China's traditional retail industry are moving quickly to develop themselves into multichannel sellers and embrace both online and offline worlds, according to an annual report jointly issued by China Chain Store & Franchise Association and Deloitte on Friday.
Offline retailers either transform themselves by launching their own online stores, or join hands with e-commerce companies to complement each other. In August, China's biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.NYSE) announced that it would spend 28.3 billion yuan acquiring a 19.9 percent stake in Suning Commerce Group Co., Ltd. (002024.SZ), China's leading household appliance retailer.
The report, based on questionnaires sent to some 200 Chinese retailers, showed that brick-and-mortar stores in China have faced increasing pressure from economic slowdown, consumption upgrade, new business model, and e-commerce firms, as well as steadily high costs. In 2014, rentals and personnel costs of Chinese retailers on average increased 7.0 percent and 7.7 percent respectively from a year ago, the report said. More than 20 percent of respondents reduced outlets in the past year, and the number of staff per store dropped 1.2 percent in 2014 as retailers shed employees to keep a grip on costs.
Latest comments