Closer shops, punishment, and complaints constantly "dismiss" young people

China Commercial Daily (Tang Yan reporter Ma Wenbo Wen/Picture) Recently, a reporter from China Business Daily found that Watsons will be closed at the end of June this year. Just last month, Watsons Beijing's shop was fined 50,000 yuan for suspected of using false prices to seduce consumers' transactions. In recent years, "Beauty Retail King" Watsons has gradually stepped off the altar, replaced by weak performance growth, fake promotional punishment, live broadcast rollover, lack of brand power, and consumer complaints. Many young people said that they would "escape" Watsons. What exactly did Watsons do wrong, where is its future?

More than ten years old shop is about to be closed

"The store will be closed at the end of this month. At the beginning of the month, our store will not make up for replenishment, so now there are fewer goods." Recently, the shop staff of Watsons Beijing Xinzhuan Shopping Center store staff told the China Business Daily, "This store has opened this store. For more than ten years, it is still very reluctant. After closing the store, customers can only go to the nearby Watsons stores to buy goods. "

When the reporter asked the store's closing shop, the deputy store manager of the store said that it was because the contract expired, "we will no longer renew the rent." The deputy manager said that the shop may be opened nearby, but it is still negotiating Among them, "After closing the store, the employees of Xinzhong Store will go to work nearby."

Watson's Beijing Xinzhuan Shopping Center stores are scarce, and many products are promoting.

The reporter searched on a comments platform and found that Watsons's Xinzhong Zhongguan Shopping Center Store has been included in the platform for 13 years, which is a "old shop". Regarding why the brand no longer renews contracts with the mall, the reporter called Beijing Watsons Personal Products Chain Store Co., Ltd., and the power connection personnel stated that they would transfer relevant issues to the marketing department, but as of press time, the reporter had not received a reply.

The reporter also contacted the property department of Beijing Xinzhong Shopping Center, and the relevant staff said that there was no notification at present. Subsequently, the reporter contacted the mall's investment promotion department, and the other party confirmed the news of the closing store, and said that "their contract expires in July, and the specific closing time should be asked." When the reporter asked about the reason for the renewal of Watsons, the mall said " It's not convenient to disclose. "

Since Watsons entered the Chinese market in 1989, with its rich products, personal services, and rapid expansion of chain, it has contracted many young girls' beauty enlightenment, and once became the first choice for buying beauty care. However, in the era of "hundreds of claims", new players of retail industry have continued to join, the industry is serious, emerging brands have risen, and Watsons seems to be difficult to keep up with the pace of young people.

From the city to the city to "escape", the changes in the traffic of the store seem to see the performance of Watsons in recent years, and the facts are indeed. In recent years, Watsons's performance has declined year after year. In 2013, the performance of Watsons's Chinese market began to slow. In 2015, sales of the same store in the Mainland market of Watsons fell by 5.1%, and in 2016, it first increased negative growth. In March of this year, Changjiang Hutchison Industrial Co., Ltd. announced its 2021 financial report. According to the financial report, in 2021, the retail sales of Watsons China reached HK $ 22.770 billion (about 18.90 billion yuan), an increase of 14 % year -on -year, the largest increase in seven years. However, it should be noted that its profits are declining. In 2021, the profit before the Watsons China interest tax was only 1.808 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 1.5 billion yuan), and even below the lowest time in 2020 (about 17.36 of HK $ 1.7.36 100 million yuan). The profit margin pre -interest tax also reduced from 20%in 2015 to 8%year by year.

Behind this financial report revealed the status quo of the increasing income from this old beauty retail store. At the same time as retail sales, Watsons' profit margins have shrunk significantly during the highlight period. In terms of the number of members, the number of members of Watsons from 2018 to 2021 was 135 million, 137 million, 138 million, and 141 million, respectively. Members have slowed down. From 2019 to 2021, its membership growth rate was 1.48%, 0.73%, and 2.17%, respectively.

Watson's Beijing store.

Young people are "dismissal"

"I haven't visited Watsons for more than a year. I used to like to visit. The categories are relatively complete. The products are often promoted, and the price is more cost -effective." Lin Wen (pseudonym) from Beijing told the China Business Daily reporter. When asked why Watsons had lost attractiveness to her now, Lin Wen said that there are online online and the price is not much advantage.

"I don't like to go shopping in Watsons now. When I bought it many times, I was told to add employee companies to WeChat and place an order on the applet. They said that this can receive coupons. There is no way to enjoy the discount this time. "Ms. Li said helplessly to reporters," And their employees will use corporate WeChat to push you various promotional information every time. Know the company WeChat with many clerks. "

Many consumers have similar experiences. The reporter noticed on a comments platform that in many of the reviews of Watsons stores, there were vomiting about poor clerk service, frequent changes in commodity prices, and serious sales phenomena.

"I'm going to be furious. The sun protection spending for the shopping guide was bought at 150 yuan, and I checked it on the Internet as long as 95 yuan." The shopping guide immediately changed his face, and he didn't need to buy anything to check everything on the Internet. It was very speechless. " At the same time, Watsons was punished for false promotion, which also made many young consumers call "full of routines and hid."

According to credit China website, a few days ago, Beijing Watsons Personal Products Chain Store Co., Ltd. Yanqing Lishui North Street Branch was suspected of using false price means to trick consumers to trade and was fined 50,000 yuan. In January of this year, in the second branch of Yanqing in Beijing Watsons, the price of a certain skin care product was cheaper before discounting. It was warned and fined the relevant regulatory authorities and fined 50,000 yuan.

On January 13 this year, the original 0.01 yuan of a box of mask was originally online, but the offline store could not pick up the goods to attract a large number of consumer complaints. The ridicule of "people" also caused countless consumers to be ignited. Although Watsons later apologized to say that he would perform a mask for a penalty, but Watsons, who had stepped down the altar, did not get too much sympathy for consumers in the public opinion storm.

How to find new brands for new changes

Every old brand seems to face the problem of new and change, and Watsons is no exception. The industry generally believes that under the impact of e -commerce, Watsons's main advantage of offline channels has gradually consumed.

At present, a number of new beauty collection stores have continued to rise and challenged Watsons. These new collection stores attach importance to the "face value economy". The store decoration is fashionable and can easily cause visual impact, catering to the interest of the younger generation. At the same time, these new beauty collection stores also know the "gameplay" of generations (generally referred to as post -95s). Through online celebrity marketing and continuous promotion, it attracts many young people who love social sharing to take pictures and punch cards to drive consumption and gradually seize the market share of Watsons.

In contrast, the Watsons brand itself has faced a crisis of aging, as if "disconnected" with generations. Earlier, under the topic of "Why young people no longer choose Watson" on Weibo, many netizens said: "Watsons is still the Watsons, but the needs of customers have changed" "Watsons's bargaining power is not as good as before" "young people like online" online "The consumption psychology of young people should be thought about" "the service is not kept up. Now the new domestic goods are fiercely competitive, young consumers are more professional, and their vision is higher" ...

In this regard, Zhuang Shuai, an expert in the retail e -commerce industry and the founder of Bailian Consulting, told the China Business Daily reporter that from the current situation, the biggest problem of Watsons is that the offline part is too heavy. Under the new crown pneumonia's epidemic, its performance is affected. At the same time, as an old brand, the organizational system of Watsons is not very suitable for the current omni -channel business model and innovative Meichen, because many new competitors win through these display aesthetics, including the upgrade of the product.

In Zhuang Shuai's view, old brands like Watsons should be improved. First of all, in the display decoration of the store, it should be more in line with the aesthetics of young people. Secondly, some innovations and adjustments should be made in the supply chain system and product structure to meet consumers' curiosity and freshness. The third is marketing innovation, including innovation in marketing methods such as live broadcast and short video. Finally, the adjustment of the organizational structure, whether it is recruiting personnel, or the relationship between the relationship between the store and the headquarters, need to make some adjustments.

There are also analysis that in the era of extensive horse racing circle, Watsons should be accustomed to the growth of performance under refined management and repeatedly being punished. The next reform attaches importance to such details that are easily ignored.

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