Retail News CRM

Tag: International

  • Miniso Canada is collapsing

    Miniso Canada is collapsing

    Miniso Canada is on the brink of bankruptcy after an action brought against it by its Chinese parent company alleging fraudulent business dealings and the transfer and hiding of assets. The extraordinary situation was revealed by Canadian website which in its last update reported the Canadian subsidiary had reached a preliminary agreement with the Chinese company to avoid the move.

    Miniso China has declined comment.

    Citing court documents, Miniso China is owed C$20 million (US$14.7 million) and had retained a lawyer to commence legal action in British Columbia courts to recover the amount.

    Minso launched in Canada last year with plans for 500 stores within five years. To date it has opened 48.

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  • Miniso launches online store in Singapore with Shopee

    Miniso launches online store in Singapore with Shopee

    Discount Chinese merchandise chain Miniso has partnered with e-commerce platform Shopee to open its first online flagship store in Singapore. Shopee will exclusively host the Miniso Singapore online offering in the territory as a part of the retailer’s omnichannel strategy for Singapore in the coming year. The partnership will offer home delivery, special promotions and exclusive product launches on the platform.

    Miniso Singapore general director Alex Zhang Li said: “We foresee numerous key opportunities that will be pivotal to our growth strategy next year as we enter our first e-commerce partnership. As a global variety store chain, we aim to be able to deliver meaningful experiences, and leveraging Shopee’s user base, extensive operational support and other value-added services to grow our business will allow us to do that.

    “We are very excited to engage with a new segment of online customers and are confident that this partnership with Shopee is a leap forward to securing our long-term online and offline success in retail.”

    Shopee’s chief commercial officer Zhou Junjie added: “This partnership also marks our dedication to enabling offline retailers extend their reach online. We are confident that this partnership will be a fruitful one, and we look forward to working with them to bring to users even more exciting deals and exclusive offers from the brand.”

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  • After Flipkart, Walmart eyes another Indian startup that specialises in AI

    After Flipkart, Walmart eyes another Indian startup that specialises in AI

    Walmart Labs India, the local product development division of US retail giant Walmart, last week announced it would hire key tech team from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics start-up Int.ai — its second acqui-hiring in the country within three months.

    Three engineers — including co-founders Vinay Kumar NP and Praneeth Doguparthy — from Int.ai will join Walmart Labs India.

    They will be part of the health and wellness portfolio under Customer Technology at Walmart Labs, the company said in a statement.

    “We are glad to welcome the Int.ai team to the big Walmart Labs family and believe that their expertise will be a great addition to our data analytics capabilities,” said Hari Vasudev, Country Head and Vice President – Technology, Walmart Labs India.

    This is the second acqui-hiring Walmart Labs India has made — after micro-app startup Appsfly in September where it merged Appsfly’s six-member team into its customer experience engineering group.

    Founded in 2016, Int.ai has invested and built expertise in architecting an analytics automation framework which will support Walmart Labs in developing solutions and supporting large-scale businesses.

    “After working for almost 3 years on it, we are very happy to let you know that our entire team will be joining Walmart Labs, India,” Vinay and Praneeth said in a separate statement.

    “We started Int.ai in the beginning of 2016 with an ambitious mission to build an AI-powered personal data analyst for every business executive,” they added.

    Int.ai developed expertise in blending Machine Learning with data analytics to uncover insights that significantly impact business metrics.

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  • H&M sales surges, with notes

    H&M sales surges, with notes

    H&M sales grew by the fastest rate in three years during the latest quarter – but analysts suspect it is due to discounting of inventory and favourable currency swings. According to a stock exchange filing, H&M revenue rose 12 per cent to 56.4 billion krona (S$6.23 billion) in the November quarter.

    But the fast-fashion retailer has been battling to move a huge inventory, estimated in March as worth a staggering $4.3 billion.

    This week’s filing covered only sales, with full details of H&M’s trading performance set to be revealed on January 31.

    Some analysts have described it as “possible” the sales growth was not profitable given sweaters have been selling for as little as $10 in recent months.

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  • Google Launches New Products and Services for Indonesia

    Google Launches New Products and Services for Indonesia

    American technology giant Google announced a slew of new products and services that promise to benefit Indonesia’s rapidly growing digital economy.

    WizPhone 

    What surprised the audience most during the third annual “Google for Indonesia” event in Jakarta on Tuesday was the announcement of the WizPhone. The device, with styling reminiscent of the 1990’s, is the first Indonesian-made mobile phone equipped with Google Assistant, the tech giant’s artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant.

    The WizPhone, which runs a lightweight mobile operating system known as KaiOS, will be sold at Alfamart convenience stores across Indonesia for only Rp 99,000 ($6.80).

    AI for Indonesian Translations 

    “More than half of online content is available in English, but only 1 percent of web content is available in Bahasa Indonesia,” said Ken Tokusei, director of international search at Google. This means that most internet content may not be accessible to some Indonesians.Tokusei said Google was working with Wikimedia to deploy a neural machine translation system that uses artificial intelligence to translate Wikipedia content from English to Bahasa Indonesia. Relevant search items that only used to be available in English will now also be available in Bahasa Indonesia, he said.

    Google Go

    With the use of artificial intelligence, the Google Go application can now be used to narrate articles on your favorite news websites, which is particularly handy if you are on the go. Just press “play” on any website and Google Go will read the text out loud to you in real time.This feature even works with a slower 2G connection as it is designed to use less data. The app is already available in Google Play and will also come preinstalled with all Android Oreo Go edition devices.

    “Our applications, such as YouTube-Go, Google-Go and Assistant-Go, have been designed to only use 50 percent of the phone memory compared with traditional applications,” Google Indonesia managing director Randy Mandrawan Jusuf said.

    New Features

    Bahasa Indonesia was added as an option in Google Assistant on all Android and iOS devices last April, which allows locals to set alarms or call people in their mother tongue. Scott Huffman, engineering lead for Google Assistant, said many people ask the application to tell them a joke to brighten up their day.One of the new features available in Google Assistant helps you book online transportation. You can tell it where you want to go and the digital assistant will open the Go-Jek or Grab app for you.

    This feature is currently only available in English, but Bahasa Indonesia will be added soon. Go-Jek Indonesia chief executive Nadiem Makarim said his company is looking forward to enabling Google Assistant to directly book rides without the need on to open the Go-Jek app.

    Another new future is a partnership with Indosat, Indonesia’s second-largest telecommunications service provider. Through Google Assistant, Indosat customers can now access their monthly bills and manage and monitor their quotas.

    A third new feature is the accessibility of news update, anywhere, anytime. All you need to do, is say, “listen to the news today,” and your digital assistant will do the rest.

    Advanced Google Maps Features

    Krish Vitaldevara, director of product management at Google Maps, said the navigation feature now has new options to make your daily commute easier. It allows you to follow public bus locations in real time. It also allows you to share the progress of your journey in real time, so if your bus is running late, you can keep your friends or family in the loop about your expected time of arrival. Google Assistant will even be there to remind you when to get off the bus.

    Business Application

    Google My Business is designed to help business owners connect with and attract more customers. Think of it as a social media platform for your business. Business entities now can make posts that will appear on their business profiles on Google Search and Maps, and share updates about products, offers and even events.It also allows customers to follow and interact with businesses.

    According to a Deloitte study, businesses can experience revenue growth of up to 80 percent by having an online presence. Based on this, Google has made it its mission to help Indonesian companies grow their online presence.

    “This country is full of determined and enthusiastic people; people who are ready to take over the world,” Randy said.

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  • South African restaurant chain Barcelos to add 12 restaurants in India by FY’20

    South African restaurant chain Barcelos to add 12 restaurants in India by FY’20

    South African restaurant chain Barcelos is looking to add 12 more to its kitty in India by the end of 2019-20 as part of an expansion plan, a senior company official said. The company has one restaurant each in Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Chennai and two in Mumbai.

    “We plan to add 12 more restaurants across the country by the end of next fiscal year,” Rohit Malhotra, Business Head India, Barcelos said.

    According to a report: The new restaurants would be in Bengaluru, Pune, Goa, Chandigarh, Kochi, Puducherry, Mumbai, among others, he added. The company is also planning to rename all its big restaurants (area of 1,500 square feet or above) by March next year, Malhotra said.

    Barcelos is also looking to open between 10 to 12 smaller outlets in food courts in the country. Such outlets will have area between 300-500 square feet, he added.

    When asked about the business model Barcelos follows in India, Malhotra said: “All the outlets are franchise owned. Barcelos works through franchise model in India.”

    Regarding investments to expand Barcelos’ presence in the country, he said it will be mainly on research and development for menus, supply chain, marketing and training.

    Barcelos started operations in 1993 in Pretoria in South Africa. The company is present in 22 countries, Malhotra said.

  • Dickson Concepts unveils HK$1bn new retail format

    Dickson Concepts unveils HK$1bn new retail format

    Dickson Concepts has unveiled a new luxury retail concept merging the cutting-edge technology with a personalised styling service, to be launched under the Harvey Nichols banner. The first flagship store for the new format will be unveiled at Pacific Place in Autumn next year, with plans to expand the concept globally.

    Dickson Concepts says it plans to invest HK$250 million on the Pacific Place store and up to a further HK$1 billion in technology and technology-related companies, together with additional stores abroad.

    The project has evolved from the strategic partnership between Dickson Concepts and its Harvey Nichols Group subsidiary in the UK, announced in March, in which the parent company gained access to the department store’s digital expertise and will use it to create a seamless inventory across the UK and Hong Kong businesses, allowing customers to shop the entire range and even consult with store staff online. The move has trebled the number of products available to shoppers.

    In a statement, Dickson Concepts said it will build on the Harvey Nichols business based on two formats – one being the flagship new format store just announced, the other the traditional flagship store format which Harvey Nichols Landmark operates under.

    “Together, the two formats will allow Dickson Concepts to maximise and fully develop the potential of Harvey Nichols in different parts of the world.”

    Day and night service

    The new concept store will allow Harvey Nichols to offer “day and night service” for the first time, with in-store stylists serving customers during the day and Harvey Nichols’ UK stylist network servicing the e-commerce platform during the night.

    “The service will allow customers to shop live and obtain styling advice from Harvey Nichols’ stylists in Hong Kong and the UK via instant messaging, photo sharing, and live video streaming, even during late evening in Hong Kong. Products selected can then be shipped directly to the customers’ home, office or our Hong Kong store for personal service and immediate alteration by our expert tailors as maybe required, thereby creating a service that is unmatched by pure online operators,” the company said.

    The live online shopping functionality is powered by global retail technology company Hero, with which Harvey Nichols signed a strategic partnership in June.

    “Technology is core to Harvey Nichols’ new store format and is carefully interwoven into the store to drive the most immersive, enjoyable, and personalised shopping experience possible,” the company said.

    “In its new retail format, Harvey Nichols’ online exclusive offering will be interspersed into the presentation of physical products to provide customers with the full view of the most up to date and exciting products available, while allowing even frequent customers to explore and discover new product stories on every visit. Customers will be able to scan any digital products showcased in the store directly onto their own smartphones, or alternatively be served with an expert team of stylists.”

    The Pacific Place store will feature an online style lounge where dedicated stylists will work to provide each customer with product recommendations built around the customer’s personal taste, needs and preferences.

    “This will allow each customer to be presented with a selection of coordinated outfits that are completely tailored to them, without experiencing the frustrations of surfing through thousands of products available online to find the perfect piece.”

    The new store will be located on the second level of the current Harvey Nichols store at Pacific Place, and will showcase three times the offering. The existing store will be reduced in size from 84,000sqft to 42,000sqft,  resulting in a large reduction in fixed costs and substantially increased sales due to the significant increase in products and brands offered. “As such, the new format will allow Dickson Concepts to maximise sales densities and profits, compete against pure online operators, while offering customers the most curated product and service offering possible,” the company said.

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  • HMV Hong Kong collapses

    HMV Hong Kong collapses

    The HMV Hong Kong business has collapsed, with the chain’s owner appointing liquidators. In a statement, HMV Digital China Group chairman Stephen Shiu Jnr said the company was “unable to escape from the crushing force of the wheel of history” as live-streaming services like Spotify and Netflix made CDs and DVDs redundant.

    The company is believed to have debts of HK$40 million and assets – mainly stock – of just $9 million. All seven stores have been closed and 80 staff laid off.

    “The company is under negotiation with the landlords of the settlement plans. HMV Retail has not been generating sufficient revenue to cover its own operating expenses and there is no reasonable prospect of making any significant improvement on its financial performance or operations in the foreseeable future.”

    As reported last week, HMV was facing three legal suits over unpaid rents on stores, totalling $5 million. One of those related to its four-story Causeway Bay flagship.

    After the chain last went into administration in 2013, private equity company AID Partners converted the business into more of a lifestyle destination, stocking headphones, bicycles, backpacks and other curated products. That met with some success, and AID sold the business to Shiu’s company in 2016 for $408 million. Yesterday, Shiu cited Apple’s AirPods for eroding demand for earphones, which had become a core category.

    “[We have] faced numerous struggles and ups and downs, witnessing the rise of the record industry and the heyday of CD, VCD and DVD home entertainment systems, but as time changes, the global development of information and economic climate have also changed”, the company said Shiu.

    The HMV Hong Kong business achieved a profit of $1.85 million in the September quarter last year – but during the same period this year, retail sales fell 41 per cent to $31.55 million and the business lost $18.81 million.

    The liquidators, Wong Sun-keung and Janice Tsui Mei-yuk of Vision AS will try to find new investors to refinance HMV Retail’s operations, although clearly any solution would involve adopting an entirely new business model.

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  • Malaysia’s CIMB to gain RM200m from stockbroking business transfer

    Malaysia’s CIMB to gain RM200m from stockbroking business transfer

    CIMB Group Holdings Bhd is expected to record a gain of disposal of approximately RM200 million from the process of transferring the group’s stockbroking business to its joint venture company with China Galaxy Securities Co Ltd.

    This comes after taking into account the premium on the disposal of approximately RM433 million and goodwill attributable to the business.

    CIMB said the consideration in connection with the proposed business transfer will be satisfied in cash and it was determined based on the future prospects and net asset value of the in-scope business as at Dec 31, 2015, which amounted to RM565.6 million.

    The consideration is subject to closing audit adjustments, if any.

    Jupiter Securities, the subsidiary of China Galaxy Securities Co Ltd (CGS)-CIMB Holdings Sdn Bhd, which is the Malaysian joint venture entity, will operate the stockbroking business.

    CIMB said in a stock exchange filing that its wholly owned subsidiary CIMB Group Sdn Bhd (CIMBG), China Galaxy’s wholly owned unit China Galaxy International Financial Holdings Ltd (CGI), and CGS-CIMB Holdings Sdn Bhd has inked a share subscription agreement for the subscription of new shares in CGS-CIMB Holdings Sdn Bhd.

    The proposed business transfer entails the sale of CIMB Investment Bank Bhd’s cash equities business and 100% equity interest in CIMB Futures Sdn Bhd as well as CIMB Bank Bhd’s equity financing services business and share margin financing granted in connection with the cash equities to Jupiter Securities.

    After the completion of the exercise, CIMBG and CGI will hold 50% stake each in the Malaysian JV entity.

    The exercises are expected to be completed in the first half of 2019.

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  • Prada ‘racist’ incident ended up with apology

    Prada ‘racist’ incident ended up with apology

    Prada has apologised for selling a US$550 monkey figurine after a social media backlash from US consumers alleging the character is racist. The monkeys, with oversized red lips and dark skin have been likened to “racist caricatures historically used to dehumanise black people” according to a commentary in The Business of Fashion.  Some social media users pointed out a resemblance to golliwogs, the fictional children’s book character created by Kate Upton in the late 19th Century, which brands worldwide have avoided using in marketing for reasons Prada executives could have easily found with a quick Google search.

    The ‘racist’ monkey character was part of the Pradamalia range of small accessories like keychains and toys featuring cartoon characters.

    Prada said in a statement that the creatures were “not intended to have any reference to the real world and certainly not blackface”.

    “Prada Group never had the intention of offending anyone and we abhor all forms of racism and racist imagery. In this interest, we will withdraw all of the characters in question from display and circulation.”

    The Business of Fashion described the company’s design as “at best tone-deaf, at worst racist and exploitative”.

    Some people in the retail industry may well ask how Prada released such a product after the high-profile case of H&M having to apologise after releasing marketing images of a black child wearing a hoodie with the text “Coolest monkey in the jungle” in January, which prompted a similar chorus of disapproval. H&M immediately withdrew the hoodies from sale globally and recycled them, but not before some stores in South Africa had to be closed temporarily after protests and vandalism.

    And just last month, Dolce & Gabbana was forced to apologise to Asians customers around the world for a video campaign mocking a Chinese model trying to eat pasta with chopsticks, followed by an extraordinarily racist rant on Twitter by one of the label’s founders (which he later claimed – to widespread skepticism – was the result of his account being hacked).

    Facebook user Chinyere Ezie (who took the photo of the Prada monkey used with this story) was one black American woman outraged by the product. Her post had been shared more than 10,000 times by Monday morning and received some 4300 comments.

    “Today after returning to NYC after a very emotional visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, including an exhibit on blackface, I walked past Prada’s Soho storefront only to be confronted with the very same racist and denigrating #blackface imagery,” she wrote.

    “I entered the store with a coworker, only to be assaulted with more and more bewildering examples of their Sambo-like imagery. When I asked a Prada employee whether they knew they had plastered blackface imagery throughout their store, in a moment of surprising candor I was told that *a black employee had previously complained about blackface at Prada, but he didn’t work there anymore.*

    “History cannot continue to repeat itself. Black America deserves better. And we demand better.”

    The products were withdrawn from window displays – and sales – within hours of Ezie’s post on Friday.

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  • L Brands sells La Senza lingerie business

    L Brands sells La Senza lingerie business

    US retailer L Brands has agreed to transfer full ownership and operations of its Canadian-headquartered La Senza lingerie brand to a Regent LP affiliate. Upon completion, the private equity investor will assume La Senza’s debts and all future considerations for the brand. The deal is part of L Brands’ efforts to focus on its core brands as its flagship label Victoria’s Secret faces challenging shifts in the market.

    L Brands this year closed down its heritage women’s apparel line Henri Bendel after 123 years of trading. The sale of both Henri Bendel and La Senza is expected to encourage investors concerned about Victoria’s Secret’s declining performance as direct-to-consumer startups and the emerging success of rival label Aerie threaten the brand’s market supremacy.

    L Brands expects this year’s sales for La Senza will hit around $250 million with operating losses of about $40 million.

    La Senza was founded in 2006 and at its peak in 2010 had some 800 stores worldwide, 320 of them in Canada. But by 2013 the business was in decline, under competitive pressures from rival brands including Victoria’s Secret. By January last year, the store network had contracted to just 329, including 122 in Canada and four in the US.

    In 2011 a separate company La Senza UK, which held the franchise to the brand in the UK and Ireland, was placed in administration and later acquired by Kuwait-based Alshaya, but despite a further change of ownership, that business was placed in administration again in 2014.

    Other stores using the brand around the world are operating under a franchise agreement.

  • Hobbs London opens in IFC Mall

    Hobbs London opens in IFC Mall

    Hobbs London, a brand for woman affordable luxury fashion, partnered with Rue Madame to unveil its first store at IFC Mall, situated amidst the city’s vibrant business and shopping district. Trading from 1150 square feet, the brand will showcase its collection of workwear, occasion dresses and casualwear, alongside its premium range of footwear and accessories.

    While visiting the store, customers can enjoy their shopping with style advisors on hand to help provide styling solutions for their individual needs.

    Each Hobbs store is designed to reflect the brand’s London heritage and contemporary sensibility.

    The clothing is displayed in easy-to-shop capsule collections, drawing upon the brand’s considered approach to womenswear.

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  • Flood of new passengers to stoke demand for jet fuel in Vietnam

    Flood of new passengers to stoke demand for jet fuel in Vietnam

    Vietnam’s jet fuel demand will surge to a record this year as its tourism booms and the country’s airlines are rapidly expanding. The country is on track to have 38 million international passengers and 16 million visitors this year, according to data from CAPA Centre for Aviation. That is up from 18 million passengers and 8 million visitors in 2015, according to the data.

    “Aviation demand in Vietnam is booming… Fuel consumption in Vietnam will reach a record high this year and will keep rising for the years to come,” said Tran Hoai Nam, vice president of Vietjet, Vietnam’s biggest private airline.

    He added Vietnam’s growth in foreign arrivals was the highest in Southeast Asia, rising 8.7 percent annually.

    The surge in traffic has translated into a rush of jet fuel demand in Vietnam. Through November, the country has imported 1.87 million tonnes of the fuel, according to customs data, equal to 14.8 million barrels, and up 18 percent from the same period last year.

    “For 2018, jet fuel demand in Vietnam is estimated to be increased by about 20 to 25 percent in comparison with 2017, mostly due to the increase in consumption of the international flights,” said a Hanoi-based trader at one of country’s jet fuel suppliers, who asked to remain unidentified due to company policy.

    Vietnam currently consumes about 18 million barrels of jet fuel per year, according to data from Petrolimex Aviation.

    By 2035, Vietnam will have 150 million airline passengers per year, nearly four times what it was in 2015, according to a 20-year forecast from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

    Over the same period, India will have 442 million passengers, 3.6 times what it was in 2015, while China will have 1.3 billion passengers, 2.7 times what it was in 2015, IATA said.

    In November, Vietnam issued an aviation licence to Bamboo Airways, which would be the country’s fifth airline after Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific Airlines, Vietjet Aviation VJC.HM and Vietnam Air Services Co.

    Bamboo is expected to launch its first flights within weeks. It signed a provisional deal in July to buy 20 of the wide-body 787-9 jets from U.S. manufacturer Boeing and agreed a memorandum of understanding with Europe’s Airbus for up to 24 of the narrow-body A320neo jets in March.

    VietJet, which currently operates 60 Airbus jets, has signed a $6.5 billion (5.2 billion pounds) agreement to buy 50 new jets.

    Vietnam’s jet fuel imports will continue to surge as the country only has two refineries, Dung Quat in the central province of Quang Ngai and Nghi Son in Thanh Hoa Province, near to the capital Hanoi, which only started operations this year.

    “Both Dung Quat and Nghi Son refineries are primarily catered towards the production of gasoline and diesel, and thus, jet fuel yield is relatively low at 5 percent,” said Peter Lee, an analyst at Fitch Solutions Macro Research.

    Nghi Son, once fully operational, will produce about 4.6 million barrels of jet fuel per year, said a source at the refinery. Dung Quat can produce as much as 2.3 million barrels per year, according to the company website.

    “Vietnam will be reliant on imports to meet most of its jet fuel demand going forward,” Lee added.

    Vietnam imports most its jet fuel from refineries in Singapore, Thailand and China, trade data showed.

    Despite the steep growth outlook for Vietnam’s aviation sector, passenger growth might may be uneven as the country grapples with capacity constraints at its airports.

    Vietnam’s biggest airport Tan Son Nhat, serving Ho Chi Minh city in the south, receives about 10 million more passengers per year than it is designed to serve.

    The government is planning a second international airport at Long Thanh, 40 km (24 miles) east of Ho Chi Minh City, that will serve 25 million passengers a year starting in 2025.

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  • Popular Japanese ‘100-yen’ store Oomomo opens in Toronto Canada

    Popular Japanese ‘100-yen’ store Oomomo opens in Toronto Canada

    Japanese discount retailer Oomomo has launched in Canada with plans for stores in most major cities. The first store opened in West Edmonton Mall in Alberta last month and was followed by another in Toronto this week, which attracted queues of customers to check out its eclectic mix of homewares, stationery, snacks and beauty products.

    More stores are planned in Vancouver, Burnaby in British Columbia and North Edmonton and Markham in Ontario.

    Oomomo translates into “big peach” in English and in Japan the chain is one of a group of retailers commonly referred to ‘100-yen’ stores. Most of its stock is priced at less than C$3.

    Some of the stock is sourced from Japanese retailer Daiso.

    View the gallery of the new store below (6 images) :

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  • The world’s most expensive retail street is not in NYC anymore

    The world’s most expensive retail street is not in NYC anymore

    Russell Street in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay district has replaced New York’s Upper 5th Avenue as the world’s most expensive retail street by rental value, according to property consultants Cushman & Wakefield. For the first time in five years, the city has regained the crown, with average annual rents of US$2,671 per square foot (HK$20,953) despite a small decline of 1.5 per cent in average rents, according to the company’s annual Main Streets Across the World report.

    This was also the sixth time Causeway Bay has had the distinction of being named the world’s most expensive retail location.

    The report, now in its 30th year, tracks 446 of the top retail streets around the globe, ranking them by their prime rental value as of the second quarter of 2018.

    Upper 5th Avenue in New York slipped to second place globally, with average annual rents of US$2,250 per sq ft compared with US$3,000 per sq ft in the previous 12-month period as vacancy increased. The report said rents had fallen by 25 per cent because of the increased vacancy.

    London’s New Bond Street meanwhile is the most expensive European location and third globally. Annual rents here were broadly flat year-on-year at US$1,744 per sq ft, underlining the fact that luxury and high-end retailers still see the UK’s capital as a key retail destination.

    Beijing’s Wangfujing has become the most expensive street in China, with rents on average costing US$482 per sq ft a year, ranking 11th worldwide.

    “The retail market in Hong Kong has experienced a rebound over the last year, driven mainly by a return of mainland Chinese tourists,” said Kevin Lam, Cushman & Wakefield’s head of retail services for Hong Kong.

    Maureen Fung Sau-yim, executive director of Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency, said the number of mainland tourists would remain high if the yuan fell further.

    Fung manages 38 shopping malls with a gross floor area of 10 million square feet in Hong Kong and mainland China.

    One of them, APM, in Kwun Tong, was among the first to introduce round-trip direct buses from the mall to Zhuhai and Macau.

    “Since the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge on October 24, APM has been running 780 round-trip direct buses to Zhuhai and Macau, serving 25,000 passengers, in which 80 per cent of them are Macau tourists who came for a one-day tour,”she said on Wednesday.

    Each of these visitors spends between HK$500 and HK$800, mainly on dining, cosmetics, and personal care.

    “APM aims to draw as many as 100,000 monthly visitors to the mall. Extra part-time staff are being hired to support the new demand,” adds Fung.