, innovation and sustainability across its suppliers worldwide.

    The Tesco Supplier Network would benefit over 5,000 members as they would be able to connect directly with Tesco teams, learn more about Tesco and learn from each other on issues such as energy, food waste or innovation.

    “This new community of Tesco teams, suppliers and producers from around the world gives us the opportunity to improve communication, share ideas and continually improve the products that our customers enjoy,” said Jason Tarry, Head of Commercial at Tesco.

    The Tesco funded site brings together two pre-existing communities; the Tesco Producer Network, which served fresh food producers, and the Tesco Knowledge Hub, which was open to branded manufacturing and processing suppliers.

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  • Pure Gold for Changi

    Pure Gold for Changi

    Pure Gold has become the first Middle Eastern jeweller to be granted a concession at Singapore’s Changi International Airport.

    It will open a jewellery store in Terminal 1.

    Pure Gold is a private family-owned business founded 20 years ago which now has 125 stores in the Middle East and Asia. It plans to open a further 200 by 2018, selling products sourced from its factories in China and India.

    Chairman and founder Firoz Merchant said Changi airport is one of the busiest and best performing airports in Asia and being awarded a concession to open in the airport terminal is a big boost to Pure Gold’s travel retail business.

    “This achievement is in line with our plans to become the largest travel retailer in jewellery globally. Passengers passing through Singapore Changi International Airport can now choose from our extensive range of gold, diamond, pearls, precious and semi-precious gemstone jewellery in the latest styles and best prices.”

    Pure Gold already has a strong duty free business in the Middle East, operating at all terminals in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi international airports, and within the duty free retail facilities in Jordan, Kuwait, Muscat, Dubai and Sri Lanka.

    CEO and MD Karim Merchant added in a statement: “Travel Retail is a key area of business for us and is becoming an increasingly important sector of our overall operations. Winning the concession at Changi Airport, which has an average number of 50 million passengers per year, will help us to further strengthen our business.”

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  • Retail ad only works when it rains

    Retail ad only works when it rains

    A unique retail advertising concept trialled in Hong Kong has grabbed attention for both its innovation and its relevance.

    Get caught in a rain shower when walking on the streets of Hong Kong and glance down you might just see one of the most unique advertising campaigns yet devised – an advertisement encouraging you to book a flight with Cebu Pacific Airlines to sun-soaked, rain-free Philippines…

    When monsoon season hits Hong Kong, rain showers are frequent – and frustrating. So what better than to tempt wet pedestrians to take a holiday in a tropical destination in the Philippines?

    Created by ad agency Ogilvy Asia, the campaign used a water-repellent spray stencilled onto the sidewalks in busy locations, according to a report by trend monitoring website Springwise.com. When the weather was dry, the ads weren’t visible. But when the rain fell, the message appeared as if by magic, spelling out the tagline ‘It’s Sunny in the Philippines’.

    The ad incorporated a QR code that offered more information and offered discounts on flights to the Philippines when scanned with a smartphone (providing you could use your smartphone without it getting wet!). According to the creators, the Cebu Pacific site saw a 37 per cent increase in bookings as a result of the campaign.

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  • HK retail sales up 0.2pc in first 11 months last year; 2015 to be challenging for retailers

    HK retail sales up 0.2pc in first 11 months last year; 2015 to be challenging for retailers

    “The overall sentiment in the retail market has improved after the political protests, and retail sales have seen a mild increase in the last quarter. However, retailers need to be cautious of the gradual decrease in luxury consumption from mainland Chinese shoppers. This, coupled with expensive rents in first tier streets, may result in overall prime street shop rents falling up to 5 percent with premises in the second tier locations likely to experience a more significant decline,” said Joe Lin, Executive Director, Retail Services, CBRE Hong Kong.

    The “Occupy Central” protests have had no material impact on tourist arrival growth and overall retail leasing demand in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the report. Retailers were initially cautious when the protests began to develop but confident was soon restored in the second half of the quarter as the protests in the core retail areas of the city prompted many shoppers to visit non-core retail districts where traffic and pedestrian flow was less affected.

    “Mainland Chinese tourists’ increasing preference for mid-range products instead of luxury goods also helped to route some shopper flow to non-core retail areas, a trend which mitigated the impact of the protests on overall retail sales during the quarter,” noted the report.

    Overall Hong Kong retail sales recorded mild growth of 2.8 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) in October and November combined – mainly driven by consumer durable goods – bringing growth for the first 11 months of 2014 to 0.2 percent. The sales of consumer durable goods grew 19.5 percent y-o-y in October and November combined, boosted by the strong sales of new smartphones released during the period.

    Watch and jewellery retailers continued to lead demand for the first tier street shops in core locations although sales dropped 6.7 percent y-o-y in October and November combined.

    “Weaker retail sales growth, greater economic and political uncertainty and the increased availability of space in fringe areas all combined to exert pressure on retail rents. Overall rents for prime streets shops remained largely stable during the fourth quarter with a slight drop of 0.2 percent q-o-q, with the exception of Central witnessing a modest fall of rents by 0.8 percent q-o-q due to softer demand from luxury brands,” says the report.

    The increasing trend for Chinese tourists to shop for luxury goods in other markets will continue to prevent high-margin luxury brands from expanding aggressively in Hong Kong. CBRE predicts that the leasing market will be driven by mid-tier brands which appeal to both locals and tourists.

  • Good, bad, unattractive: retail’s patchy start in Australia

    Good, bad, unattractive: retail’s patchy start in Australia

    A slow but solid festive season for discretionary retailers in Australia has been followed by a spate of downgrades, making sentiment buoyant but patchy.

    Analysts say the key festive season was a good one, albeit at the price of margins. Discounting has been estimated to have added AUD800 million (USD656.9m) to sales, and Citi analyst Craig Woolford has argued cheap-as-chips petrol and big spending on food suggests Australians have the ability to spend when they have the yen.

    Last week, Harvey Norman chairman Gerry Harvey explained a jump in the furniture and homewares company’s share price by reporting a “big surge in sales” during the Christmas and New Year period.

  • Could HK lose its status as a luxury shopping destination to South Korea?

    Could HK lose its status as a luxury shopping destination to South Korea?

    The popularity of South Korean pop culture and products in China shows no signs of abating, as South Korea has seen more Chinese shoppers than ever, but it could come at a cost to Hong Kong. Erwan Rambourg, a consumer goods analyst for HSBC and the author of “The Bling Dynasty,” has seen the surge  in shoppers first hand. He estimated that Chinese shoppers accounted for around 70 percent of South Korea’s duty free sales and accounted for about one third of all luxury purchases in the country, reports The Wall Street Journal.

  • Thai government looks to expand duty-free services

    Thai government looks to expand duty-free services

    The government is exploring ways to allow more companies, including South Korea-based Lotte Group, to operate duty-free services at airports and downtown areas.

    Currently, King Power, the country’s largest duty-free company, is the sole concessionaire operating duty-free shops at Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang and Phuket airports overseen by the Airports of Thailand (AoT).

    Transport Minister ACM Prajin Juntong has revealed that Lotte Group’s executives met him last week. The South Korean operator inquired about the possibility of it stepping in as a new player in Thailand’s duty-free market.

    However, King Power currently holds the concession as the sole operator of duty-free shops at Suvarnabhumi until 2019 and at Don Mueang until 2022. Therefore, it is impossible for the government to allow new duty-free shop operators at the airports.

    Once a new terminal is built as part of Suvarnabhumi’s second phase of development, there is likely to be more than one duty-free shop operator, but until then, King Power holds the concession, said the minister.

  • External investors to finance Wanda Plazas

    External investors to finance Wanda Plazas

    China’s Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co said on Wednesday four investors have agreed to contribute CNY24 billion yuan (USD3.9 billion) over the coming two years as the first tranche of funding to build around 20 shopping malls.

  • Former Gucci Group boss joins North Sails

    Former Gucci Group boss joins North Sails

    International sailmaker and sportswear brand North Sails has appointed former Gucci Group president and chief executive officer Robert Polet as a partner of its apparel division, effective immediately.

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  • Australian retail sales miss expectations in November

    Australian retail sales miss expectations in November

    Soggy November sales figures have increased the scrutiny on Christmas trade for Australia’s struggling retail sector as lagging consumer confidence weighs on spending. Official retail sales released on Friday for November came in softer than expected, inching up just 0.1 per cent over the month, but retailers hope that Christmas and Boxing Day sales will have boosted December numbers.

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  • Fast Retailing Japan reports double-digit growth

    Fast Retailing Japan reports double-digit growth

    In the first fiscal quarter ended 30 November,, the Japanese clothing giant Fast Retailing has totaled revenues of JPY479.5 billion yen (USD4 billion) , an increase of 23  percent over the same period before . For the full year , the management estimates that sales will reach the level of JPY1.6 trillion yen (USD13.5 billion) , an increase of 15.7 percent. In quarter operating profits of the Japanese group were up 39.9 percent to JPY91.3 billion (USD770.7 million) and earnings reached JPY68.8 billion (USD580.8 million) ( + 63.9  percent) .

  • Tesco’s opening salvo in 2015: Price cuts

    Tesco’s opening salvo in 2015: Price cuts

    UK supermarket giant Tesco PLC has announced “difficult changes” to its business at the start of the year, including the closure of 43 stores, lower prices on the country’s favourite brands, flat investment in payroll, and significant revision to its store building program and reduced capital expenditure budget.

    “I am very conscious that the consequences of these changes are significant for all stakeholders in our business but we are facing the reality of the situation. Our recent performance gives us confidence that when we pull together and put the customer first we can deliver the right results,” said Tesco Chief Dave Lewis.

    This came at the heels of group sales for the 19 weeks to 3 January 2015 declining by 0.6 percent at constant rates, including fuel and by 1.9 percent, including fuel.

    In Asia, total sales for the 19 week period declined by 1.5 percent at constant rates, with like-for-like sales declining by 4.6 percent.

    It said market conditions across the region remain challenging. In Thailand, sales trends improved over the period as we annualized the impact of the external pressures linked to political disruption last year. In Korea, a higher number of enforced Sunday closures under the DIDA opening regulations affected the performance of all large retailers.

    Speaking to Jody Hodges, Group Project Planning Director at Tesco, in a video interview, Lewis said there are three priorities now: recovering the competitiveness in the core UK business, protecting and strengthening the balance sheet, rebuilding the trust and the transparency in the brand and the business.

    On 8 January, Tesco cut prices on hundreds of branded products in response to demands from customers for simpler, lower and more stable prices.

    “We know that brands are important to our customers: they’re the products families don’t want to do without. So from today, customers will be able to buy many of their favourite products cheaper at Tesco – from Tetley Tea to Colgate Triple Action Toothpaste, Hovis White Bread to Kellogg’s Cornflakes,” said Tesco’s Chief Customer Officer, Jill Easterbrook in a statement.

    She added that overall, the company is cutting the prices of around 380 branded products by an average of 25 percent.

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