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  • Gome plans 100,000 ‘micro stores’

    Gome plans 100,000 ‘micro stores’

    Chinese electrical retailing giant Gome plans to open 100,000 ‘micro stores’ in 2015 in a move it says will help it build a retail community of more than 100 million customers.

    The bold vision is part of a new strategic multi channel plan Gome is embarking on this year to bridge the gap between online and offline sales and embrace fast growing channels like mobile shopping.

    “With the onset of the mobile Internet era, the development of consumer behavior is trending towards a focus on the individual, with fragmented consumption time, diversified shopping setting, and less distinction between channels,” the company said in an explanation of its strategy.

    “With the change in consumption behavior and demand, Gome is destined to upgrade the “omni-channel experience” in both online and offline to “total retail experience” emerging from the integrated online and offline channels, allowing consumers to move freely between online, offline, mobile terminals and joint- operating channels. The group will focus on the development of Mobile Micro Shops on the front-end interface platform, connecting online and offline. Meanwhile, the group will enhance the value of the supply chain with a focus on the back-end big data infrastructure to build a total retail community with more than 100 million customers.”

    By having so many effective points of sale spread across China, all linked online and all supported by a boosted supply chain system to ensure rapid supply of goods, Gome believes it can increase its share of the appliance and electronics market and engage with more customers.

    “Through Gome’s total retail shopping process, consumers from different entrances will enjoy more product choices than ever, diversified services including shopping assistance, queries, payment, installation, after-sales, reviews and feedback, etc. Meanwhile, the group will also conduct targeted marketing and promote repeat purchases by transferring real-time customer behavior data to the front-end in a timely manner using the big data terminal.”

    Gome says loyal fans of the brand are the consumers with the most potential. The company will leverage social media like WeChat and Weibo, to “share products, achieving cross-category, cross-brand and round-the-clock sales,” creating what it promises will be “a superb consumer experience” tailored to each individual.

    Along with the 100,000 mobile micro shops, Gome plans to double its social media ‘fan base’ by 2017.

    In-store, the changes are just as dramatic. Gome says by expediting the digitisation of its physical stores; increasing product variety, introducing a sophisticated product experience and new technology, the group will allow consumers to make purchases while shopping “and playing”.

    The company will also expand its physical store network into second tier markets, targeting 100 new cities over the next three years with full size stores as well as its micro store network, and it will boost the resources of its eCommerce portal Gome Online to boost reach and sales.

    By collecting data from all transactions and analysing it in the clouds, the company expects to be able to conduct increasingly targeted marketing.

    “Furthermore, the group will leverage the data to boost collaboration between value platforms including procurement, logistics, after-sales, financial services and information.”

    All this will be backed up by a sophisticated logistics network.

    “Gome is committed to building China’s biggest socialised logistics network platform for home appliances. With its strong infrastructure and supporting resources and 1688 chain stores nationwide (including the stores under the non-listed Gome group), Gome will continue to establish the highest service standard of “three deliveries/day, precise delivery, installation on delivery”.”

    After-sales service will also receive a boost: Gome is already China’s largest air-conditioner and television installation service provider. By offering the whole after-sales service process within the product validity period including installation, extended warranty, maintenance and home appliances recycling, and the promise of “Deal with the problem within 24-hours”, Gome aims to become China’s largest platform for home appliances after-sales services by 2017.

    Gome CEO Wang Junzhou said In 2015 the company will strive to build a “Gome ecosystem” covering consumer groups of all ages, channels and markets.

    “This will support the group build China’s best total retail platform and achieve the target of “building another Gome” by 2017, thus creating greater value for shareholders, suppliers and consumers.”

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  • Paytm looks to double headcount in FY16

    Paytm looks to double headcount in FY16

    With most players in the sector looking to aggressively ramp up their teams, Indian mobile commerce platform Paytm plans to double its employee base in FY16 from around 3,000 currently. The company has added around 1,500 persons to its total headcount in FY15.

    “A large part of the hiring will be in operations and sales. We will also hire for technology roles,” Amit Sinha, vice president-business and people at Paytm told Business Standard. “We have given over 100 offers to students at top management and engineering colleges. We are still visiting campuses and that number will go up further.”

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  • Flipkart may be readying itself for Nasdaq listing

    Flipkart may be readying itself for Nasdaq listing

    E-commerce major Flipkart is believed to be working on an international listing, with Nasdaq in the US emerging as the preferred destination. Experts say before an initial public offering (IPO), expected in 12 to 18 months, the Bengaluru-based company must strengthen its financials and organisational structure.

    “The choice of stock exchange will be a challenge, as listing in India is fairly impossible because of issues such as profits and the traditional definition of promoter, etc,” said Harish H V, partner at Grant Thornton. He added Nasdaq seemed the best choice, considering it was known for listing technology companies and the fact that it was much easier to list there. Flipkart might consider Singapore, too, as listing norms in that country aren’t as strict as in many others, it is learnt.

    Consultants said if an IPO was launched in the next six to eight quarters, Indian stock exchanges wouldn’t be considered, considering the requirements related to a company’s profits. For public issues of companies without a three-year ‘profitability’ record, the Securities and Exchange Board of India had, in 2012, reduced the retail investor quota from 35 percent to 10 percent of the issue size. The move, aimed at protecting retail investors (those investing up to INR2 lakh) from IPOs of loss-making companies, limited the participation of small investors in successful IPOs such as those of Just Dial and Snowman Logistics.

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  • Kemenys sales and profits down in tough liquor market

    Kemenys sales and profits down in tough liquor market

    One of Australia’s largest independent liquor retailers, Kemenys, has suffered a drop in sales and profits in its latest financial year and faces an even tougher time this year as it tries to counter the full impact of a Dan Murphy’s superstore owned by Woolworths that opened nearby in a prime eastern Sydney site in mid-2014.

    Kemenys, which runs a large retail store in the beachside Sydney suburb of Bondi and has more than 100,000 mail-order and online customers it services from a separate warehouse, is owned by the Kemeny family. The business has been operating since 1960.

    It has remained independent in a fiercely competitive liquor retailing market where Woolworths and Coles have been increasingly dominant, even though there was a formal process in 2005 when investment bank Grant Samuel tested the appetite of potential buyers of the business.

  • Facebook buys shopping search engine TheFind

    Facebook buys shopping search engine TheFind

    Facebook yesterday waded further into e-commerce with the acquisition of shopping search engine TheFind.com.

    “For the last nine years we’ve worked hard to bring you a shopping experience that’s easy, efficient and fun – searching all the stores on the web to find just the right products you’re looking to buy,” TheFind said in a message at its website.

    “We are now starting our next chapter by combining forces with Facebook to do even more for consumers.”

    Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

    Members of TheFind team are joining Facebook, where they plan to put their technology to work making ads at the leading social network “more relevant,” according to the post.

    The acquisition will result in TheFind.com shutting down in the next few weeks.

    Facebook has been playing catch-up regarding searching for information at the social network and becoming a middleman of sorts for online commerce.

    “Together, we believe we can make the Facebook ads experience even more relevant and better for consumers,” the social network said in statement.

    TheFind – “Everything you need when shopping to quickly decide what to buy and where to buy it” – will shutter the Silicon Valley base it has operated from since launching in 2006 and move team members to Facebook’s campus in Menlo Park, California.

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  • FamilyMart in talks to buy Cocostore

    FamilyMart in talks to buy Cocostore

    FamilyMart Co. is in talks to buy Cocostore Corp., which operates convenience stores in central and western Japan, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

    FamilyMart, Japan’s third largest convenience store chain, recently announced it is negotiating with the smaller rival operating Circle K Sunkus stores, Uny Group Holdings Co., in an attempt to obtain the number two position behind industry leader Seven-Eleven Japan Co.

    If the integration is realized, FamilyMart’s acquisition of Cocostore will add momentum to moves toward the reorganization of the domestic convenience store industry.

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  • Xiaomi to open new store in Taiwan this year

    Xiaomi to open new store in Taiwan this year

    Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc. said that it will open a facility in Taiwan in the next few months to showcase its products and provide better after-care service. Xiaomi, whose low-cost, feature-rich phones are sold largely online, previously planned to set up a store in Taiwan by the end of 2014, but the timetable was postponed because the company needed more time to find an appropriate location, said Bin Lin, Xiaomi’s co-founder and president.

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  • Surprise buyer for BHS

    Surprise buyer for BHS

    Arcadia Group founder and controlling shareholder Sir Philip Green has sold department store chain BHS to a little known investment house, Retail Acquisitions Ltd.

    The BBC has reported the asking price for BHS was as low as £1 and the business was sold debt free.

    The sale frees Arcadia from a drag on the earnings of its other, far more successful, retail brands including Topshop and Miss Selfridge.

    News that Retail Acquisitions was the successful bidder follows intense speculation for several months, the most recent just last week. As Inside Retail Asia reported on March 9, a new bid was being prepared by Tony Brown, a former retail director at BHS, working with a private equity fund Alteri Investors, in turn backed by Wall Street fund Apollo. That, like earlier talks with South Africa’s Pepkor Group, ultimately failed.

    Retail Acquisitions, described as an “obscure” business by the BBC’s business editor, counts among its directors a former Formula 3000 racing driver and entrepreneur Dominic Chappell, former director of City finance house Nabarro Wells, Keith Smith, lawyer Edward Parladorio and Lennart Henningson, a former senior advisor for HSN Nord Bank.

    BHS was founded in 1928 and now has 180 stores and about 12,000 staff. Arcadia Group said BHS’ cash losses rose from £19 million to £21 million in the year to August 30.

    In a statement, Sir Philip said he was pleased to have found a buyer in Retail Acquisitions Ltd which wants to develop the BHS brand.

    “Having acquired the business nearly 15 years ago in May 2000, one of my clear objectives in identifying a purchaser was ensuring their desire to take the business forward.”

  • IKEA to invest USD95.7m in 3 stores in India’s Maharashtra

    IKEA to invest USD95.7m in 3 stores in India’s Maharashtra

    The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the Indian state of Maharashtra on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Swedish furniture retailing giant, IKEA, to set up two to three stores. Maharashtra is one of four states, including Telangana, Karnataka and Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), identified by IKEA to open its stores. One store will need more than eight acres (350,000 square feet). The company is on the lookout for locations in these states.

    State Industries Minister Subash Desai told the Business Standard: ”Each store IKEA proposes to start in Maharashtra entails an investment of INR600 crore (INR6 billion, USD95.7 million). Each store will generate jobs for more than 1,000 people. Maharashtra is one of few states in India supportive of foreign direct investment in single-brand retailing.”

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  • Muji moves on Sydney

    Muji moves on Sydney

    Japanese lifestyle retailer, Muji, has confirmed it will open its first store in Sydney.

    This will be the third Australian store for Muji, adding to its two locations at Chadstone shopping centre and Emporium in Melbourne.

    Retail News understands the store will be located at The Galeries shopping centre in Sydney’s CBD, replacing the former Freedom site, and will open by May.

    Dubbed “Japan’s answer to Ikea”, Muji stocks a range of categories from men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel and accessories; furniture and homewares; skincare products; stationery; and travel goods.

    The retailer is owned by Tokyo-based company, Ryohin Keikaku, and has more than 600 stores, including more than 200 international stores in Britain, France, the US, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Germany, Sweden, and Italy.

    Muji first launched in 1980 with a range of nine household products and 31 foods. Today, it sells more than 5000 products in Japan.

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  • Lawson Philippines set for debut

    Lawson Philippines set for debut

    Lawson Philippines will launch later this month with the first of 500 stores planned in a partnership with local retailer Puregold Price Club.

    Puregold will own 70 per cent of the joint venture partnership with the Japanese convenience store retailer, which will hold the remaining 30 per cent.

    The company has yet to reveal the location of the first store, but Investor Relations Officer John T. Hao confirmed in an interview with Business World Online that construction is underway on the first five stores.

    The supermarket company says it has allocated P500 million on rolling out the first 50 to 100 Lawson stores this year.

    The Lawson Philippines network will initially be focused on metro Manila, mostly in the university belt and business districts.

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  • Myer may be planning to close stores

    Myer may be planning to close stores

    Australian retail giant Myer could close seven stores to help reignite sales growth, analysts say.

    The department store chain has a number of underperforming stores that could be closed to simplify the business and improve its financial performance, Citigroup analysts said.

    Myer has 67 stores across Australia, mostly in capital cities, but also in regional centres including Bendigo, Ballarat, Dubbo, Orange, Wagga and Mackay. Sales could also be boosted by lifting staff numbers and spending more on marketing, the Citi analysts said.

  • Cotton On tells staff to keep it real or face the sack

    Cotton On tells staff to keep it real or face the sack

    It may be a new low in human resources gibberish.

    But the fun crowd at retailer Cotton On have told staff they need to “keep it real” or face the sack.

    A leaked copy of Cotton On’s code of conduct tells its staff it is “unacceptable” when working with colleagues or customers, to be anything but “fun” and “keeping it real”. No ifs or buts. Failure to do so can result in being fired on the spot.

    Less well defined in the document is what “keeping it real” means. The Online Slang Dictionary tells us that to “keep it real” is to “stay true to one’s self; to resist the temptation to be fake”. One claim is that the origins of the phrase emerged out of hip-hop culture in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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  • Ashapura plans to open 200 stores across India in 3 years

    Ashapura plans to open 200 stores across India in 3 years

    Ashapura Intimates Fashion plans to open 200 Valentine loungewear retail showrooms across the country in three years on a franchise basis.

    It plans to open 26 Valentine showrooms in Mumbai this year, most of which will be company-owned, it said in a statement on Monday.

    The first Valentine showroom of 1,550 square feet was opened at Bandra in December 2014, following the state’s largest loungewear showroom spread over two floors in Mulund.

    The third store was opened at Ghatkopar this month and another two stores are expected to come up at Borivali and Thane by April, it added. Ashapura is also planning to open its third Valentine loungewear retail showroom in Bangalore this month, following a similar one launched last month.

    Two stores will be opened in Ahmedabad next month, it said.

    Harshad H Thakkar, Chairman, Ashapura-Valentine Group, said with its second plant going on-stream soon in Gujarat, the company will have the highest loungewear production and warehousing capacity in India.

    Ashapura sells intimate garments such as lounge wear, bridal night wear, honeymoon sets, bathrobes, nightwear, relax-wear and sportswear.

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  • British bag brand Zatchels eyes Asia

    British bag brand Zatchels eyes Asia

    Hip British bag brand Zatchels says it plans to make inroads into Asia as its young brand gains international awareness.

    Zatchels was established in April 2011 and has its manufacturing base in Leicester, UK.  A multi-channel retailer, it has shops in York, Westfield London and now Bath.

    Now it says it wants to enter Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore to make the most of their young populations and a growing love of products made in Britain among southeast Asians.

    The company manufactures and retails, with boutique stores in the UK. Overseas stores are usually operated as concessions in department stores.

    The manufacturer already exports a third of the designer satchels and bags made at its factory near Leicester’s city centre to around 90 countries. It makes more than 25 styles of bags, turns over £3.5 million annually and employs 70 people in manufacturing and retail.

    Zatchels store York 315*The Zatchels store in York.

    The business has just hosted a visit by Douglas Barnes, HM Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City and Director of Trade and Investment Vietnam, to discuss the opportunities available.

    MD Dean Clarke, who founded Zatchels with business partner Brian Brady, said exports are a growing and vastly important part of the company’s business plan for 2015 onwards.

    “We hope to include Vietnam in those plans, along with other important areas of South East Asia and the Pacific region,” Clarke said in an interview with the Leicester Mercury newspaper.

    “Meeting with Mr Barnes gave us the opportunity to further investigate this emerging high growth country in more detail and potentially make influential contacts to help us grow our business in this exciting market.”

    Barnes said Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing retail markets in the world and there is a huge demand for products as consumer spending power grows.

    “It has a young and dynamic population – with 60 per cent under the age of 30. I am impressed with Zatchels’ hugely ambitious approach to exports which has placed them at the top of their game and I’m keen to help them develop their business in Vietnam.”

    Zatchels focuses on making quality leather goods, with each bag made to order. Zatchels currently has 10 Collections designed for men, women and children as well as a range of accessories.

    Zatchels people inside 315