The broad sweep of Asian retail: chains, consumers, policy and the deals that move the market.
Retail sales in Malaysia fell by nearly one per cent in the last quarter of 2014 as consumers cut back spending, spooked by the looming introduction of GST. On April 1, Malaysia’s government introduces a goods and services tax on most items, excluding food,…
Hong Kong based retail jeweller Chow Tai Fook is to partner in a US$4 billion casino project in Vietnam. Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, an affiliate of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, the world’s largest jewellery retailer by market value, has already committed to…
The much anticipated debut of Lawson Philippines will occur today, Monday. The first store will open in the Manila suburb of Sta. Ana. Lawson Philippines is a joint venture between local operator Puregold Price Club (70 per cent) and Lawson Japan (30 per…
Chinese electrical retailing giant Gome plans to open 100,000 ‘micro stores’ in 2015 in a move it says will help it build a retail community of more than 100 million customers. The bold vision is part of a new strategic multi channel plan Gome is embarking on…
Facebook yesterday waded further into e-commerce with the acquisition of shopping search engine TheFind.com. “For the last nine years we’ve worked hard to bring you a shopping experience that’s easy, efficient and fun – searching all the stores on the web to…
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the Indian state of Maharashtra on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Swedish furniture retailing giant, IKEA, to set up two to three stores. Maharashtra is one of four states,…
Lawson Philippines will launch later this month with the first of 500 stores planned in a partnership with local retailer Puregold Price Club. Puregold will own 70 per cent of the joint venture partnership with the Japanese convenience store retailer, which…
Amid rising demand for linen fabrics, Jaya Shree Textiles, an Aditya Birla Group company, plans to add 20-25 Linen Club stores to its retail chain in 2015-16. Jaya Shree has 116 Linen Club stores at present and the company’s fabrics are available through…
Dairy Farm International has been given regulatory clearance to acquire its target 19.99 per cent stake in Shanghai-listed Yonghui Superstores. The deal, announced last August, was conditional on regulatory approvals. Dairy Farm has now confirmed it has…
Asia led a global sales boom for luggage specialist Samsonite last year. Samsonite Group’s net sales in Asia soared 16.1 per cent to US$892.3 million in the year to December 31. Excluding foreign currency effects, net sales increased by 18 per cent. Samsonite…
Same store sales and group profit both increased by five per cent at Spanish apparel giant Inditex in 2014. In financial statements just released, Inditex said its key same store sales growth indicator stands at 23 per cent over the past five years. Net…
Nike has reported a stellar quarter as shoppers indulge in its higher margin products. The sportswear giant’s net income rose 16 per cent to US$791 million in the three months to February 28. Its gross margin stretched 1.4 percentage points to 45.9 per cent…
Japanese eCommerce giant Rakuten is to pay US$410 million in cash to buy OverDrive, a leading eBook and audiobook content marketplace and sharing economy pioneer. Cleveland, US-based OverDrive was founded in 1986 and supplies the world’s largest catalog of…
Convenience Retail Asia says sales in its convenience stores and bakeries rose marginally last year, but rising costs dented profits. CRA, part of the Fung Retailing group, operates 604 retail stores in southern China. It has 329 Circle K stores in Hong Kong…
Price comparison site, PricePanda, and Sydney-based, Getprice, will merge to create an online comparison shopping business network across the Asia Pacific. The newly created group will operate as Next Commerce and will operate in nine countries across Asia…
Retailers such as Myer and Woolworths have been urged to quiz customers when they leave stores empty-handed and grill shoppers who spend money at rival chains, to achieve better returns on their investment in big data. Spending on data analytics is rising by…
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Read by retail operators, investors and brand teams across Asia.