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In retail slump, HK jeweler lets clients try before they buy

HONG KONG — Online luxury jeweler Plukka is going door-to-door to beat the worst retail downturn in more than a decade in Hong Kong, where some of the world’s most expensive commercial rents and plunging sales are corroding earnings of much larger rivals.

A shop assistant works at Plukka Store in Hong Kong, China November 30, 2015. Online luxury jeweller Plukka is going door-to-door to beat the worst retail downturn in more than a decade in Hong Kong, where some of the world's most expensive commercial rents and plunging sales are corroding earnings of much larger rivals. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

The start-up, which aims to go public in Australia on Friday via a A$10-million ($7-million) back-door listing, has taken a leaf from video-on-demand service Netflix, Inc. and cosmetics company Avon Products, Inc., offering customers to try before they buy.

This service, launched in Hong Kong and New York last month, could potentially shield Plukka from the blues besetting bricks-and-mortar luxury retailers, its founder and creative director Joanne Ooi told Reuters, as their main customers — cash-rich Chinese tourists — avoid shopping in Hong Kong, put off by a weaker yuan and the Beijing government’s crackdown on corruption which has also targeted conspicuous spending.

“We saw that the reaction of consumers to jewelry in person was completely different to online,” Ms. Ooi added. “The logical evolution of that phenomenon is how you can give the consumer the opportunity to see the jewelry before they buy it.”

Earlier this year, Coach, Inc. closed its flagship store in Hong Kong while Chow Tai Fook, China’s largest jewelry retailer by sales and which competes with Cartier and Tiffany & Co., last week reported a 42% drop in first-half profit, its biggest half-yearly decline since it listed in December 2011.

Plukka’s customers choose products online and then book a 45-minute viewing at their home or office for a charge, which is waived with any purchase. The company, which launched in 2011, said the proceeds of its IPO will go towards global expansion. It currently has one physical store in Hong Kong and plans to open another in London next year.

Deborah Weinswig, head of global retail and technology at Fung Business Intelligence Centre, said Plukka’s combination of online and physical shopping could be a game-changer for the jewelry sector.

Other analysts, however, said the service was a gimmick.

“It will take time to prove the business model, and it will take time to educate customers about this new approach,” said Walter Woo, an analyst at Oriental Patron Financial. — Reuters

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Apple reshapes holiday shopping with bigger smartphones

HOLIDAY shoppers aren’t just abandoning crowded stores in favor of shopping online. They’re also putting aside tablets in favor of pushing the buy button on bigger smartphones such as Apple, Inc.’s iPhone 6 Plus.

Online spending via smartphones surged more than 75%, surpassing purchases made on tablets for the first time this Thanksgiving weekend, according to data from International Business Machines Corp. That suggests bigger screens, easier payment options combined with revamped retail Web sites, and shopping applications customized for phones are changing consumer behavior.

Smartphones accounted for 17.1% of all Cyber Monday spending as of 3 p.m. in New York, compared with 11.1% on tablets, according to IBM. Last year, smartphone purchases made up 10.5% of all online sales compared with 12.5% on tablets.

“It’s a pretty big shift in consumer behavior,” Jay Henderson, IBM’s marketing cloud director, said in an interview. “Retailers are making it easier for people to shop on their smartphones, the devices are bigger, and consumers are getting more comfortable purchasing on small devices.”

As cellphones begin doing most of the tablet’s job, the lines are blurring between the two, and the pocketable phone is coming out on top. Worldwide tablet sales are expected to drop 8.1% this year to 211 million devices, according to IDC. Smartphone sales, meanwhile, were up 6.8% to 355 million in the third quarter.

“A lot of this is the popularity of the iPhone, since so much retail traffic is from iPhones as opposed to other devices,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, analyst at Forrester Research. “There hasn’t been much innovation in tablets.”

The shift in the most popular mobile shopping device comes as consumers increasingly abandon stores in favor of online shopping. More than 103 million people shopped online over the four-day weekend, which started Thursday on Thanksgiving and continued with Black Friday, according to an annual survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation. That compares with fewer than 102 million who ventured into traditional stores, the trade group said. — Bloomberg

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German court bars condom maker’s multiple orgasm claim

BERLIN — A German court Thursday barred a condom manufacturer from advertising its product with the promise that a pack of seven contraceptives “equals up to 21 orgasms,” calling the claim misleading.

The slogan could give consumers the wrong impression that condoms should be used more than once, ruled the court in the western city of Duesseldorf, upholding an injunction against condom maker Einhorn (Unicorn).

The company had argued the slogan was obviously light-hearted as it stood alongside advice about “calories burnt in 30 minutes of sex” and a small-print warning that the product “may contain traces of fairy dust.”

But the court was not amused, noting that among youths especially, “there is a continuing strong need for clarity on the correct use of condoms and a high risk of misleading them with ambiguous statements.”

Because the package also contained serious information, such as about half of proceeds going to charity, consumers may not realize the comment on the “sensitive issue of multiple orgasms” is humorous, the court ruled. — AFP

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