Starbucks, Sam's club, rosen and others have announced plans to increase investment in China, following the announcement by retail giant openmarket that it will open its second store in mainland China in Shanghai. Why do foreign giants keep adding to China's consumer market?


Investment confidence has not diminished in the outbreak


Among the major projects signed up in Shanghai on March 31, more than $16 billion was invested in foreign projects, including the Sam's club store, a warehouse store owned by retail giant wal-mart stores inc., and Lawson, a popular franchise chain. Lawson's Japan headquarters decided to increase its investment in China by us $29.08 million.


The first Sam's flagship store in China will open in pudong in 2021, which will be the largest single-family building Sam's club will operate in China, said Sam ender, President of the store's China operations. "By the end of 2022, Sam is expected to have 40 to 45 stores open and under construction in China. We are very excited to welcome the new flagship store in Sam's rapidly growing vision, which represents our commitment to our members and the Chinese market."


Not long ago, the us members-only warehouse chain announced the launch of its second store in mainland China in Shanghai, with a total investment of about rmb2.6bn. Starbucks is investing $129 million to build a green coffee roaster in kunshan, jiangsu province.


Echoing foreign companies' investment confidence is the warming Chinese consumer market. On a weekday afternoon, a cart of freshly baked croissants at the 10-year-old Sam's club store in Shanghai's pudong district sold out in about 10 minutes. People's shopping cart not only contains the usual milk, pork, fresh dishes, but also a lot of frozen dumplings and easy to cook chicken soup, pasta semi-finished. Sam's said sales of coffee and ice cream had more than doubled in the period compared with the same period last year, confirming people's enthusiasm for consumption.


With the Sam pudong store is nearly 40 kilometers away, located in the Shanghai puxi kai city customer minhang store, consumers are also in an endless stream. Even on a weekday like March 30, more than 800 people checked in and out between 12 noon and 1 p.m. The staff of the store always reminds customers to check out quickly after shopping, and the cashier counters are all open to avoid customers queuing. The number of customers in the store has been maintained at about 1000.


"Epidemic" outside the new consumption growth point


"When it looks like the Chinese are eating out and having less entertainment, they're not actually spending less, they're just spending money on other areas of consumption." Sun ying, vice President of Sam's club's China strategy program, said, "the epidemic has given rise to new consumer hotspots such as the 'homestead economy', which encourages us to seize opportunities and innovate quickly instead of leaving the Chinese market."


Britain consulting firm degree analysis, the Chinese people pay more attention to health in the outbreak, pay attention to food safety and fresh, and increases the spices, fresh raw materials, such as consumption, "because of long time home quarantine and home office freedom, cooking add more fun to the life that occupy the home", is a "disease" outside the consumption growth of new opportunities.


Meituan, an online platform, said that since late January, the number of consumers searching for relevant products through Meituan takeout "baking" has increased by more than 100 times, the sales volume of yeast and jiuqu has increased by nearly 40 times, and the sales volume of dumpling skins has increased by more than 7 times.


To meet consumer demand, Sam introduced a lot of easy to cook raw materials, semi-finished dishes. Chef Sam, who no longer shows up in restaurants to teach, has also been busy creating "healthy recipes during an outbreak" and Posting them online for consumers.


E-commerce and logistics systems are fueling the shopping boom and the "home economy" in the epidemic. Almost all Sam's gate stores on the Chinese mainland have launched an online one-hour delivery service for orders, which has led to explosive growth in online consumption, sun said. "There were a few days during the outbreak when we saw a five-fold increase in online traffic."

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Osamu miyake, President of rosen (China) investment co., LTD., has a similar view. "during the outbreak, rosen's online sales increased greatly, and the proportion of takeout sales increased.


We are optimistic about China's long-term development


Foreign giants admit that their confidence comes not only from new consumption growth points outside the "epidemic", but also from the long-term trend of China's steady economic growth, the continuous expansion of the middle and high-end consumer groups, and China's commitment to further opening up.


The national development and reform commission and other 23 departments jointly issued the implementation opinions on promoting the expansion and improvement of consumption capacity and quality and accelerating the formation of a strong domestic market, proposing to encourage the development of online and offline integration and other new consumption models. We will improve the supply of imported goods and encourage internationally renowned brands to launch new products in the Chinese market or at the same time.


The Chinese market has a lot of potential, according to market participants. We will continue to provide our Chinese members with high quality products at reasonable prices.


Bai Ming, deputy director of the international market research institute of the ministry of commerce, said that as China opens its door to the outside world more and more, retailers from all over the world will set up shop in China.