post covid-19 recovery – consequential changes to expect for retail in china
apr 3, 2020
shanghai, april 3, 2020 —— cushman & wakefield, a leading global real estate services firm, recently released the report -looking beyond covid-19: consequential changes to expect for retail in china. shaun brodie, head of occupier research, greater china, head of research, east china, said: “the covid-19 outbreak has been an unprecedented event in china. its consequences have been felt across geographies, society, the economy and the property market in the country. the covid-19 outbreak is anticipated to influence china’s real estate market on many levels and in this report, we draw attention to four retail feature points which real estate investors, developers and occupiers should be cognisant of in 2020 and beyond.”
1. an omnichannel presence: a must-have item
duke zhen, managing director, retail services, china, said: “in the short term, the drop in footfall traffic will dent the retail sales numbers in china, however, going forward in the mid- to long term, we do expect retail sales volume growth rates to return to pre-outbreak levels. what’s more, we will see an acceleration and a deeper integration of offline/online omnichannel retail services in china, given the impact of the outbreak and the recognised importance of these platforms by retailers for driving retail product and service sales.”
retailing: from single channel to omnichannel
source: medium, cushman & wakefield research
2. digitisation/data intelligence to develop further
digitisation and data intelligence have become important tools in china’s retail sector, but the covid-19 outbreak has proved to a number of retailers that these tools can be further optimised. ahead, through best-practice use of digitisation and data intelligence, we expect many retailers to place a greater emphasis on:
customer relationship management;
in-depth data mining;
product personalisation, and;
intelligent supply chain management…
…so as to further improve the customer shopping experience and, ultimately, retail sales performance.
3. marketing models to transform
post covid-19, we expect more retailers and shopping centres in china to change their existing marketing model and adapt it to utilise live online broadcast channels to not only market their products and services but to also improve the overall shopping experience for their customers.
the top six online entertainment activities during the spring festival in china (2020)
source: kantar, cushman & wakefield research
4. bricks-and-mortar retail cleaning, health and hygiene to be prioritised
ahead, we expect shopping centres in china to prioritise, elevate, widen and deepen cleaning procedures to make sure centre premises are as clean and safe as they possibly can be. health and hygiene-enhancing measures adopted and implemented by shopping centre property management teams in china in the future are likely to be many, including:
a stepping up of related cleaning, health and safety training;
cleaning and cleaning checks to be more rigorous;
hvac systems, elevators, escalators, toilets, counter tops, common area seating and entrance/egress doors to be paid special cleaning attention, and;
hand sanitisers to be made available in all toilets and at all entrance/egress points.
by taking these actions and doing more, shopping centre property management teams in china will be in a better position to ensure that facility cleaning, health and hygiene levels are optimised. in turn, these measures will play an important role in enticing back regular customers to shopping centres in the country over the short term and attracting new customers over the mid- to long term, which will all bode well for retail sales and the net operating income of individual measure-adopting shopping centre properties.
please clickto download the report.
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about cushman & wakefield
cushman & wakefield (nyse: cwk) is a leading global real estate services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners. cushman & wakefield is among the largest real estate services firms with approximately 53,000 employees in 400 offices and 60 countries. across greater china, there are 22 offices servicing the local market. the company won four of the top awards in the euromoney survey 2017 and 2018 in the categories of overall, agency letting/sales, valuation and research in china. in 2019, the firm had revenue of $8.8 billion across core services of property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, valuation and other services. to learn more, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com or follow @cushwake on twitter.
for further information, please contact:
mandy qian
director, marketing & communications, greater china
tel: 86 10 8519 8040
mandy.qian@cushwake.com
