

take stock of
The Piaoliang Shopping Center in the Asian Games Village was acquired by US$ 1. It is also reported that Parkson Sun Palace Store and Huatang Shilibao Store will be closed next month, which adds new content to the already long list of closed stores of physical businesses. Some insiders even predict that the department store retail industry will usher in the harshest wave of bankruptcy this year. So, has Yan Dong of the retail industry really arrived? Where is the future of physical commerce?
An Yu (pseudonym), who has been running a boutique children’s shoe store for four years, told the Beijing Youth Daily reporter yesterday that she would quit the store at the end of this month. Her shoe store is located in Piaoliang Shopping Center of Asian Games Village, and its income has plummeted for many years. Recently, there was news about this center: it was acquired by Hua Xun Company for $1. "Business is thin! I heard that the rent will go up after the renovation. " An Yu said, but in the face of the backlog of thousands of pairs of children’s shoes in the warehouse, she could do nothing. The embarrassing situation of Piaoliang Shopping Center and merchants An Yu is the epitome of China department store retail industry at present, and the news of store closing, closing down and reselling at low prices is frequently reported in newspapers. Some insiders predict that in 2016, department stores will usher in the most severe wave of closure.
event
With a debt of 1.5 billion, Piaoliang Shopping Center was sold at a low price.
A few days ago, there was a news in Piaoliang Shopping Center, where An Yu was located, which shocked the industry: the debt was RMB 1.5 billion, which was acquired by Hua Xun Company for US$ 1. Hua Xun Company announced on the 19th of this month that Watson Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hua Xun, will acquire all the issued shares of Bonroy Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bonroy International Group Limited, and indirectly own the ownership of Piaoliang Shopping Center at a cash consideration of USD 1. However, Piaoliang Shopping Center has been mortgaged to Gu Qi, the actual beneficiary of Yinghaotai Company, for failing to repay the RMB 1.5 billion owed by Foshan Yinghaotai Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yinghaotai Company). In addition, the announcement stated that the property was appraised by an independent property appraiser, and the valuation was about 2.14 billion yuan on June 30, 2016.
On Friday, the reporter of Beiqing Daily visited the site and found that several unknown brands in the lobby on the first floor of the shopping mall were getting together for sale, which looked like a clothing wholesale market. As the prime location of the shopping center, the pattern here is a little chaotic, with cosmetics stores, nail shops and gold shops, all of which are unheard of brands. Looking around, half of the shops around are vacant. The shop next to Anyu Shoe Store has now been covered by the enclosure, which is printed with a huge font for investment promotion. According to An Yu, it used to be a pants store. At that time, the Zhejiang boss decorated the store and prepared to make it a brand pants image store. However, he didn’t think that the business was very poor and had to leave the store. At present, it has not been rented out for at least one and a half years.
Piaoliang Shopping Center was officially opened in 2001. It is located in the gold business circle and living circle of the Asian Olympic Games in Chaoyang District, Beijing. There are many middle and high-grade residential areas, dining streets, office buildings, exhibition centers, etc. It is only one or two kilometers away from the Asian Games Village, Bird’s Nest Water Cube and other sports venues. The flow of residents, businesses and tourists is very sufficient. "In the past, many of my old customers came shopping by car or bus, and their children grew up wearing my shoes," An Yu recalled. "But now I haven’t seen them for a long time."
particular case
The shoe store that is losing money more and more is going to be withdrawn.
On the south side of the first floor of Piaoliang Shopping Center in Asian Games Village, An Yu’s children’s shoes pavement is here. There are two banners in the most obvious position of the shelf: "Clearance sale, no one left". But the mall is still deserted, and more and more people come and go from the mall staff. The reporter of Beiqing Daily and An Yu sat not far from the shoe store drinking coffee and listening to her narration. No one walked into her shop for a whole hour, only the young shopping guide girl was playing with her mobile phone and waiting for customers. Opposite the shoe store is a coffee shop, and there is a Little Square outside the door. Many children in the nearby community are playing. When An Yu chose the site four years ago, I took a fancy to the location of this berth at a glance. Two years before its opening, the benefit of the shoe store was satisfactory, with an average monthly turnover of more than 20,000 yuan and a profit of 40% to 50%. However, it got worse every year. Especially since last year, the turnover has been declining all the way, from more than 20,000 to more than 10,000 per month, and it has gradually become several thousand yuan, especially in the off-season of February this year, only 4,000 yuan was sold. "It is not enough for monthly rent!" She said. An Yu’s shoe store currently has a monthly rent of 5,000 yuan. In order to save costs, she only hired a shopping guide and her own two shifts, with a salary of 2,500 yuan. Together with the cost of electricity and shoes, she counted her fingers to the reporter of Beiqing Daily: "I am losing money in this business now!"
Talking about when the shoe store just opened in 2012, An Yu still remembers it clearly. There are good brand shoe stores on the first floor of the shopping mall, including Belle and Saturday, and customers have a lot of choices. Clothing and cosmetics counters are also big names. However, problems occurred later. Shopping malls were particularly slow to settle accounts for merchants, and the payment was seriously pressed. The rents of shops were relatively expensive, and the sales of merchants could not be reached. Big brand companies negotiated with shopping malls to reduce rents, but they were rejected by shopping malls, so brand-name stores evacuated one after another.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily saw in the store that ONLY the well-known brands of clothing are still sticking to it. "There are no good brands, all of them are miscellaneous goods. Who will buy them!" An Yu is worried. At the end of this month, An Yu is also ready to withdraw from the store, because she heard the gossip in the store that the owner will raise the rent after redecorating the store. Think about the future, An Yu is sad, thousands of pairs of children’s shoes are accumulated in the warehouse, and no one wants them for sale. "I really don’t know what to do."
press sb for an interview
Two department stores will close next month.
In fact, in the current overall economic downturn, the entire retail industry is in a period of continuous and deep adjustment. The example of Piaoliang Shopping Center being sold at a low price is only a portrayal of the decline of the entire department store retail format.
On the evening of September 13th this year, Parkson Group, the largest department store in Malaysia, announced that it would sell all the shares of its wholly-owned subsidiary in China and the creditor’s rights of relevant shareholders. According to the media investigation, the indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Parkson Group — — Beijing huadesheng property management co., ltd. The property operated by the company is Parkson Sun Palace Store located in Chaoyang District, Beijing, which has been in a state of loss since it opened in 2010. As of July 31, 2016, the unaudited net book value of Sun Palace Parkson was 1.032 billion yuan. Parkson said that the group estimated that the net proceeds from the sale of the store would be about 1.9 billion yuan, and the takeover was made by Shenzhen former Haitulan Investment Company, and the property delivery would be completed by the end of this year. Parkson Group’s revenue in the first half of this year was 8.495 billion yuan, down 12% year-on-year, and its net profit loss was 124 million yuan, down 85.65% year-on-year.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily visited Parkson Sun Palace Store and Fuxing Store this Friday. Sun Palace Store is doing a "30% discount on autumn clothes" promotion. At the special sale on the first floor, brand women’s dresses such as CARA and Rheinland are on sale at a discount, but there are few customers. The phenomenon that shops on the third, fourth and fifth floors are vacant is becoming more and more serious. The sixth floor has been completely closed. There used to be four or five restaurants on the seventh floor, but now there is only a beauty salon and a fast food restaurant, and no diners come at lunch. It is reported that Sun Palace Parkson will be closed on October 31st.
Fuxingmen Parkson is holding a discount for its 22nd anniversary. The main brands buy 300 yuan and send it to 220 yuan. Although the discount is not small, the consumer’s bag carrying rate is very low. Wangpu, which faces Chang ‘an Avenue on the first floor, is currently vacant. Miss He, a tourist from Zhengzhou, walked around the store and was about to leave. "There are no brands I like here. I’ll go to Xidan to look for them." She said. The "brands" mentioned by Miss He are fashionable and fast-selling brands like ZARA, H&M, Uniqlo, C&A and so on. However, the clothing brands seen by reporters of Beiqing Daily in two Parkson shopping centers are either too old or completely unknown.
It’s not just Parkson Sun Palace that wants to close the store. On September 20th, the Huatang Shopping Mall in Shilibao suddenly reported that Shilibao Store in Huatang Shopping Mall will be closed from November 1st, 2016. The staff of the service desk of Shilibao Huatang also confirmed this when asked by the reporter of Beiqing Daily. Regarding the reason for the sudden closure of the Shilibao Huatang Shopping Mall, the relevant person of Huatang said in an interview with the media that the continuous loss was one of the reasons for the closure of the store.
Since the end of April 2014, Huatang has closed Beijing Wangjing Store; Four months later, Huatang Beiyuan Store was closed; On December 1 of the same year, Xizhimen Store was closed; At the end of March 2015, Huatang Youanmen Store was closed; In July 2016, Daxing Store of Huatang Shopping Mall was closed. Counting Shilibao Store, only three of the original nine Huatang stores in Beijing will operate normally, namely Asian Games Village Store, Fengtai North Road Store and Sanlitun Food Hall.
respond
Parkson is still full of confidence in the China market
In 1994, Parkson Fuxingmen Store, known as the first foreign department store in mainland China, opened in Beijing, positioning itself as a high-end fashion department store. Now that 22 years have passed, is this Malaysian retail brand going to withdraw from the China market?
Parkson Commercial Group said in response to the media a few days ago that Parkson only sold the Sun Palace store in Beijing and did not involve other regional stores. It is misunderstood that Parkson will sell all its business in China and withdraw from the China market. In a reply letter to the media, Tansley Heng Jem Cheng, executive director and chairman of Parkson, said that in the future, Parkson will still be full of commitment and confidence in China’s consumer market, and will strive to strengthen its retail format and continue to promote its transformation strategy.
But in fact, the drama of Parkson’s closing shop has been staged continuously. According to public information, from 2012 to 2015, Parkson has closed at least 8 stores. So far this year, Parkson has closed three stores, including two in Chongqing and one in Xi ‘an. Beijing Sun Palace Parkson, which will be closed at the end of October, will become the 12th shopping mall closed by Parkson in China.
It is worth mentioning that in order to cope with the increasingly fierce market competition, Parkson Group is also seeking transformation. According to the 2015 annual report of Parkson Group, in order to better deepen strategic transformation, avoid market risks and prepare for the future, the company will continue to strengthen three strategic pillars, namely, retail format and network optimization, increase of products and services, and strengthen cross-platform customer interaction.
There are rumors that Sun Palace Parkson will be transformed into an office building, but this rumor has not been officially confirmed. Sun Palace Parkson is located in the northeast corner of Sun Palace Bridge on North Third Ring Road, with a convenient location. Take Metro Line 13 and get off at Guangximen, and walk a few minutes from the subway entrance. According to the survey results, the rent of medium-quality office buildings near the North Third Ring Road can be around 8.5-9 yuan/day/square meter.
analyse
The closure of physical stores is not entirely due to the impact of e-commerce
In An Yu’s view, the main reason for the loss of shoe store customers is the impact from e-commerce. Her feelings about this are very obvious: "Many customers are like this now. He wants to buy shoes, tries on the shoe size from my store and then buys them online." In An Yu’s view, online sales have no personnel costs, rental costs, water and electricity costs, etc., and the burden is very light and the price advantage is strong, which makes it difficult for physical stores to do it. She once secretly investigated that the online price of her own brand children’s shoes is only 50 yuan per pair. "But the wholesale price that Beijing always gives us is already a pair of 60 yuan. If I sell 90 yuan, customers will definitely say it is expensive." In fact, even if the price is marked like this, the physical store will not make money. Calculated by the profit rate of 33%, even if An Yu now achieves a turnover of 20,000 yuan, the profit is only 6,600 yuan, and it is not enough to plan the store rent. In this regard, she has communicated with Beijing Zongdai many times, but it has been fruitless.
Is the department store industry really hard to survive due to the impact of e-commerce? The relevant person in charge of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association said in an interview with the media that the closing of physical stores is not entirely due to the impact of e-commerce, but also the weak growth of the real economy, high labor costs, rental costs and tax costs, which are eroding the already low profits.
Some insiders believe that the adjustment of the department store industry is a natural law of survival of the fittest and a normal market behavior. For a long time, the department store industry will still exist and be in a state of change. Experiential shopping in the future is a direction for the future development of China’s retail industry, but whether it is department stores or shopping centers, city squares or outlets, these retail formats are reasonable as long as they meet the market demand.
According to the statistics of the Top 100 Chain Stores in China released by China Chain Store & Franchise Association, the sales scale of the Top 100 Chain Stores in 2015 was 2.1 trillion RMB, an increase of only 4.3%, the lowest in the past years, and the department store format even declined by -0.7%.
transform
Scenery and experience department stores are the way out in the future.
When talking about the future, An Yu looked confused: "I don’t know what to do in the future." Now her warehouse is full of children’s shoes, which have been earned in the past four years. Failure to sell them quickly means that the investment is lost. A friend once suggested that she open an online shop, and she tried it, only to find that it was not as easy as she thought. "It takes money to do promotion in Taobao," An Yu said. "My online shop didn’t do promotion. Only eight people came in a month, six of them were me, and the other two persuaded me to do promotion." In desperation, she thought of setting up a stall in the community morning market, but she was worried that her brand of children’s shoes did not match the low-priced style of the morning market. "I just sold a pair of 50 yuan at a loss, and it is estimated that no one will buy it."
The reporter of Beiqing Daily visited a number of department stores and found that the traditional department store model was too old-fashioned and single. Their layout was still cosmetics on the first floor, women’s clothing on the second floor, men’s clothing on the third floor and children’s clothing on the fourth floor. At most, a supermarket was opened on the ground floor, which was difficult to attract passengers.
Compared with the traditional department store industry, scene and experience department stores are more popular, and children’s parks, restaurants, cinemas and supermarkets have become the standard of shopping centers. The so-called scene refers to the addition of children’s experience areas, such as children’s paradise, flip-flop, infant swimming pool, beer garden, theme park and so on. Many shopping malls often cooperate with the community to engage in large-scale performances, competitions and other entertainment activities, first attracting popularity, and then trying to turn them into consumers.
Secondly, experience, here more refers to quality catering. At the Aegean Shopping Center next to Parkson Sun Palace Store, at lunchtime, white-collar workers with badges stood on the escalators on all floors. They all went straight to the food center on the fifth floor, where there were more than a dozen restaurants, large and small, as well as food stalls, which were suitable for business banquets, friends’ gatherings and individuals to solve the problem of working meals. According to industry analysts, these diners are also potential customers of Shangchao.
This edition/reporter Zhao Xinpei
observe
Shopping malls can’t compete with e-commerce because of different prices.
Since the emergence of e-commerce, that is, a few years, many famous large shopping centers have gradually faded out of public view. With the crowded shopping malls in the past closed or changed hands, people in the industry are worried: where is the future of physical commerce? Has Yan Dong of the retail industry really arrived?
In this regard, the reporter of Beiqing Daily interviewed a sociologist. The expert believes that the whole world economic environment is now bad, and there are always people in China who say that the economy is declining and the growth rate of the real economy is declining. "But every time I go home, there are always some express cars at my doorstep, which are very busy. It seems that the purchasing power of society is very strong."
Retail analysts point out that if there is no big problem with the overall purchasing power of the whole society, and many large supermarkets, such as Beiyuan Huatang and large shopping centers, such as Pacific Department Store, which have been proved to have strong operating ability in the past, have closed their doors and switched careers, it shows that the way of social consumption activities is changing and the concept of consumption activities is changing.
In fact, since the Internet has gradually become the main communication channel for human beings, the way of life, the way of thinking and a series of inherent lifestyles based on it are changing.
In the not-too-distant past, many people, especially younger people, would wander the streets after work. Men go to electrical appliances and photography shops, while women go to fashion shops and look at cosmetics and luxury shops. It is not necessary to buy anything, but mainly a mood. Walking in the long corridor of a magnificent high-end shopping mall, smelling the unique smell of high-end shopping malls, buying some snacks or sitting down for a cup of coffee was once a common leisure lifestyle of many white-collar workers.
However, the Internet era has brought human beings into a virtual or semi-virtual society. People can chat and meet friends at home without going out, and they can see the outside world at home, even the world that doesn’t exist outside at all. So the herding of human beings was removed. More people choose to stay at home rather than go shopping in the mall.
However, it seems a bit exaggerated to say that physical commerce has no future, and the winter of large shopping centers has arrived.
After understanding why people are not keen on shopping, we will understand that the competition in shopping malls is not entirely due to the different costs and prices of the same commodity. Then it is clear where the future of physical commerce lies. The first is to change the original simple mode of operation, and the second is to transform into a service that the Internet cannot provide.
The orientation of large shopping centers in foreign countries is mainly entertainment and leisure. Buses in all directions end in shopping centers, which have places for children to play, study, sports centers, cinemas, various restaurants and places for short breaks. Many families spend the whole weekend in the center. They actually created a complete living and leisure environment to attract customers. In addition, it is necessary to develop more non-food service industries. For example, many shopping centers are equipped with fan bars, gaming centers and other leisure services. Because you can’t enjoy these services at home anyway.