China’s November retail sales rise as malls hold their own against the onslaught of online retailers

Major department stores and shopping malls in China reported an increase in sales in November, with the categories expanding by 3.2 per cent and 7.4 per cent, respectively, compared with the same period in 2016.

These sectors grew by 1.1 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively, in November compared with the same period in 2016, according to data provided by China’s Ministry of Commerce. For the whole of 2017, 2,700 major Chinese retailers reported that sales were up by 4.6 per cent, three percentage points more than 2016, said the ministry.

Although sales growth for offline retailers lagged far behind that of e-commerce platforms, which stood at 32.2 per cent in terms of sales volume last year, it was a positive sign for these retailers after rising competition from big e-commerce players in the previous two years.

“Many countries in Europe and the US will be very happy to see such percentage of growth,” said Pascal Martin, partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants. “What that means is online is growing really super fast, but offline is still growing.”

The Chinese market is young and both online and offline have room to grow, in contrast with the West, where some department stores were established decades ago and face difficulties in their transformation, said Martin.