Central to revamp department stores

[webfact]

Central to revamp department stores

By KWANCHAI RUNGFAPAISARN 
THE NATION

 

 

BANGKOK: -- CENTRAL Group’s department store arm will spend Bt350 million to rebrand its stores as part of an effort to revamp the properties - alongside a push to boost its online services – during this year’s 70th anniversary of the group.

 

Central Department Store Group, which operates the properties, says the Bt350 million budget is aimed at “transforming its department stores in order to deliver a unique shopping experience for its customers”.

 

Yuwadee Chirathivat, chief executive of Central Department Store Group, said the group was continuously looking at ways to “conduct the transformation in many areas of its retail business, including product development, offline and online sales and services, store decoration with more lifestyle elements, and marketing activities, which would be facilitated with customer-centric strategy and digital technology”.

 

“We would like Central Department Stores to be the places where people spend their daily life, and be part of the society,” she said.

 

“With our ‘Centrality’ concept, we want to be the venues where individual customers will be gather together not for only shopping, but also learn new things and gain insights into other cultures.”

 

Yuwadee said that the group had formed strong bonds with Thai society over the past 70 years. “And this support from customers has helped drive Central to become Thailand’s biggest department store chain and one that is steadily expanding domestically and internationally in line with its Centrality strategy,” she said.

 

 “We aims to establish store branches in the heart of communities where people spend time together.

 

“Central Department Store Group has seen successful business in the Asean region and has reached out into Europe, where it owns and operating many luxury shopping malls in key cities such as Milan, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Rome.

 

“Today, Central Department Store is not just a national or regional retailer brand, but it’s the pride of all Thais, a Thai-owned business that has grown into a world-class luxury department store operator, with la Rinascente in Milan having been named the best department store in the world in 2016.” 

 

Yuwadee said that Central Department Store Group expected Bt130 billion in total sales this year, up more than 10 per cent over last year. About 60 per cent of the group’s revenue would be from the domestic market, with the rest coming generated by its luxury department stores overseas. The sales contribution from overseas stores has increased significantly from 20 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively, in 2012 and 2014, she said.

 

“In Thailand, we will focus on sustainable growth and gradual expansion of our department store outlets, especially in potential locations across the country,” she said.

 

“ Under the plan, we would like to open between three to four new Robinson department stores every year. However, the opening of Central department stores will be at slower pace of one to two stores annually,” she said, adding that the number of branded retail outlets operated by Central Department Store Group was expected to increase from 294 stores currently to about 309 stores by the end of this year.

 

Central Department Store Group operates 10 retail brands in its portfolio, in Thailand and abroad. They are Central Department Store, Central Embassy, Zen, Robinson Department Store, Supersports, la Rinascente, Illum, Kadewe, Oberpollinger, and Alsterhaus.

 

The group has also introduced the website www. AuxVillesDuMonde.com (AVDM) and a mobile application of the same name to connect its customers to all of the company’s department stores worldwide.

 

Using these platforms, customers are able to browse for tourist information in the cities where the stores are located as well as being able to book hotel rooms and restaurants, buy goods that are not available in Thailand and collect points on their The 1 Card.

 

Yuwadee said that as part of the group's omni-channel strategy, it aimed to boost online sales from less than 1 per cent today to between 5 per cent and 10 per cent over the next three to five years.

 

She said that Central Department Store Group would open a CentralPlaza Nakhon Ratchasima retail complex in November, a renovated CentralPlaza Rama III in December, and a new Central Phuket in March next year.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Corporate/30320590

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-07-13

 

[ratcatcher]

“We would like Central Department Stores to be the places where people spend their daily life, and be part of the society,” she said.

 

Really.......shopping?          Is she so out of touch with how the vast majority of Thais actually spend their daily lives?

[brewsterbudgen]

The revamping of Centralworld has been ongoing for a while now.

[ben2talk]

'News' is just another word for 'Promotion' right?

 

Does anyone not know of a Department store that clears enough profit to spend a few Million baht redecorating and remodelling every two years or so to stay ahead of the competition?

[Cadbury]

41 minutes ago, ratcatcher said:

“We would like Central Department Stores to be the places where people spend their daily life, and be part of the society,” she said.

 

Really.......shopping?          Is she so out of touch with how the vast majority of Thais actually spend their daily lives?

You make a valid point. The Bangkok city slickers spend most of their time (except their lunch hour) asleep at their desks or playing with their smartphone. While the plebeians outside the city boundary are busy trying hard to scratch out a living and have little time or money for shopping or swanning around in the chichi Central Plazas. 

[inThailand]

Yes, when shopping malls were a novelty you could employ a build and they will come strategy. Times have changed and with cheaper internet shopping, malls will become white elephants and too expensive to be used for eating only. 

[rkidlad]

I think shopping malls here will have to redefine themselves. We're coming into an age where you can shop online for less with more variety. But shopping malls here serve a purpose in as much as they have restaurants and air con. 

[henry15]

4 hours ago, Cadbury said:

You make a valid point. The Bangkok city slickers spend most of their time (except their lunch hour) asleep at their desks or playing with their smartphone. While the plebeians outside the city boundary are busy trying hard to scratch out a living and have little time or money for shopping or swanning around in the chichi Central Plazas. 

The Bangkok cit slicker leave home at 05.30am  going to work and arrive back home 20.30 pm. With 10 day's vacation a year. While people in the banook spend the day in theire hammock drinking Lao Kao

[inThailand]

Shopping malls with their premium location and high rental rates are doomed. Warehouse or loft living  conversions of these malls will take place as the west experienced and the ability to have multiple garage parking spaces will fuel the fire.

[Cadbury]

15 minutes ago, henry15 said:

The Bangkok cit slicker leave home at 05.30am  going to work and arrive back home 20.30 pm. With 10 day's vacation a year. While people in the banook spend the day in theire hammock drinking Lao Kao

I don't see too many Thai women out in the boons lying in hammocks drinking Lao Kao. Perhaps you only refer to the men you mix with.

Surely you mean 10 days vacation for the city slickers on top of the other 30 public holidays thy get.

[ratcatcher]

5 hours ago, Cadbury said:

You make a valid point. The Bangkok city slickers spend most of their time (except their lunch hour) asleep at their desks or playing with their smartphone. While the plebeians outside the city boundary are busy trying hard to scratch out a living and have little time or money for shopping or swanning around in the chichi Central Plazas. 

I wonder if a Walmart type of operation would help the plebs with their shopping choices? Seriously.

Or would that prove to be too competitive for the Thais?

Edited July 13, 2017 by ratcatcher

[daphnia88]

This makes me sad... 

[hansnl]

57 minutes ago, henry15 said:

The Bangkok cit slicker leave home at 05.30am  going to work and arrive back home 20.30 pm. With 10 day's vacation a year. While people in the banook spend the day in theire hammock drinking Lao Kao

Oh really?

Wrong on both counts.

[williamgeorgeallen]

1 hour ago, inThailand said:

Shopping malls with their premium location and high rental rates are doomed. Warehouse or loft living  conversions of these malls will take place as the west experienced and the ability to have multiple garage parking spaces will fuel the fire.

yea i would have thought so to but the kept building them. each new shopping center takes the business, mikes then the avenue then central then harbor and soon terminal in pattaya. how does this business model work?

[midas]

1 hour ago, inThailand said:

Shopping malls with their premium location and high rental rates are doomed. Warehouse or loft living  conversions of these malls will take place as the west experienced and the ability to have multiple garage parking spaces will fuel the fire.

This certainly is the case in USA. I'm not American but it would be interesting to get an American person's perspective on whether there are any parallels between what is happening over there and here in Thailand.

Sears for example have said officially they have " substantial doubt "about the future of retail stores in USA.

So are there any reasons why the same economic forces would not in Thailand?

 

http://www.pe.com/2017/03/23/sears-official-substantial-doubt-about-future-of-retail-stores/

[kartman]

Pride of all Thai's

[just.a.thought]

Just came back from Central Festival on Beach Road in Pattaya,had money in my pocket for new shirts and shorts but couldn't find any in adult sizes. After browsing through five shops I finally gave up and went home empty handed. Very limited choice of xl or xxl or anything larger than a 34 waistline.

[ratcatcher]

3 hours ago, henry15 said:

The Bangkok cit slicker leave home at 05.30am  going to work and arrive back home 20.30 pm. With 10 day's vacation a year. While people in the banook spend the day in theire hammock drinking Lao Kao

Have you ventured out from your world in the BTS MRT corridors and seen what the rest of Thailand does for work?

 

Does your GF'/ wife's family up in Nakhon Nowhere spend their lives sleeping in hammocks and sipping lao khao and eating som-tam?

 

BTW., the 0530 to 20.30 crew you mention are the drones that keep the city slickers/hi-sos in the style to which they have become accustomed so that they can have adequate time for swanning around Central & Emporium and sipping lattes, that cost a days wage in baan nok, at Starbucks. 

[newnative]

2 hours ago, hansnl said:

Oh really?

Wrong on both counts.

Not wrong regarding Bangkok.  I have a brother-in-law and 2 sisters-in-law, all in fairly high positions in banking in Bangkok. They leave for work at 5:30am and usually get home around 7:30pm, sometimes around 8pm, depending on how horrible the traffic is.  Count your blessings with Pattaya's tame traffic in comparison.

[nong38]

Most ordinary Thais cannot afford to shop in these stores and the location of the stores sugeest that they aimed at the richer end of society who like the names and logos more than the product itself.