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  • E-commerce sites report jump in 11/11 sales

    E-commerce sites report jump in 11/11 sales

    E-commerce platforms reported a surge in sales on Singles’ Day on Nov. 11, an annual shopping event, with the most popular items being masks and healthcare products. Tiki said revenues were up nine times from last year, and the number of buyers was double that on normal days.

    Face masks, products for babies and mothers, and fast-moving consumer goods were the top sellers, it said.

    It also sold some 10,000 mobile phones, including 500 iPhones, 2,000 electric motorbikes and bicycles, and 6,000 cans and bottles of beer.

    Shopee sold 1.8 million decorative items, including some 100,000 decals and stickers, 1.6 million healthcare products, one million earphones, and 150,000 mobile phone covers.

    Lazada said revenues doubled and the number of customers was up by half. Healthcare and beauty products were its best-sellers, and electronics sales almost doubled, with laptop and desktop sales nearly tripling.

    Sendo said revenues were 40 percent higher than during other promotions such as Sept. 9 and Oct. 10, with fashion, household, and beauty items seeing sales double.

    According to a report called ‘e-Conomy SEA 2021’ released this week by Google, Temasek and Bain & Co., Vietnam’s e-commerce market will increase to $13 billion this year, up 53 percent from last year, and triple by 2025.

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  • New Google search feature shows shoppers in-store inventories

    New Google search feature shows shoppers in-store inventories

    Google has unveiled new search functions aimed at improving the online shopping experience, including allowing consumers to see retailers’ in-store inventory from wherever they are using their device.

    The enhancements have been enabled using advances in AI technology, the company said during its livestreamed Search On conference overnight.

    A new addition to search results – an “in stock” filter – will show if nearby stores have specific items on their shelves. In an example provided by the search provider, someone looking for a kids bike helmet can click on the filter to find stores nearby that have a helmet – right down to a specific brand or style – on their shelves.

    The new feature launched overnight in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, along with the UK, multiple European markets, Brazil, and Canada.

    Another feature aimed at creating what Google describes as “a more shoppable search experience” provides visual feeds. For example, search for “cropped jackets,” and Google will deliver a visual feed of jackets in various colours and styles alongside useful information like local shops, style guides and videos.

    “With this new capability, you can tap on the Lens icon when you’re looking at a picture of a shirt, and ask Google to find you the same pattern – but on another article of clothing, like socks,” said Alphabet senior VP Prabhakar Raghavan.

    “This helps when you’re looking for something that might be difficult to describe accurately with words alone.”

    This new feature is powered by Google’s ‘Shopping Graph’ which it describes as “a comprehensive, real-time dataset of products, inventory and merchants with over 24 billion listings”. This experience has been released only in the US for now, but other markets will follow.

    Another feature, called Lens in Chrome will be launched globally during the coming months, allowing consumers to select images, video and text content on a website and see search results in the same tab – without leaving the page they are on.

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  • Experts warn of risks to premature economic reopening

    Experts warn of risks to premature economic reopening

    Reopening the economy is necessary but any untimely decision amid low vaccination rates and high contagion risks could stymie the country’s efforts to defeat Covid-19, experts warn.

    “The premature lifting of the lockdown and reopening the economy while the full vaccination rate remains low, new infections and fatality rates are still soaring and the health system is overburdened may even endanger the economy and people’s lives more badly,” Nguyen Minh Cuong, principal country economist at the Asian Development Bank said.

    But the country stands at a crossroads since lengthening strict social distancing is likely to inflict further socio-economic costs and endanger its medium- and long-term growth prospects, he told VnExpress International in an emailed statement.

    Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Ho Chi Minh City leaders have spoken about letting economic activities resume gradually and how the lockdown “cannot go on forever.”

    Vietnam has been struggling in its Covid-19 fight since the end of April when a fourth wave began and infected nearly 609,000 people and killed over 15,000.

    HCMC, the largest city and major manufacturing and exporting hub, has imposed strict social distancing for over two months but still thousands of new cases are being found every day.

    This is why analysts are reluctant about resuming economic activities now.

    “It is complicated to find the perfect moment to reopen the economy,” Tim Evans, CEO of HSBC Vietnam, said.

    The risks of doing this too early at a time when vaccination is not up to optimum speed and the medical system is overwhelmed could lead to additional Covid cases resulting in a further increase in mortality rates, he said.

    Other experts concurred.

    “In our view, reopening the economy, especially in the epicenter HCMC, is a risky move,” Jason Yek, senior Asia country risk analyst at market research company Fitch Solutions, said.

    The rate of full vaccination in Vietnam is low, and reopening before the outbreak has been suppressed would possibly elicit a lukewarm response from consumers, he said.

    Vietnam has vaccinated 24 percent of its population, but only 5.2 percent have received two doses.

    The country has received 29.8 million doses of vaccine, or only one-fifth of its target of 150 million doses to vaccinate 70 percent of the population.

    This is why a premature opening risks a surge in infections which would overwhelm the healthcare system and could force the government to tighten restrictions again, Yek said.

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  • Doors open wider for Vietnam exports to the US

    Doors open wider for Vietnam exports to the US

    A large demand for agricultural produce and electronics products as well as rising e-commerce potential give Vietnamese exporters greater opportunities in the U.S. market, experts say.

    The U.S. is a market with much potential for Vietnamese companies, especially as Vietnam has been able to keep the Covid-19 pandemic under control, said Nguyen Huu Tien, director of the HCMC Investment and Trade Promotion Centre.

    The U.S. was Vietnam’s largest export market in the first four months with the value of shipments surging 50 percent year-on-year to $30.3 billion.

    Top export categories included machinery and equipment, textile and garment, and computers and electronics.

    Last year, Vietnamese exports to the U.S. ranked third in Asia after China and Japan.

    Ken D. Duong, director of international law firm TDL, said that traditional categories such as agriculture produce and fisheries were posting strong figures despite the pandemic.

    U.S. companies have stopped purchasing some hardwood products from China and are looking for alternative markets, he said, adding that last year, many Vietnamese companies were able to take advantage of this and got large orders.

    Many Vietnamese-Americans are looking for suppliers in Vietnam to export products to the U.S., he added.

    There are a lot of opportunities for electronics export because a number of American and Taiwanese firms have established factories in Vietnam to research and develop internet of things products.

    “There are signals that indicate that Vietnam could become a hub for researching and manufacturing advanced tech products,” Duong said.

    Amazon Global Selling Wednesday announced a new campaign in partnership with the Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA) that would help Vietnamese sellers sell more products on Amazon.

    But other experts said there were challenges that Vietnamese exporters face, such as trademarks. They cited the latest example of a Vietnamese rice brand, ST25, which won an international contest as the world’s best variety, being trademarked by a U.S. company.

    Duong said that usually it costs $1,000-1,800 to register a trademark in the U.S. Around 50 percent of mid-sized Vietnamese companies in the U.S. register their brand and the ratio is just 10 percent for small firms.

    Vietnamese suppliers need to understand U.S. regulations on intellectual property to step up in the global supply chain, he added.

    Dang Hoang Hai, head of the iDEA, said that as many Vietnamese sellers are reluctant to export their products to the U.S. via e-commerce, his organization will provide more training to help hundreds of small and medium companies sell their products on Amazon.

    Although there has been speculation about the U.S. rejoining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), U.S. officials have said that this would not happen in the short term.

    Mary Tarnowka, executive director of American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, cited a report by a Fulbright University professor to show that U.S. President Joe Biden will not consider signing another free trade agreement until the middle of his term.

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  • Retail chains rush for expansion

    Retail chains rush for expansion

    The race for domestic retail market share was heating up as local and foreign firms looked to expand their networks, experts said.

    At a recent meeting in HCM City, Trương Công Thắng, general director of VinCommerce Company, told partners that the retailer wanted to open nearly 10,000 stores and more than 300 Vinmart supermarkets in the next five years.

    In addition, the company also plans to attract 100 strategic partners with an ambition to lead the Vietnamese retail market. The company’s financial report showed that in the first nine months of the year, revenue reached VNĐ23.6 trillion, posting a 56.5 percent year-on-year increase.

    Meanwhile, Saigon Co.op is looking at expanding its network to at least 2,000 stores and annual average revenue growth of 8-10 percent in the next five years.

    It has already opened 849 stores in 43 provinces and cities that attract 350,000 customers a day, up 26 percent compared to five years ago.

    Another leading retailer in HCM City, Satra, said that they targeted to have five Satramart supermarkets and four malls by 2025, and depending on the market situation, 150-250 Satra branded stores.

    Local retail giants are looking to expand their market share in the face of fierce competition from big foreign investors such as Aeon, Lotte, Big C and Mega Market.

    The latest example is in October 2020, Japan’s largest retailer cosmetics chain Matsumoto Kiyoshi opened its first store in HCM City.

    In July 2020, leading Japanese retailer Muji also opened a store in HCM City. Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo, launched its first store last year.

    Japanese retailer Aeon is also surveying a third shopping mall in HCM City in 2021, and plans to have 25 shopping malls in Việt Nam by 2025 with a capital source of US$2 billion for the investment.

    Hirai Shinji, chief representative of JETRO HCM City (Japan External Trade Organisation) was quoted as saying by Thời báo Kinh Doanh that after the COVID-19 pandemic and the market was gradually recovering, it was a favorable time for Japanese retail groups to open in Việt Nam.

    This would lead to fiercer competition, the experts said.

    It was also important to note the efforts of domestic retailers to expand their systems into neighboring areas of big cities, as urbanization and incomes in these areas had been increasing.

    Experts said that although retail sales were concentrated in major cities and key economic regions, with the high speed of urbanization, these areas would become the driving force for growth instead of existing big cities.

    As a result, many domestic retailers had been gradually expanding to areas surrounding the big cities. The evidence is quite clear from data showing that suburban stores brought in more revenue with higher growth than inner cities.

    According to retail expert Nguyễn Văn Thịnh, the number of supermarkets in 2020 had been decreased by 20 percent compared to 2019 – from 336 to 330. This decrease mainly came from Vinmart.

    Meanwhile, the number of convenience stores has marked a growth of 60 percent – from 2,495 in 2019 to 5,228 stores in 2020. This came from Vinmart+ and Bách Hoá Xanh.

    Small stores recorded a slight increase in 2020, while shopping centers posted a growth rate of about 11 percent from 96 centers in 2019 to 107 in 2020.

    Thịnh said that although there were many changes in 2020, Việt Nam was still one of the most attractive retail markets in the world, and competition in the market was becoming more and more intense.

    For some brands, it was an increase in the number of stores, others had to face restructuring, he said.

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  • Arket bound to open its first retail store in China this autumn

    Arket bound to open its first retail store in China this autumn

    H&M-owned Arket has announced plans to open its first physical store in China this autumn.

    The flagship store will be located in Beijing and will stock a mix of the Stockholm-based brand’s wardrobe staples and seasonal fashion drops for both women and men.

    The store will also feature an Arket cafe and stock an assortment of beauty and home items.

    “We are incredibly happy to announce our upcoming opening in Beijing and we are looking forward to finally meeting our many Chinese customers in person,” said Arket managing director Pernilla Wohlfahrt in a statement.

    “The new store gives us an opportunity to welcome people into our world and invite them to experience the rich diversity of our collections – from beautifully-made fabrics and fashion designs to nature-inspired interiors, sustainable childrenswear and contemporary Swedish cuisine.”

    The physical store is the latest step of the Nordic band’s expansion into Asia. The company made its debut into the Chinese market in August with the launch of its digital flagship store on Alibaba Group’s B2C e-commerce platform Tmall.

    In late 2020 the brand also announced plans to open its first store in South Korea early this year.

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  • Wishing You All a Happy 2021

    Wishing You All a Happy 2021

    The retail news team thank you for your interest, loyal support, and trust in one of the most challenging times ever. It has been an eventful 12 months for retailers and retail events, but the new year marks a new beginning, and we’re looking forward to being able to meet, embrace, and exchange ideas again.

    Whatever the new year has in store, we’ll be in it together. Happy New Year to all our readers.

  • The entire Retail News Editorial team wishes you a Joyful and Merry Christmas

    The entire Retail News Editorial team wishes you a Joyful and Merry Christmas

    It’s been a difficult year; we better say the most difficult year in decades with Covid-19 and all social restrictions that were put in place. But we were resilient, and prepare ourselves for a better year.

    Hopefully with more and more retail events and summits; cause that’s what we retailers live from. Showcase and demo products, networking, and meeting up with customers and vendors. It’s not that far ahead of us… we already prepare ourselves in order to get ready when the markets are ready again to shift gears.

    Thanks for being part of the largest retail community covering Asia this year. The entire Retail News Editorial team is wishing you a Happy Holiday season. We wish you joy and peace in the upcoming year. Wishing you all the joys of the season and happiness throughout the coming year.

    Thanks for support us; thanks for reading us and stay close in the new year!

     

     

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  • Singapore retail rents tipped to slide up to 15 percent

    Singapore retail rents tipped to slide up to 15 percent

    The increased activity in Singapore’s retail sector hints at a bottoming out of rents by the end of this year or early next year, Knight Frank’s research team said in a report published on Friday (Oct 16).

    Overall retail rents are expected to fall by 10-15 percent for the whole of this year due to recessionary pressures and safe-distancing restrictions, according to the real estate consultancy.

    That being said, in the suburban region, rents of retailers will likely decline by just 7.5 percent or less.

    “As physical retail stores resumed operations, shopper traffic also returned to a greater extent in the suburban malls compared to the centrally located ones that are more reliant on the tourist dollar,” Knight Frank analysts wrote.

    Thus, the rental gap between suburban malls and those in Orchard will likely continue to narrow, given that the inflow of tourists into Singapore is still impeded by travel restrictions. Suburban retail rents are expected to recover sooner because they are supported by the domestic catchment resident population.

    In the third quarter this year, prime retail rents islandwide decreased by 10.3 percent year on year to average $27.40 per square foot (psf) per month, as safe-distancing measures and border controls remained in place.

    This drop was largely led by the 11 percent fall in gross rents for prime retail spaces along the Orchard Road shopping belt, as stores there continued to struggle with the absence of international tourists, Knight Frank noted.

    Prime spaces refer to rental-yielding units between 350 and 1,500 square feet with the best frontage, connectivity, footfall and accessibility in a mall. Such spaces are typically located on the ground level of a mall or the basement level of a mall that is linked to an MRT station or bus interchange.

    In the Marina Centre, City Hall and Bugis region, gross rents of prime retail spaces tumbled by 13.5 percent year on year to $25.40 psf per month on average for the third quarter.

    The city fringe, meanwhile, posted an 8.6 percent decline from a year ago, to $23.40 psf per month.

    Propping up the retail market was the suburban areas, where rents started to stabilize during the July-September period.

    “As more employees work from home, the malls located within residential population centers were visited by many for daily necessities and household sundries,” the analysts wrote.

    The suburban region recorded the smallest drop in gross prime retail rents during the quarter, slipping 6.9 percent on the year to average $26.60 psf per month.

    Quarter on quarter, rents of prime retail spaces in suburban areas also inched down by just 1.4 percent, compared to the bigger declines of 6.4 percent in Orchard, 7 percent in Marina Centre, City Hall, and Bugis, and 4.5 percent in the city fringe.

    While traditional retailers such as Topshop at VivoCity and Robinsons at Jem closed during the latest quarter, there were also newcomers to the scene. For instance, 100-year-old Hong Kong bakery Hang Heung opened its first Singapore outlet at Ion Orchard, Knight Frank noted.

    Other notable retail openings in the three months include store expansions such as Foot Locker at Orchard Gateway @ Emerald and Decathlon at The Centrepoint.

    In August, retail sales – excluding motor vehicles – fell by 8.4 percent year on year, according to figures released by the Department of Statistics last week.

    On a seasonally-adjusted month-on-month basis, total retail sales were higher by 1.4 percent in August. Excluding motor vehicles, sales edged up 0.1 percent on the month.

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  • Amazon Prime Day 2020 finally has a start date

    Amazon Prime Day 2020 finally has a start date

    Everything was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year, including Amazon’s huge sale known as Prime Day. Typically, Amazon Prime Day takes place in July, but this year, due to obvious reasons, the sale was reportedly delayed for October.

    The initial reports dated early July claimed Amazon Prime Day will be scheduled for the week starting October 5, and that a definitive date will be announced later. However, a new report mentions another start date for Amazon Prime Day.

    Without further ado, Amazon’s Prime Day 2020 will start on October 13, at least according to four people familiar with Amazon’s plans. Although Amazon declined to comment on the date, it looks like the company has already “blacked out vacation for its full-time warehouse workers from October 13-20.”

    It’s important to mention that the sources of this crucial information don’t know how long the sale will last, just the start date. It’s hard to make any assumptions at this time since Amazon has already extended these huge sales in the last couple of years, so it won’t be a surprise to learn that this year we’ll have a 3-day Amazon Prime Day sale event.

    Last year, the annual deal event exclusively for Prime members lasted for two days, whereas the year before it was squeezed into a 36-hour sale event. If the information proves to be accurate, Amazon should make an official announcement in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

  • New Wealth to Grow Distribution in Indonesia

    New Wealth to Grow Distribution in Indonesia

    The Singapore-based digital wealth engagement solutions provider has its sights on the retail and affluent banking segments in Indonesia.

    New Wealth has inked a strategic partnership with digital engineering firm HAXtech to distribute its solutions to banks, insurance, and fintech firms in Indonesia, the company announced in a press release on Friday.

    The partnership promises improved market access, faster project delivery, and enhanced in-country client support, New Wealth said in the announcement.

    CEO Löic Pitrou said the company is currently expanding its ability to deliver multiple digital finance projects in Indonesia to support the fast-growing digital savings and wealth management sector there.

    Pitrou, a digital finance strategy and Robo-advisory specialist, founded New Wealth company in 2018. Its senior management team includes head of the experience lab Sudhir Nain and chief technology officer Simon Mazas. The company provides sales and advisory tools and applications for both relationship managers and self-directed investors.

    Its clients and partners include Commonwealth Bank, Standard Chartered, Morningstar, Eastspring, and Savio, according to its website.

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  • Singapore startup helps companies pivot to online marketplaces during virus outbreak

    Singapore startup helps companies pivot to online marketplaces during virus outbreak

    Techsembly, a Singapore technology startup, is securing clients worldwide after developing a Software-as-a-Service platform allowing businesses to replicate a curated and customized in-store shopping experience online.

    The three entrepreneurs who founded Techsembly have a background in e-commerce and online retailing and built their own Gifts Less Ordinary marketplace into a million-dollar business. They recognized a need among companies forced to pivot their business due to the Covid-19 pandemic to maintain sales at a time it may be impossible for customers to interact in person.

    “The retail industry is at an inflection point and we are increasingly seeing the emergence of new players who are changing the rules of the game,” explains Techsembly co-founder and CEO Amy Read.

    “Businesses, whether they are retailers, media or hotels, are all impacted by the Covid-19 crisis, and marketplaces have become the new normal – already accounting for more than 56 percent of all online sales. Some industry experts are predicting that will increase to 80 percent in the future.”

    But many businesses who know they have to move online are daunted by the cost and logistics of building their own marketplace and concerned how it might integrate with their existing online experience.

    That’s where Techsembly comes in – and the company has recently signed three significant clients as customer partners: Boutique Fairs Singapore (BFS), Anglo-American fashion platform Not Just a Label, and luxury accommodation provider The Peninsula Hotel Group.

    BFS is regarded as one of the leading calendar events in Singapore, taking place bi-annually at the F1 Pit Building, attracting more than 300 local designers and artisans and 37,000 visitors per event. With social-distancing requirements due to Covid-19 forcing the cancellation of the latest edition of the fair, the company recognized the need to pivot online quickly to serve both vendors and visitors.

    In a matter of weeks, BFS was able to launch an online marketplace featuring 200 local brands and 4000 products by partnering with Techsembly.

    Charlotte Cain, Founder of Boutique Fairs Singapore, said the company needed a solution that combined offline experiences with online shopping through the launch of an e-commerce marketplace immediately.

    Not Just A Label (NJAL), another Techsembly client, is a design platform based in California and a UK-based designer showcasing and nurturing today’s pioneers in contemporary fashion. NJAL needed to pivot its business from a B2B to B2C model at the height of the pandemic. Not Just A Label operates the largest global network of contemporary fashion designers, having access to 4 million styles designed by more than 40,000 independent and emerging creative designers.

    NJAL, like BFS, reacted quickly to the global crisis by adopting a new strategy to provide a capital-light and highly profitable sales channel, thus saving a generation of emerging designers and brands that were impacted by the downfall of the brick-and-mortar retail sector during the pandemic. Many designers on the NJAL platform are also now moving to ‘Made to Order’ to increase sustainability, with more than 60 percent of items on the marketplace now carrying a made to order label.

    NJAL founder Stefan Siegel said using Techsembly’s solution allows NJAL to have multiple localized storefronts through one centralized platform, ensuring each regional storefront can be tailored to the needs of the local audience.

    Amy Read says the experiences of these companies underline the importance of moving quickly to embrace online trends and implement solutions to stay competitive.

    “This shift is not just limited to the fashion and retail industry, but many other businesses, including hotels and media outlets, are also looking to pivot and find new innovative ways to support their customers and generate additional revenue streams and value, without investing in inventory or new builds.”

    The Peninsula Hotels, like many other hospitality providers, has suffered significant a decline in turnover as a result of the global pandemic closing borders and social-distancing requirements limiting events and dining out. The firm launched a marketplace solution that allows for global sales of gift cards and experiences. As a result, despite their hotels having to remain closed, they were able to generate supplementary revenue for those customers wishing to give and purchase ‘experiences’ they could look forward to.

    “Marketplaces allow businesses to innovate and grow without the risk of holding stock, to support their local suppliers and replicate the mall experience online. This omnichannel approach is the future of modern retailing,” explains Read.

  • Vietnam suffers most phishing attacks on small businesses in Southeast Asia

    Vietnam suffers most phishing attacks on small businesses in Southeast Asia

    Vietnam led Southeast Asia in the number of phishing attacks targeting small enterprises in the first half of this year. There were more than 1.6 million attacks on small and medium-sized enterprises with 50-250 employees in the region, up 39 percent from the same period last year, Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab said a report it released on Tuesday.

    Vietnam accounted for 464,300, followed by Indonesia (406,200) and Malaysia (269,500). Singapore had the least number of attacks, but the number of cases was up 60.5 percent. On a global scale, Brazil topped followed by Russia, France, Columbia, and the U.S.

    The most common scams included using information about the novel coronavirus as bait, swindling people by offering to sell masks, seeking donations for vaccine research, and offering relief payments.

    The report also mentioned several other common phishing tricks such as evaluating job performance, important announcements from administrators, requesting emergency password checks, and urgent press releases.

    Yeo Siang Tiong, Kaspersky’s general manager for Southeast Asia, said the surge in attacks in Southeast Asia was due to the fact many companies let employees work from home since the end of March, resulting in a large number of users clicking on an infected link or attachment.

    Vietnam recorded 2,017 cyber attacks on its information systems in the first half of 2020, down 27.1 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Department of Information Security.

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  • Vietnam retail sales continued to recover before Covid-19 second wave hit

    Vietnam retail sales continued to recover before Covid-19 second wave hit

    Vietnam’s retail industry continued to recover after the March lockdown to fight Covid-19, with a 4.3-per-cent increase year on year in July’s retail sales.

    However, after being virus-free for more than three months, Vietnam is now facing the second wave of Covid-19 which originated in the coastal city of Danang. With a full lockdown in Da Nang and partial lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, retail sales are expected to be impacted this month.

    According to the General Statistics Office (SGO), retail sales dropped just 0.4 percent year on year over the first seven months of this year, reaching about US$121.7 billion.

    The office said Vietnam’s retail sales have shown positive signs of economic recovery due to domestic consumption and tourism push in July. Last month, Vietnam retail sales rose 3.3 percent from June’s figures.

    Sales of consumer goods reached $96.4 billion, increasing by 3.6 percent year on year. Growth sectors include home appliances and fresh-food products with 7.6 percent and 7.5 percent increases respectively. Meanwhile, F&B revenues fell 16.6 percent, generating $12.2 billion.

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  • Hong Kong retail sales in June slip

    Hong Kong retail sales in June slip

    Hong Kong retail sales in June slumped by 24.8 percent to US$3.42 billion as the territory’s borders remained all but closed to tourists due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The decline was lower than in May when sales were down 32.9 percent year on year and the 33.3-per-cent rate for the six months to June.

    A Hong Kong government spokesman said the slowing rate of the decline reflected the pandemic’s abatement during the month, resulting in more locals returning to the shop.

    However, with inbound tourism remaining at a standstill in July and local consumption hit by the surge in local Covid-19 cases resulting in a tightening of social-distancing measures, the retail trading environment “has turned more austere again” since June, they said.

    June last year was when the social unrest began to impact Hong Kong retail, so the year-on-year declines each month for the rest of this year will likely be less dramatic than in recent months, due to the lower base.

    In order of the category’s impact on the overall figures, the biggest declines were in department-store sales down 7 percent; miscellaneous consumer goods by 10 percent, food, alcohol and tobacco down 13.2 percent; jewelry and watches by 56.5 percent; electrical goods by 8.8 percent; and apparel by 38.8 percent.

    The medicines and cosmetics category was down by 57.4 percent; motor vehicles and parts by 17.9 percent; footwear and accessories by 39.7 percent; Chinese drugs and herbs by 29 percent; books, newspapers, stationery, and gifts by 41.3 percent; and sales at optical shops fell by 32.5 percent.

    The only categories showing growth in Hong Kong retail sales in June were supermarkets up by 4.5 percent, fuels by 8.4 percent, and furniture and fixtures by 0.3 percent.

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