Opening Up The Retail Market Of China's Retail And Countermeasures

Now the retail industry has gradually been the thermometer of China'seconomics. It will still keep going forward with the economics development trends. But by the coming of the time limitation of opening retail market which China has promised, from 11 December, 2003, the foreign retai I firms will enter the China market without any limits of areas and amounts of investments. These large companies will have active effects on our domestic retail markets. However, heavy shock will come at the same time because the strength gap between the inner and external companies. Although our government have prepared for the situation such as confining the time and the pattern of foreign compan ies entrance, allowing the public listing of a large number of state-owned commercial companies (about 9% of the total listing companies) several years ago, increasing the loans for business automatization year and year.But the step of reform and development of the whole business management system and the enterprise operation system is too slow to have innovation in the aspects of operating methods and strategies. It results in the situation that all shops are the same appearance and are completing in the price seriously. The whole retail industry is getting worse and worse for the impacts of blind expansion of department stores, shrink of demand and the buyer market.According to the probe and analysis of China Trade Information Center, the profit indicator of national department stores (including 84 retail listing companies) dropped 14.3% and the coverage of loss increased 18.5% comparing with the same period of previous year. The foreign companies entering the domestic market without any limitations make the situation more urgently. How to help the companies, how to look the outlet for the retail listing companies, how to realize the structure adjustment of domestic business circulation, are realistic and serious social problems which need the intelligents to give answers. Integrated with foreign experience and domestic situation, I put forward five suggestions as follows:1 promote the adjustment of industries and products structures. Itis the fundament of future development of our retail industry that accelerating industry upgrade, following international technology advance, challenging the international competition and servicing for different demands for product brands, qualities, functions, prices.2 Improve the whole industry abilities of competition and against risks. It is the only way that the developed countries realized sources optimization and mutual advantages when facing the international competition. We can consider the regional a I I ies pattern or the acquisition and merge to avoid repeated investments and enhance the effectiveness of capital polymerizations.3 speed the construction of China Commerce Exchange Center (CCEC) and resolving the chaos in the commerce circulation fields. CCEC was proposed to construct in February, 1997, under the great support of State Economic &Trade Commission, PRC. Its goal is to reconstruct modern commodity circulation system fitting for the trend of industry intensivism and toresolve the "bottleneck" problem existing for a long period in thecommodity circulation fields by specilization. Additionally, it will create the favorable conditions for scale economics of our enterprises and for the development of manuf actur i ng groups. At the same t i me, for domest i c companies, the purchasing costs will be lower and commodity information will be more effective. Obviously, it is very significant for inner companies and brings us hope for post-WTO. But CCEC is sti I I in the testing per i od now.4 Promote the speciIization in the commerce operating fields. It is necessary of work division to get the target of social resources effective utilization as the development of social produce power. Now many enterpr i ses d i verge form i ts normal operating orbits for many problems such as the relating businesses, relative-tiers, bad managements, systems out of control. For this reason,...