The nation's first mall to be integrated with a metro station was opened by Pacific Sogo Department Stores Co. Ltd. Dec. 29, 2006, and Japan's Hankyu Department Stores Inc. opened a store--its first overseas branch--in the Dream Mall in Kaohsiung May 12, where it will be joined by an outlet of British-based Marks & Spencer Group PLC May 19.
Constructed in cooperation with the Taipei City Government, Sogo's new department store in downtown Taipei shares three entrances with the Zhongxiao-Fuxing metro station. These were expected to attract MRT passengers to shop in the store, a Jan. 2 report by Taiwan's Central News Agency stated. With floor space of around 8,700 square meters, the store had around 200,000 visits in its first four days of operation and generated US$4.5 million in revenues.
Uni-President Group launched trial operations of Dream Mall March 30. The company invested US$560 million in the venture, Dream Mall President Paul Chang said in a March 31 Taipei Times report. The 12th-largest outlet in the world at 399,300 square meters, it was expected to break even in three years and make a profit within a decade, he said.
Hankyu targeted female consumers and customers of high-end products, while Marks and Spencer (Taiwan) Corp. Chairman Stephen Walker said his store would target consumers with medium purchasing power, a retail sector he said was largely overlooked in Taiwan, the Chinese-language CommonWealth magazine reported April 25. M&S would initially sell clothes, expanding into food from the second half of 2007.
The high and rising number of department stores does not imply rising revenues, however, with many department stores posting revenue losses in the first quarter of 2007. Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store saw a year-on-year decline of 5 percent, while Sogo's revenues, excluding those of its new store, declined by 3 percent to 4 percent between January and March, the Chinese-language China Times reported May 4.
Dream Mall garnered around US$9 million in revenues during the first month of trial operations, a figure that fell short of its rivals' predictions, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported May 11.
Chang responded that this figure was not reliable, since less than 40 percent of its total space was open to customers. He added that it would take some time for people in southern Taiwan to become accustomed to the mall's retail space and Dream Mall was expected to make revenues of US$272 million this year.
For shopping centers to make greater profits, in addition to increasing advertisements, they needed to enhance transportation convenience, Professor Jacob Jou of National Sun Yat-sen University's Department of Business Management said in the UDN report.
Despite this near market saturation, six new department stores were expected to open in northern Taiwan during 2008, CNA reported Feb. 5.
Write to Annie Huang at shihyin@mail.gio.gov.tw