Although private consumption has not picked up significantly this year compared with the strong showing in exports, some developments in the local retail industry do confirm that a recovery is under way, boding well for the nation’s economy.
First, department stores reported being crowded during their anniversary sales, which began early last month. Local media reported that Far Eastern Sogo Department Store, the nation’s largest department store chain, reported a 4 percent increase in sales as of Monday last week, as the retailer used coupons, gift certificates and discounts to encourage consumer purchases during its annual sale.
Then there was Singles’ Day. Again, Taiwanese consumers spent millions of dollars shopping online on Nov. 11, a day also known as the “Double 11” shopping festival. Local e-commerce players including Momo.com and PChome Online reported brisk business during the Internet phenomenon that originated in China in the 1990s.
Costco Wholesale Corp on Friday for the first time held a “Black Friday” campaign in Taiwan, but shortened the three-day event to one day after crowds of shoppers swarmed the retailer’s 13 local outlets and many discounted items sold out.
And now the Christmas shopping season is coming and most retailers are doing their best to offer the best prices in their stores, physical or virtual.
As a result, consumer spending should strengthen this quarter amid economic recovery and low unemployment, but the big question is how the spending is distributed.
How big a bite are online retailers to take out of their brick-and-mortar competitors’ market share?
Brick-and-mortar stores and offline retail bring an indispensable shopping experience to consumers, and Taiwanese brands and retailers still focus very much on physical sales channels despite the hype that has surrounded online shopping.
However, a potential challenge looms on the horizon: As online and offline converge, e-commerce players are seeing opportunities to target and interact with consumers individually using the latest technologies.
In the US, e-commerce giant Amazon.com has stepped up efforts to gain ground in the fast-growing consumer market through tie-ups with brick-and-mortar store operators — ranging from supermarkets to electronics chains — in its home market and abroad, while China’s Alibaba is playing catch-up and seeking to secure a foothold in physical retail in the short term. Last week, Alibaba announced that it would acquire 36.16 percent of Sun Art Retail, which has 446 hypermarkets in China under the RT-Mart and Auchan brands.
Amazon’s announcement that it would purchase Whole Foods Market in June and Alibaba’s bid to acquire the largest hypermarket chain in China last week present just the latest examples of a major online-offline integration in a new era of retail business.
As most retailers aim to strengthen both their e-commerce and physical offerings, and seek new ways to attract shoppers, to consumers’ own benefit as well as that of the merchants and brands, major e-commerce players’ strength in “big data” analysis, convenient payment tools and better online experiences are proving successful in connecting with a new generation of consumers and could beat traditional retailers in customers as well as profit margins.
Taiwan has not yet experienced mega-mergers and online-offline consolidation in the retail world on the scale seen in other countries, but that does not mean it will not come — it is just a matter of time.
However, are local retailers ready for the new challenge?
After all, counting on special promotions and big discounts does not do wonders for profitability, or long-term growth.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017