Boasting a slew of brands new to Taiwan and eyeing the spending power of office ladies in their 30s, the management of Uni-President Hankyu Department Store (統一阪急百貨) yesterday said it was aiming for NT$100 million (US$3.2 million) in first-day receipts when the store swings its doors open to the public in Taipei on Thursday.
“The department store business in the second half is looking rosy. The economy is obviously picking up,” Wang Po-ming (王寶銘), Uni-President Hankyu’s general manager, told reporters during a pre-opening tour.
HIGH GOAL
Photo: Pan Shao-tang, Taipei Times
The mall has set an aggressive goal for first-day sales, hoping its new fame, location and opening sales campaigns will lure curious shoppers.
The NT$100 million is a high goal, as Wang has earlier said the mall was confident its first-year revenue will match that of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi’s (新光三越) A8 , which is in the same neighborhood.
Among the four malls of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in the Xinyi District (信義), the A8 is the best performer, with NT$4 billion in revenue last year.
Uni-President Hankyu — a joint venture between Uni-President Group (統一集團) and Japan’s Hankyu Hanshin Department Stores Inc — has early reasons to celebrate.
BUYING INTEREST
According to Wang, the mall has issued more than 40,000 membership cards to date, about 10,000 more than its earlier target. The number is expected to surpass 100,000 by December.
Signing up for the membership cards is free.
About one-fifth of brands at Uni-President Hankyu are those that have never been seen in the country. These include popular brands from Japan, such as Uniqlo casual wear, handbags from Samantha Thavasa, as well as dining establishments such as Sato Restaurant.
Designated moving lines have been set up to manage the traffic, especially in anticipation of eager consumers flooding the store on its opening day, Uniqlo Taiwan Ltd marketing and communications specialist Liu Yih-shan (劉逸姍) said.
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