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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
With a slowdown in the mainland economy and a change of tourists' consumption habits, overall retail1 sales as of the end of April in Hong Kong are down 2.2 percent year-on-year, with as much as 20 percent plunge2 in the purchase of watches and jewelry3.
Tom Gaffney, Head of Retail Sales at consultancy JLL, says the slowdown isn't all bad news.
"A lot of watch and jewelry brands, unfortunately, their margins4 have been squeezed by high rents, as a result, looking not to renew some of the locations or move to cheaper locations. This is creating opportunities for sectors6 such as cosmetics8. In terms of other sectors that we are seeing quite decent growth is electrical, photographical and fast fashion."
Gaffney also says he believes the transforming landscape will make Hong Kong's retail sector5 more sustainable.
"Watch and jewelry might be giving up stores, it's been taken up by other sectors. What we will see is in Causeway for example is that rental9 drop, that will make way for new brands to take up the stores. So I think the pain is gonna be temporary, maybe another year and a half. "
Causeway Bay, which was once the world's most expensive street in terms of commercial rents in recent years, is expected to cut its rents by up to 20 percent this year.
With relatively10 sluggish11 local consumption, many brands are looking to the e-commerce market.
Cosmetic7 company Lush is one of them.
Annabelle Baker12 is the director of the company's Asian business.
"We actually are already on Tmall International, a Hong Kong listed company. We found the sales there have been growing rapidly. Obviously more consumers find that. So actually we could see is that a lot of mainland Chinese consumers are maybe buying more online than they are maybe coming to the shops. "
Data shows the number of mainland visitors to Hong Kong during the Dragon Boat Festival this past weekend has dropped by 2.5 percent, the first time in five years.
It's a reversal of the average growth rate of 20 percent for the past three years.
At the same time, starting from this year, top luxury brands like Chanel and Prada are cutting thousands of HK dollars in their prices to consolidate13 the market, a rarely seen discount in town.
For CRI, this is Li Jing in Hong Kong.
1 retail | |
v./n.零售;adv.以零售价格 | |
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2 plunge | |
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲 | |
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3 jewelry | |
n.(jewllery)(总称)珠宝 | |
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4 margins | |
边( margin的名词复数 ); 利润; 页边空白; 差数 | |
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5 sector | |
n.部门,部分;防御地段,防区;扇形 | |
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6 sectors | |
n.部门( sector的名词复数 );领域;防御地区;扇形 | |
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7 cosmetic | |
n.化妆品;adj.化妆用的;装门面的;装饰性的 | |
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8 cosmetics | |
n.化妆品 | |
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9 rental | |
n.租赁,出租,出租业 | |
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10 relatively | |
adv.比较...地,相对地 | |
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11 sluggish | |
adj.懒惰的,迟钝的,无精打采的 | |
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12 baker | |
n.面包师 | |
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13 consolidate | |
v.使加固,使加强;(把...)联为一体,合并 | |
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