Wal-Mart has 12 shopping plazas and one Sam’s Club in Fujian province, providing more than 4,000 jobs. Wal-Mart will introduce low-carbon concepts to its malls in Xiamen.
Wal-Mart has built 46 partner farms in 15 provinces, benefiting 479,000 farmers. “Our objective is to build our partner farms to 1 million farmers by the end of 2011,” Christina Lee, senior public relations director of Wal-Mart China said.
Xiamen is also actively exploring the low-carbon development model for local conditions, which is compatible with Wal-Mart’s strategies. Wal-Mart saves energy by promoting energy-saving LED lamps and cabinet freezers, waste heat recovery units, and turning off some lights during non-peak hours.
Selling environmentally friendly commodities is another crucial component of Wal-Mart’s green ambitions. For example, its Partner Farm Program has been helping farmers improve their adaptabilities to markets and guiding their standardized mass production in an environmentally friendly way since 2007.
This not only helps farmers increase their incomes, but also provides Chinese consumers with fresh, safe, tasty, and healthy foods.
The company has also organized a domestic marketing tutorship program for export enterprises and helped them explore domestic markets.
Lee said the program is being carried out in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and some other regions with developed export industries.
“Thanks to this program, more than 1,000 export enterprises have benefited,” she said. “Products from more than 60 enterprises are on the shelves of Wal-Mart, bringing in more than 50 million yuan ($7.35 million) in sales a year.”
As the leading market data and intelligence provider in the APAC region, getchee works with international brand owners that are entering or expanding their operations in China and the rest of the Asia Pacific. We are hosting a seminar in Shanghai on October 29, 2010 at Accenture’s facilities to aid brand owners in their shopping mall targeting strategy. We want to take this opportunity to invite you to attend. Please mark your calendars and stay tuned for details.
China’s rapid urbanization and development rate means new shopping malls are opening every week. Learn how incorporating geo-demographic data and location analysis in your mall selection strategy can maximize your return and create a long term successful store in a flourishing mall.
Avoid shopping mall pitfalls. Bigger is not always better. Dongguan, located in southern China’s Guangdong provice, has a population over 6 million. It is also home to one of the world’s largest malls, New South China Mall. The mall has space for up to 2,350 stores but it’s been 99% vacant since opening in 2005. It’s considered a ‘ghost mall’ or ‘dead mall’.
Click here for pictures if you can’t watch the video.
Register for Seminar – Targeting Good Malls in China
Date: October 29, 2010 (Fri.)
Venue: Accenture Shanghai Office (Accenture link)
Address: 31F Zhao Feng Plaza, 1027 Changning Road, Shanghai, China (map)
Registration: philip.tomlin@getchee.com
Reg. Fee: None
Language: English
Feel free to invite interested third parties.
You always come across GDP when dealing with market potential. But what about ‘retail synergy index’? We feel it is also very important to evaluate and focus on the retail penetration within cities. A city with only a high GDP level doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good market to enter.
The graph below illustrates how getchee’s retail synergy index adjusts the ranking of Chinese cities based on modern retail penetration. Cities such as Wuhan and Chengdu have modern retail synergies comparable to their GDP rankings, whereas cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou have retail synergies that don’t quite match their high GDP rankings.
China’s big and it’s hard to know who likes what. However, one thing is certain. Research and data from getchee show that people in northern China seem more like sportswear people than those in the south. Based on the major cities in each of the five China regions, take a look at how many people each Nike, Adidas, Li Ning, and Anta store could pack in.
Discussion Questions
1. What will it take to boost sportswear brand penetration in southern China?
Everyone is talking about emerging markets these days and with all this talk we hear China come up a lot. However, David Rubenstein, a founding managing director of The Carlyle Group has made a good point. “If China, by the year 2035, is the biggest economy in the world, how much longer can you call it an emerging market?”
So, what is a true emerging market? CNN’s Andrew Stevens has recently reported on the growing economic might of Vietnam, particularly Ho Chi Minh. The city is booming and has been booming at an average annual growth rate of 7 percent for the past 10 years. More importantly, Vietnam is serious about drawing in foreign business.
We’ve seen electronics manufacturers like Samsung and Canon, big Asian carmakers as well as Ford, and tanning factories that produce shoes for Timberland all move into Vietnam. Why? It’s cheaper. There’s less state intervention when companies follow workplace and environmental standards. Plus, Vietnam has key access to a vast and cheap labor pool across the borders of Cambodia and Laos, according to Stevens.
But what about retail, particularly retail food? Here are some quick facts about retail food and market potential in Ho Chi Minh compared to its Chinese sister city, Shanghai.
What would the demographic makeup of the first McDonald’s in Ho Chi Minh look like?
McDonald’s trade area with an 1100m large radius would include a labor population of 75,544, a female population of 6,228, a male population of 59,125, and a total population of 124,703.
And Starbucks?
Starbucks trade area with a 900m large radius would include a labor population of 74,283, a female population of 5,985, a male population of 56,460, and a total population of 116,320.
And lucky for us, the trade areas of these two retail giants’ first locations in Vietnam overlap.
So what does a trade area analysis reveal?
Discussion Questions
1. Will we see an emergence of foreign brands such as McDonald’s and Starbucks in Vietnam like we have in China? Why or why not?
2. Where in Vietnam would you open the first McDonald’s?
3. Where in Vietnam would you open the first Starbucks?
We’d love to know what you think. Leave your comments below. Thanks. -Eddie
