Burberry Shanghai SHANG Jia Center Flagship Store Officially Closed

The flagship store of the British luxury brand Burberry in Shanghai's SHANG Jia center was officially closed in April 1st. In the past year, the brand has closed four stores in Shanghai.

It is reported that Burberry is about to open two new stores in Shanghai.

The other three shops that Burberry has withdrawn in recent years include K11 boutique, Meilong town square children's wear shop and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport T2 terminal boutique.

Burberry is undergoing brand pformation and positioning adjustment. Closing and updating shops is an important part of pformation.

In May 2018, Marco Gobbetti, chief executive of Burberry group, said that in order to clarify the brand positioning, the group will substantially reduce the number of stores that affect the wholesale business of the brand, and some poorly performing shopping malls "store stores" and stores away from high-end luxury consumer communities will be closed.

"Closing stores is a part of Burberry's larger strategy, especially closing down some small shops in non strategic locations and investing in new stores in a high-profile and influential fashion market," said Gobbetti. "This can make sure that it gets the right brand positioning in all markets through more precise cost inputs."

At present, the three boutiques that Burberry closed in Shanghai in recent years belongs to the group that chooses to "give up" stores, so as to make more clear the positioning of brand first-line luxury goods.

Rogerio Fujimori, a luxury analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, says that the retail area of a brand store is more important than the number of individual stores. "If the brand closes two smaller shops, but it expands the area of the existing flagship store, or opens a larger new store, the retail space of the brand will be bigger, which may also help the brand."

According to Burberry group's latest performance report, Burberry closed two stores in the third quarter, with a 1% reduction in business area.

In order to achieve brand new distribution network, Burberry will accelerate the reorganization of wholesale business as planned in the first half of 2019, and rebuild 10 key flagship stores through the store renewal plan in the end of fiscal year 2018.

The flagship store in Shanghai's SHANG Jia center should be updated in the brand store.

Since Gobbetti took over Burberry in July 2017, the 100 year old luxury brand has started a comprehensive brand reform.

In March 2018, Burberry announced the appointment of Riccardo Tisci as the new creative director. In August 2018, the brand new Logo and brand printing patterns were suddenly released, and the brand image gradually became younger.

2019 in the spring and summer fashion week in London, Tisci has reinterpreted the design of Burberry with 134 new models, which has aroused wide discussion.

In addition, Burberry has been trying to sell new products in the Drop sales mode in Instagram, WeChat and Line social media since October 2018.

Fujimori expresses its fashion to the interface. Although the new series of Tisci has landed in stores in February, its proportion in the overall sales of the brand is still small. The role of Drop mode is more inclined to detonate the social media fever rather than bring a large volume of sales growth.

"Starting from May, all new products from Burberry stores will be designed by Tisci. Maintaining the existing customer base will be the key to Burberry's pition."

Fujimori said to interface fashion.

At present, Burberry is still waiting for a series of reform measures to bring about what kind of results.

According to Burberry's latest performance report, in the 13 weeks ended December 29, 2018, group retail revenue fell 2% to 711 million pounds on fixed exchange rates.

Group comparable store sales increased by 1%, of which the Asia Pacific region achieved median digit growth, and achieved good results in mainland China.

In response to the ongoing pformation, Gobbetti has said that the brand is implementing a multi-year plan, which is only the first stage, and expresses confidence in the company's business prospects.