Consumer goods

Chinese consumers are living in a market where fakes, pricing scandals and food safety are big issues. Trust is the most important criterion for customers in choosing their favourite retail brands. Consumers in general trust foreign retailers more than local ones. However, only earning trust from consumers is not enough to make a retail brand the leader as customer preferences shift rapidly in a fast growing market like China.

Retail experts at OC&C Strategy Consultants recently conducted a consumer study that compared clothing retailers and grocers across dimension like price, product choice, service and trust. The overall winner was Nike, continuing to demonstrate the power of sports brands. Second place in customer ratings was Zara, showing tremendous performance for such a new brand in the market. Coming in third was RT Mart, by far the best performing grocer.

As expected, price is relatively more important for grocers. RT Mart, the Taiwanese chain, is seen as the clear winner on not only price, but also on value for money. More critically, RT Mart leads the pack in product choice and store environment. The western grocers are led by Tesco, demonstrating that relatively new comers can win customer loyalty.

“Competition will continue to intensify, consistency and clarity in delivering values to consumers will be key to building trust” said Jacques Penhirin, head of the retail practice of OC&C Greater China, “The Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in choosing where to shop”.

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