After opening the first online store on
Tmall.com in three years ago, the Canadian yoga and sport wear brand Lululemon
will formally enter Chinese market at the end of 2016. They will open flagship
stores and independent online store in China.
The three stores will be in Shanghai IFC,
Shanghai Jing an Kerry center and Beijing Sanlitun. Lululemon used tmall.com
store sales report to explore the Chinese market which is a great market has
huge potential but also makes many foreign brands confused. During the
exploring time of three years, Lululemon achieves a growth at the rate of 50%
by quarter on quarter. That affirms their belief to pay more attention on
Chinese market.
The online store which was scheduled to
open in 2015 has been on line at the first two weeks in December, 2016. Ken
Lee, the vice president of Lululemon Athletica Inc. said that the delay of
putting website online is because the company wants to make sure the products
and content. They hope the online store and local flagship store will provide a
synergy effect for the brand.
When the group opens store in Beijing and
Shanghai, they still focus on the second and third tier cities which become a
potential market for luxury goods and retail products. Lululemon got a huge
success in Chengdu by holding a 500 people marketing activity without sales
network. It shows that the rising customers and increasing buying requirements
in these cities. The internet and social media bring so many young customers
and makes these cites full of potential. Lululemon only has three stores in
Hong Kong, the sales of Hong Kong in 2016 reach 600 million dollar.
Because of the differences between Asian
people body figure and Americans or Europeans, the design team of Lululemon
will adjust the sizes of products. But the CEO Laurent Potdevin announced that
they won’t develop special product line for individual market. There is one thing
Lululemon is working actively. It is to narrow the price differences in order
to motivate customers.
Although analysts forecast a worried
prospect for sports leisure industry, Lululemon response the questions by a
beautiful quarter performance. Data shows that the group got a 7% growth in the
third quarter and realizing the ninth straight quarterly increase.
Lululemon group is committed to enhance
their business, like men’s clothing business and Ivivvva Athletica, the
children’s clothing business.
The market of sports clothing is rapidly
increasing because the rise of fitness craze. But when more brands focus on
Chinese market, the competition will be fiercer than ever before. Customer will
care more about the product performance like air permeability, quick-dry or not
(moisture management property), wearing safety, sport protection performance,
etc. when they have more choices. As said by Stuart Haselden, the CFO of
Lululemon, it is easy to be eliminated by market if they could not provide high
quality products and services. He showed that the group should continue to
focus on developing new fabric and innovative technology to distinguish from
other competitors.
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