Cool weather and strong advertising campaigns helped boost sales for Uniqlo Japan last month.
It says same-store sales, including online sales, increased by 6.3 per cent year on year, while sales at its own stores grew by 5.5 per cent. Total sales increased by 6.9 per cent, says the Fast Retailing Group subsidiary.
During the month, Uniqlo Japan opened four stores and closed two. It also opened its first store in Spain, Uniqlo Passeig de Gracia Store in Barcelona.
Vietnam retail sales soared 10.3 per cent in the first eight months of this year, according to figures released by the General Statistics Office.
Even after the effects of inflation were removed from the data, sales were up by 8.9 per cent, total spending estimated at US$114.7 billion.
The rise was higher than for the same period last year and underline the significant improvement in the local population’s disposable income levels.
Excluding hospitality and catering sales from the data, Vietnam retail sales totalled $86.1 billion, three quarters of the total trade. Strongly performing categories included apparel, appliances and food, up 14 per cent, 11.6 per cent and 10.6 per cent respectively.
Vietnam’s total retail market is forecast by the Association of Vietnam Retailers to reach US$179 billion by 2020.
Global smartphone sales grew 6.7% year-on-year during the second quarter to 366.2 million units, driven by demand for 4G handsets in emerging markets, according to Gartner.
Greater China and emerging APAC markets collectively accounted for nearly half of global smartphone sales during the quarter, the research firm has estimated.
But China’s share of the overall market has declined from 33.3% a year ago to 27.7% as of the second quarter of 2017, with total unit shipments falling from 114.2 million to 101.5 million over the same period.
By contrast, emerging APAC’s share increased to 21.4% from 17.3% a year earlier, with shipments growing from 59.4 million to 78.2 million.
“Although demand for utility smartphones remains strong, there is growing demand in emerging markets for 4G smartphones, with more storage, better processors and more advanced cameras. This is translating into higher demand for midpriced [$150 to $200] smartphones,” Gartner research director Anshul Gupta commented.
Globally, Android increased its lead with a market share of 87.7%, compared to 12.1% for iOS, down from 12.9% a year earlier. Samsung meanwhile saw its sales grow 7.5% year-on-year after three consecutive quarterly declines associated with the recall of the Galaxy Note 7.
But the Galaxy S8 and S8+ are bringing back high demand for Samsung smartphones. “Despite growing competition from Chinese brands such as Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, we expect Samsung to register growth in 2017,” Gupta said.
While retail outlets and dining establishments had better year-on-year sales in May, Macau retailers are still cautious about their business prospects, says the Macau Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
For its monthly business climate survey, the DSEC interviewed 167 dining enterprises that account for 53 per cent of the industry’s receipts, and 135 retailers that account for 70 per cent of trade.
Despite their caution, 26 per cent of retailers expect a year-on-year increase in sales, up three points from May, while 38 per cent are less optimistic. During May, 36 per cent of the retail respondents indicated a year-on-year sales decline, a drop of two points.
Experiencing better-than-expected results were adults’ clothing retailers and supermarkets, which exceeded forecasts by 40 and 33 points respectively.
For June, 80 per cent of the respondents in the leather-goods area expect improved sales with all respondents having year-on-year increases in May.
Watches, clocks and jewellery retailers had a 24-point rise in expectations for June, hitting 50 per cent, while department stores predict a 22-point increase to 56 per cent.
Restaurants had a six-point drop from the previous month in the percentage of respondents reporting year-on-year growth, while those who had a year-on-year decline rose 10 points to 33 per cent.
DSEC says the results were better than expected, as the April survey indicated only 18 per cent of respondents expected better sales figures.
Expectations for last month are mainly pessimistic with 41 per cent of respondents expecting receipts to dip while while only 22 per cent expect a rise. Predicting increases are 27 per cent of Chinese restaurants, 25 per cent of Western restaurants and 18.8 per cent of Japanese and Korean restaurants.
On the other hand, 60 per cent of Western restaurants foresee a drop.
French luxury goods group Hermes said on Friday (July 22) it expected first-half 2017 operating profitability to be close to the peak level of 33.9 per cent of sales achieved in the first half of 2016, thanks to foreign exchange gains.
Hermes, known for its US$10,000 (S$13,679) Birkin bags and US$400 printed silk scarves, made the forecast after sales growth slowed in the second quarter, broadly in line with expectations, and reflecting mostly challenging year-ago comparables.
Chief executive Axel Dumas told a conference call that sales momentum remained “quite good” with sustained demand for Hermes’ Birkin, Kelly, Constance and Lindy bags, robust demand for shoes, while the silk business continued to rebound.
In China, Hermes sales were still growing in double digits in the quarter, while Europe benefited from a rebound in tourist flows, which was particularly strong in Italy and in London thanks to a weaker pound, he said.
France was broadly flat, while growth in America also slowed due to high year-ago comparisons
Hermes reported an 8.3 per cent rise in revenue at constant exchange rates to 1.361 billion euros (S$2.16 billion), compared with 11.2 per cent growth in the first quarter. Analysts had forecast about 9 per cent growth on average.
Sales growth at its leather goods division, which makes up 50 per cent of group sales, slowed to 9.7 per cent from the 15 per cent rise achieved in the first quarter.
The luxury industry has suffered in the past couple of years as demand in China slowed and attacks in France deterred some tourists from travelling to Europe.
A recovery in tourism in Europe and stronger Chinese consumption are expected to lead a rebound in the luxury sector this year, the Bain consultancy predicted in May.
Online shopping is experiencing a growth surge, accounting for close to 20 percent of all retail sales in the first quarter of this year.
Retail transactions in the three months to March totaled 96.56 trillion won (US$85.83 billion), a growth of 4.7 percent from the same period a year before, according to Statistics Korea. The sum of online shopping was 18.21 trillion won, or 19 percent of the total.
This represents a 19.6 percent leap from the same quarter of the previous year and the largest total since related record keeping began in 2010.
The ratio of online sales to all retail sales has grown in double digits every quarter since the fourth quarter of 2012, when it was 10.2 percent. It reached 17.7 percent in the last quarter of 2016.
In monetary terms, the amount of transactions has also expanded by double digits, increasing the growth pace from 11.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013 to 23.2 percent in the third quarter of 2016. It fell to 19.6 percent in the first three months of this year.
The mobile sector played a critical part in contributing to online shopping, accounting for 59 percent of the sales in March.
“Mobile shopping has grown with the wide penetration of smartphones, and shopping malls have also been pushing their mobile platforms,” a Statistics Korea official said.
Such high performance of online sectors contrasts with sluggish figures in the overall retail market. Retail sales gains that reached over 10 percent in the first two quarters of 2011 shrank to 0.6 percent by the second quarter of 2013. They bounced back somewhat to 3-5 percent last year.
Sales at department store, the strongest source of offline shopping, have backtracked. The monetary amount of transactions fell 1.5 percent in January from a year before, 5.6 percent in February and 3.5 percent in March. The figures showed a decrease of 2.2 percent in April and 4.6 percent in May.
China’s retail sales of consumer goods grew 10.4 per cent year-on-year in the first half of this year to RMB17.24 trillion (US$2.55 trillion), new official data shows.
The pace was slightly faster than the 10 per cent for the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says.
Retail sales last month grew by 11 per cent year-on-year, the fastest rate since December 2015.
The NBS attributes the pick-up in growth partly to online sales, which surged 33.4 per cent year-on-year in the first half, 1.3 points higher than in the first quarter.
Online sales of goods rose 28.6 per cent to RMB2.37 trillion, accounting for 13.8 per cent of China’s total retail sales, up from a share of 11.6 per cent for the first half of last year.
NBS spokesman Xing Zhihong says the larger share proves new growth sources in the economy are rising.
Retail sales in rural areas rose 12.3 per cent in the first half, outpacing the 10.1 per cent expansion for urban areas.
Booming retail sales are behind China’s stabilising economy, which grew 6.9 per cent in the first half.
The contribution of final consumption to GDP growth stood at 63.4 per cent, slightly down from last year’s 64.6 per cent.
“Consumption demand is the most important engine of our economic growth,” says Xing.
A surge in takings at petrol pump stations lifted Singapore‘s retail sales in May, though a broad fall in sales by food retailers and other consumer goods sellers has left shops and restaurants here worried.
Total retail turnover in May was S$3.7 billion, up 0.9 per cent from May last year, according to Department of Statistics data out on Wednesday (July 12).
This was due mainly to a 11.3 per cent jump in sales at petrol service stations, a 4.5 per cent rise in sales of medical goods and toiletries, as a well as a 2 per cent rise in motor vehicle sales.
Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose 0.6 per cent from May last year.
On a month-on-month, seasonally adjusted basis, retail sales dropped 1 per cent in May over the previous month. Excluding motor vehicles, takings were down by a bigger margin of 3 per cent.
One of Japan’s largest online retailers has banned the sale of ivory, closing a major marketplace for the controversial trade. Rakuten is accused of being the world’s largest online retailer for elephant ivory, but will now phase out its sale. The trade is legal in Japan for items imported before 1989 – but no new stock can be brought into the country. Many other countries have banned the trade outright over concerns that it contributes to elephant poaching.
Rakuten also banned the sale of sea turtle products on its site, telling it was responding to “growing international concern”.
“We expect it will take 1-2 months for all listings of these prohibited products to be removed,” it said.
On the day of the announcement, a large number of ivory items were still listed for sale, including many carved personal seals known as “hanko”. Sellers of such items are expected to maintain careful records of their origin, and use only government-regulated ivory stockpiles. But activists believe the rules are often circumvented and the precious material is often smuggled across borders.
Yahoo Japan, another site which allows the sale of ivory, has previously come under fire for the practice.
However, a spokesman told Reuters it did not plan to halt the trade, saying: “We don’t think that the legal ivory trade in Japan has any impact on African elephant numbers.”
“It is important to recognise there are cultural differences between different countries,” he added.
African elephant numbers have plummeted in the last century, and there are an estimated 500,000 remaining on the continent.
China, a traditional powerhouse in the ivory trade, announced in December that it would ban all ivory activities and trade by the end of 2017.
Conservation groups hailed the decision as “historic” and a “game-changer” – but ivory artists have lamented the loss of a traditional craft.
Ek-Chai Distribution System Co, the operator of Tesco Lotus hypermarkets, has outlined strategies to serve omnichannel shoppers better.
Due to the growth of mobile internet usage in Thailand, the boundaries between offline and online worlds are become increasingly blurry.
Customer behaviours have shifted towards omnichannel shopping, where they receive information, converse with brands, do their research and finally shop both in brick-and-mortar stores and online, interchangeably, according to Mark Roughley, the company’s online director.
Internet penetration in Thailand in 2017 grew to 67% from 56% in January 2016. Nearly 45 million Thais now access the internet on their mobile phones.
Due to these trends, the customer journey has changed tremendously, and the new retail ecosystem now involves several parties and providers to facilitate the new customer journey and offer more choice, Mr Roughley said.
“We have been witnessing an increasing number of omnichannel customers,” he said. “We know that convenience is key for these customers. And we also know that mobile and innovation is the secret to attracting and connecting with omnichannel customers.”
To cope with this trend, the company continues to enhance its shopping fulfilment by extending more choices in terms of product delivery and shopping platforms.
The customer journey has changed rapidly. The new retail ecosystem is much more sophisticated than the old one, which had only three or four key players, namely product manufacturers, distributors, retailers and customers.
But the new retail ecosystem involves several parties and providers facilitating the new customer journey, from logistics providers to payment providers and price comparison platforms.
“We plan to enhance our services for customers in this new retail environment,” Mr Roughley said. “For example, the company has partnered with Happy Fresh to deliver fresh food to customers in their homes within one hour, or they can choose Tesco’s delivery.”
The retailer has also set a more comprehensive plan geared towards the e-payment system, in line with the government’s national e-payment scheme.
Mr Roughley said Tesco Lotus will focus on providing e-payment channels for customers. The retailer is considering setting its own e-payment system or using those of partners it would recruit.
The launch of the government’s national e-payment system will propel the country’s e-commerce industry and online shopping business. And the company can see that more customers are aware of e-payment.
To prepare for the growing trend, Tesco Lotus is working with payment providers such as Rabbit Line Pay to facilitate mobile payments. The retailer’s e-payment module is expected to start sometime by the end of this year or early next year.
This will support the online business of Tesco Lotus, currently a small portion of total sales. Mr Roughley declined to reveal the sales figures for Tesco, one of Thailand’s leading retailers operating 1,900 branches in all formats, including Tesco Express.
“Online shopping in Thailand grew faster than our network in several countries worldwide,” he said. “We are seeing very strong double-digit growth in our online business since offering it in the past five years, and the growth will be stronger this year.”
Jaguar Land Rover says overall retail sales for Jaguar Land Rover were 45,487 in May, up 1.2 percent year-on-year.
Jaguar Land Rover says Jaguar May sales were 13,613 vehicles, up 28 percent year-on-year. Jaguar Land Rover says Land Rover retailed 31,874 vehicles in May, down 7.1 percent year-on-year.
Need to satisfy your wanderlust? Look no further, because AirAsia will be giving away up to three million promotional seats in its Free Seats campaign.
The promotion is available from June 5 to June 11 for travel between Jan 15 and Aug 28, 2018.
Fares will be as low as RM0 to destinations such as Johor Baru, Penang and Surat Thani from Kuala Lumpur; Singapore and Langkawi from Penang; and Terengganu from Johor Baru.
Other than that, AirAsia X guests can also fly from Kuala Lumpur to Perth and Chongqing for fares as low as RM199.
Those travelling on AirAsia X will also be able to enjoy its award-winning Premium Flatbed from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, Shanghai, Osaka, Busan, Auckland, Gold Coast, and many more destinations from only RM899.
AirAsia BIG Members and BIG Prepaid MasterCard members will enjoy priority access and will be able to make bookings on airasia.com and the AirAsia mobile app or redeem flights via airasiabig.com from today.
Other partners will also be able to access the promotion 24 hours earlier. BIG Prepaid cardholders can do so on airasia.com, AirAsiaGo and AirAsia Expedia on their respective websites, while account holders with Citibank in Malaysia will receive an exclusive link from the bank. The first 100 daily bookings with AirAsia-Citi Card will get a RM50 AirAsia Electronic Gift Voucher (eGV).
“Free Seats is the best time to lock down travel plans for next year,” said AirAsia Group chief commercial officer Siegtraund Teh.
“With so many fantastic destinations on offer, it’s perfect for a long break or even just a quick weekend getaway,” she said in a statement.
China’s retail sales, a key indicator of consumption, grew 10.7 percent year on year in April, 0.2 percentage points slower than the March level, official data showed Monday.
Total retail sales of consumer goods hit 2.73 trillion yuan (about 395.4 billion U.S. dollars) last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). It increased 0.79 percent month on month.
In the first four months, total retail sales of consumer goods rose 10.2 percent year on year, 0.2 percentage points faster than the growth in the first quarter, according to Xing Zhihong, a spokesperson with the NBS.
Consumption activities were relatively stronger in rural areas, with retail sales expanding 12.6 percent in April, outpacing urban areas, where retail sales climbed 10.4 percent year on year.
Online spending was robust. From January to April, online retail sales surged 32 percent year on year to 1.92 trillion yuan.
Xing said the April figure indicates continued expansion of domestic consumer demand, which was partly driven by consumption upgrades and new business patterns such as online sales.
China is trying to shift its economy toward a growth model driven by consumer spending, innovation and services, while weaning it off reliance on exports and investment.
China’s economy expanded at a 6.9-percent pace in the first quarter, accelerating from 6.8 percent in the previous quarter, and 77.2 percent of it was driven by consumption, 12.6 percentage points higher than the 2016 level, according to official data.
Hong Kong’s retail rut is no more. For the month of March, Hong Kong retail sales lifted 3.1%, the first gain in two years, as visitors from mainland China returned to the city’s shopping regions.
The 3.1% uptick in Hong Kong was a measure of total revenues, while retail sales in volume terms gained 2.7%, rising for the first time since July 2015 according to figures released by the Hong Kong government’s Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) on Monday.
“Retail sales resumed moderate year-on-year growth in March,” said the government in a statement.
“This reflected partly the continued recovery of visitor arrivals and partly the robust local consumption demand.”
Local tourism surged 10.4% in March compared to the same month last year, pushed on by the return of mainland Chinese arrivals. It was the most growth recorded since February 2015.
March’s return to growth follows a dire start to 2017 for local retailers. Hong Kong retail sales dived 5.7% in February, after January sales contracted just 1%, said the C&SD.
In recent months, Hong Kong tourism has been hurt by an influx of Chinese tourists to Macau, the only Chinese territory where gambling is legal. The region is fast becoming a shopping hotspot too, with major retailers opening stores close to casinos and restaurants.
This includes US lingerie heavyweight Victoria’s Secret, who bowed its assortment retail store in Macau this month.
In November, credit ratings agency Fitch warned that the breakfast-driven rebound the chain is experiencing won’t last forever. While that prediction still may prove correct someday, Fitch can’t claim victory just yet: McDonald’s reported better-than-expected first quarter same-store sales Tuesday, thanks in no small part to a continued boost from the most important meal of the day.
McDonald’s reported Tuesday that its global same-store sales increased 4% during its first fiscal quarter of 2017. “There’s a sense of urgency across the business as we take actions to retain existing customers, regain lapsed customers and convert casual customers to committed customers,” McDonald’s president and CEO Steve Easterbrook said in a statement Tuesday morning.
The growth in same-store sales didn’t completely translate to gangbuster top-line sales, with first quarter revenue ticking down 4% to $5.68 billion (a figure that nonetheless managed to come in ahead of the $5.5 billion Wall Street consensus). McDonald’s explained the dip by pointing to the refranchising effort that is a part of its broader turnaround plan, and the costs associated with that effort.
Net income for the quarter, meanwhile, grew 8% to $1.2 billion, resulting in earnings of $1.47 per share — a figure that came in well ahead of the Street’s $1.33 per-share consensus.
“Our efforts to build a better McDonald’s are yielding meaningful results with continued positive momentum and a strong start to 2017 that includes positive comparable sales across all segments, higher global guest counts and enhanced profitability,” Easterbrook continued. “We’re challenging ourselves to identify and pursue initiatives that can bring the biggest benefit to the most customers in the shortest possible time. I’m confident that we’re on the right path and well-positioned to unlock incremental growth and deliver against our growth plan for 2017 and beyond.”