On its first day, the Xuzhou Suning Plaza in Jiangsu province attracted more than 500,000 visitors, who spent more than US$7 million.
It was launched by Suning Holdings Group through its subsidiary Suning Real Estate. It is the group’s largest retail project so far in its bid to introduce international brands to more cities in China.
Retail outlets in the plaza offer about 1000 domestic and international brands, half of which are newcomers to the city, including G Givenchy, Hugo Boss, MCM, Michael Kors and Vivienne Westwood.
Suning Real Estate president Jin Ming says the group can see growing purchasing power in China’s second- and third-tier cities. A third-tier city, Xuzhou saw its per-capita disposable income rise 9.4 per cent last year, according to the China National Bureau of Statistics.
Suning built more than 20 Suning Plazas last year, mostly in second- and third-tier cities including Fuzhou, Nanjing, Taiyuan, Wuxi and Zhenjiang.
The group uses data from its online and offline channels to track consumer trends and map out promotions. It offers such services as e-commerce payment tools.
“In the internet age, success is all about opening up and sharing,” says Suning Holdings Group chairman Zhang Jindong. “How much an enterprise owns is no longer important; it is the ability to integrate that really matters.”
Founded in 1990, the group was last year ranked as the second-largest Chinese non-state-owned enterprise. Its online and offline retail platforms serve a market of around 280 million consumers.
