Interview | AEON finalizes a grand strategy under the epidemic, and picks up more than 70 stores online and offline to help Google online shopping

Special interview

Written by: Kwong Yueting

2020-09-28 08:00

Last update date: 2020-09-28 08:00

The retail industry in Hong Kong is blowing coldly, but supermarket business has bucked the market and rose.

AEON (0984), which operates AEON department store, increased its Hong Kong business revenue by 15.9% in the first half of this year. It also plans to open 15 Living Plaza branches this year, which is an extraordinary phenomenon against the market.

In an exclusive interview with "Hong Kong 01", AEON Managing Director Nakagawa Yizheng said that the epidemic has given the public more time to stay at home, and they are more inclined to "clean up" or shop online. Among them, food and lifestyle products sell best.

He believes that after the epidemic eases, the clothing and household products business is expected to recover. The company will introduce products according to changes in customer needs. He hopes to open a total of 15 living product stores Living PLAZA by AEON this year.

Nakagawa Yizheng revealed that AEON's top three best-selling products are eggs, snacks and milk.

(Respondents provide pictures)

Under the epidemic, in addition to the huge sales of cleaning and disinfection products, AEON's ingredients and food sales have increased due to the fact that people are cooking at home. Among them, eggs, snacks and milk are the top three best-selling products.

Nakagawa Yizheng said that the epidemic has reduced the number of people going out and the proportion of people living at home has increased. Many people will "buy more at once" when they go to the supermarket to shop. This drives Aeon's Hong Kong business revenue to rise by 15.9% to 2.42 billion yuan in the first half of the year. , And Wednesday’s special daily sales increased by 20% year-on-year.

"We will adjust the product mix in the stores according to the needs of customers. For example, at the beginning of the epidemic, when the market was out of stock, such as masks and toilet paper, the group immediately brought these products back to Hong Kong through shipping and air transportation. At present, there are restrictions on dine-in In the past, everyone would go out for two drinks, now they drink at home, so that canned sparkling wine and Japanese fruit wine sell well.”

Taking advantage of the store, we plan to push online shopping and store pickup

Japan is regarded as the second "hometown" by many Hong Kong people. During the epidemic, will Hong Kong people buy Japanese goods to help them "homesick"?

Nakagawa Yizheng laughed and said that Hong Kong people like to go to Japan and buy Japanese-made products, and they even know the information about new Japanese products very well. Because citizens cannot travel abroad, the group’s sales of Japanese products in the first half of this year have increased more than in the past few years. Will strengthen the sales of Japanese products.

AEON expects that the online sales market will continue to develop, and the company will also strengthen its online shopping and physical store business.

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In addition to "shopping" in supermarkets, citizens also tend to use online shopping services. In the first half of this year, the sales of the AEON e-commerce platform more than doubled.

As more people use online platforms for consumption, reflecting the changes in people's consumption patterns, Zhongchuan Yizheng expects that after the epidemic, the online shopping market will continue to develop and will increase the development of e-commerce platform business.

Therefore, the group plans to add payment functions and electronic coupon functions to the AEON Moblie mobile app. After shopping in the mobile app, customers can choose the delivery service or pick up the goods at the store, and they will also provide product reservation services.

He continued that Hong Kong’s logistics costs are high, and the group has more than 70 stores in Hong Kong, with a high store network coverage, and a comparative advantage in store pickup.

In addition, for the convenience of customers, there may be delivery services such as bento and sushi in the physical store in the future.

The physical store is still the main axis and hopes to open 15 Living Plaza throughout the year

While strengthening the development of the grid shopping platform, AEON is still focusing on physical stores, and has decided to open 15 branches of Living PLAZA by AEON this year.

Nakagawa Yizheng explained that the group started in the form of physical stores, while Hong Kong is small, densely populated, and residents have greater shopping needs. Therefore, the group will still focus on physical stores and will study how to improve store operation efficiency and increase customer shopping in the future. Convenience and satisfaction.

As for why the Living Plaza store was opened this year, the reason is that the store is mainly engaged in daily groceries and has a high passenger flow. In addition, its interior decoration costs are small and the opening speed is faster. The group prefers to find a store with an area of ​​more than 2,000 square feet.

In addition, if the rent level and location are appropriate, other businesses will be considered.

"As of September 1, we have opened 9 Living Plazas. We hope to challenge to open up to 15. We feel that opening so many of them will have considerable profits!"

Zhongchuan Yizheng feels that Hong Kong citizens have strong shopping abilities and great shopping demand. Therefore, in the future, the group will introduce more life-related products and increase customers' shopping experience.

(Respondents provide pictures)

In the first half of this year, a total of approximately 147 self-service cash registers were added to different stores of the Group.

Nakagawa Yizheng said that last year the Hong Kong branch faced the problem of inviting people, which caused customers to wait for a long time. Therefore, referring to the practice of the Chinese branch, the self-service fee collection system was added in the Hong Kong branch last fall. However, he thinks it is difficult to fully implement it now. There is no cash register, because the elderly customers still want to have a clerk in charge of the cash register. The group will make adjustments according to customer needs and market conditions.

The global economy is in recession, but Nakagawa Yi is revealing that Japan’s Aeon Group intends to expand into markets in China and Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and other places. “Although China’s economy is relatively weak, it has a population of 1.3 billion and is a huge market. It will increase the number of stores in China.” In addition, AEON will hold a 33rd anniversary promotion in October. Nakagawa Yizheng revealed that the company is preparing for promotional offers. Due to the deteriorating economic environment in Hong Kong, it is estimated that the public is more interested in lifestyle products, so it will provide Lifestyle goods at reasonable prices.

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