Updated on 11 May 2020 to include category growth insights and new traffic data.
Chinese retailers are ~2 months ahead of their Australian counterparts in battling an abrupt disappearance of footfall during their peak spending season from COVID-19. China steadily released the restrictions imposed to tackle the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and formally moved into the recovery period in April with the re-opening of Wuhan.
The hope for Australia is that the retail industry can leverage the ingenuity observed in China to act quickly and emerge more evolved and more resilient. Despite differences in public health and government stimulus responses, Australian retailers will benefit greatly from understanding how retailers have operated under restrictions in China.
The industry is watching China with anticipation and there are already important insights to assist Australian retailers as they begin planning for recovery:
Our experiences demonstrated how quickly consumer’s preferences and expectations had shifted dramatically during this pandemic. Chinese companies with long-term strategic planning are learning from this experience, thus are accelerating their digital transformation and improving on more agile business models to be better equipped to deal with future challenges.
How can Australian retailers leverage China’s experience for their own recovery?
This article reflects situational perspectives and conclusions as of the title date. All financial data reported in Chinese local currency have been converted using a common spot rate as of 3 January 2020 to remove the currency effect and allow local comparison.
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