Shanghai La Chapelle: ‘New era for retail’

A new era for the retail industry has launched with online retailers seeking cooperation with offline retailers while offline retailers sped up the use of big data to drive sales, says Shanghai La Chapelle Fashion in releasing its results for last year.

Online sales continued their rapid growth for the group, with a year-on-year increase of 32.2 per cent (26.2 per cent the previous year).

The mid- to high-end women’s apparel segment picked up its pace of recovery while the men’s apparel segment also saw a new round of growth after a reform of products and
channels.

During the year, the group rolled out an RFID (radio frequency identification) system to refine the management of goods. It also began classifying products and shops, and continued to optimise its store network and upgrade its store image.

Group revenue and operating profit reached RMB8.99 billion (US$1.4 billion) and RMB737.5
million respectively, increasing by 5.2 per cent and 7.4 per cent.

The revenue growth was mainly attributable to standalone retail outlets and online platforms. The number of retail points of sale increased to 9448 at the end of December from 8907 a year earlier.

Rapid growth was maintained last year for the group’s online businesses, with a 44.9 per cent leap in revenue to RMB1.3 billion.

Gross profit rose 2.7 per cent to RMB5.6 billion, mainly attributed to “drastic growth” in online business, however, the gross profit margin shrank to 62.5 per cent from 64.1 per cent, mainly because of a year-on-year drop in average unit selling price and an increase in share of sales from online platforms, which have a lower gross margin.

Same-store sales fell by 8 per cent compared to 2016.

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