In the era of Internet+, the brick-and-mortar department store industry is being impacted, while fashion fans in Nanjing recently learned that several USA stores selling novelty products have opened in Xinjiekou and Aqua City, including Brookstone. What's less well-known is that the introducer of these foreign brands is a private enterprise named the Sanpower Group, a retailer that once sold computers on Zhujiang Road. In recent years, the Group has introduced many famous foreign brands through overseas M&A activities. On this National Day, UK’s renowned century-old toy store Hamleys will settle in Xinjiekou, Nanjing. Then people in Nanjing will have a new shopping destination close by.

A. Journalist’s interview

Famous department stores are opening in Nanjing

This August, a citizen named Ms. Zhang was greatly surprised when she walked into the Sanpower Brookstone in Suguo Shopping Mall on Lushan Road in the Olympic Sports Center, Nanjing. There were Cat Ear Headphones, robots, DJI aerial vehicles, bottle openers and wine sets that win the Red Dot Award of Germany, etc. Ms. Zhang told a journalist from the Yangtze Evening Post that she found the salesclerks to be 'fun' by adopting interactive marketing and becoming playmates from salespeople.

The USA-based Brookstone has a history of over 50 years. The novelty products it has launched enjoy great popularity among customers from all walks of life. The scenario-based and experiential marketing mode that it initiated creates the most superior shopping space for customers. In 2014, Brookstone was acquired by Sanpower Group and introduced to China, selling novelty products only.

At the beginning of 2016, the first Brookstone store was launched in Aqua City, Nanjing, and the brand has rapidly taken root in the Chinese market since then. Following the grand openings of flagship stores in Shanghai and Suzhou, the ‘novelty’ trend is prevailing across the entire Yangtze River Delta economic belt. This August, Brookstone entered the Xinjiekou shopping destination in Nanjing and opened in Nanjing Cenbest. In the same month, it opened in Suguo Shopping Mall on Lushan Road in the Olympic Sports Center, Hexi New Town, Nanjing.

The journalist from the Yangtze Evening Post learned that two century-old UK stores closely related to the Sanpower Group are set to enter the Xinjiekou shopping destination following the USA Brookstone's entrance into Nanjing. House of Fraser is a century-old British department store, and Hamleys, which will open on National Day, is a global centuries-old toy store. According to the report, more than 50 international brands of the department store will be introduced to China for the first time.

B. Reform review

Sanpower Group upgrades the traditional department store by going global

In recent years, domestic e-commerce has developed with irresistible force, causing a great impact on the offline retail business. However, Chairman of Sanpower Group Yuan Yafei disagrees with the view that the offline business is in decline, saying, “I think people always pursue feelings and experiences, and the offline business still has a bright future. The key lies in turnaround and the provision of more value for customers.”

2014 can be called Sanpower’s first year of international development, in which its “going global” strategy was officially launched, and the Group and its subsidiaries successively acquired Mecox Lane, the first stock of China’s e-commerce listed in NASDAQ; House of Fraser, the third largest department store chain in the UK, Brookstone, America's largest novelty chain, and so on.

As Yuan Yafei believes, “Going global is the best shortcut to rapid transformation and upgrading for domestic retailers.” He calls the brand new mode of “house brands + buyers’ brand + scenario-based marketing + O2O + finance” created by the Sanpower Group the “Business 4.0” mode.

In October 2015, the strategic partner of Sanpower Group acquired Hamleys, a British toy store chain. Established in 1760, Hamleys has been twice awarded a Royal Warrant by the UK King George V and Queen Elizabeth II respectively. It is a toy retailer with time-honoured history in the world, and it even creates and supplies the children’s rooms and playrooms of Queen Elizabeth II and her children.

C. Latest news

The amount invested in the overseas M&A activities by Jiangsu enterprises in the first half of 2016 reached USD 1.36 bn

According to the data of the Jiangsu Province Department of Commerce, “keeping pace” in three aspects can be observed in the “going global” activities of the entire province in the first half of 2016: First, large projects kept pace with the construction of overseas industry cluster areas. Second, the manufacturing industry kept pace with the foreign investment of the service industry. Third, investment in developed countries kept pace with cross-border M&A activities. From January to June, the amount invested in countries in Europe, America, Oceania and Hong Kong exceeded USD 5.4 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 67.9%. As for M&A projects, the agreed investment amount of Chinese parties reached approximately USD 1.36 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 29.6%.

Yang Yong, Vice Minister of CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee United Front and Party Committee Secretary of Jiangsu Federation of Industry and Commerce, commented that many private enterprises in Jiangsu have implemented the “going global” strategy and actively participated in the national strategy of the Belt and Road Initiative, making positive contributions to the construction of a new Jiangsu with a strong economy, prosperous people, a beautiful environment and a high degree of social civilization. As an excellent representative of “going global” development and transformation among private enterprises in Jiangsu, Sanpower Group has greatly enhanced its industry scale and market competitiveness.