China Consumer & Retail Monthly Recap

July 20 – Sales of the new iPad in China began today as Apple Inc (Nasdaq: APPL) settled the dispute over its use of the trademark in the country. Suning Appliance Co (SHE: 002024), China's largest chain store by revenue, said it had received almost 10,000 preorders.

July 19 – LVMH's Louis Vuitton brand will open a large store in Shanghai that will customize products to attract China's rich. Only those invited will be allowed into the store, and they can have their hair dressed and see how their orders being made at the same time. China is already the world's third largest luxury goods consumer, and is expected to overtake Japan and the US in the next three years, with its luxury goods receipts to climb to ¥180 billion per year.

July 19 – Uniqlo, Japan's largest clothing retailer, said it plans to open 200 to 300 stores worldwide annually, including 100 stores in the Greater China region, in the next 10 years.

July 18 – Alibaba Group's Tmall.com, China's biggest B2C e-commerce site, said it expected its turnover to double to ¥200 billion this year, with ¥60 billion coming from apparel sales and ¥50 billion from consumer electronics. Tmall is going to invest ¥1 billion in 2H 2012 in promotions.

July 18 – Aeon Group, a Japanese retailer chain, and Mitsubishi Shokuhin Co, Japan's largest food wholesaler, said they will work together to operate fresh and frozen food supermarkets in three coastal cities in Guangdong province by the end of this year. The supermarkets will offer food imported from Japan to attract China's growing middle class.

July 18 – J.Lindeberg, a Swedish clothing company, said it will open stores in major Chinese cities in August and plans to increase the number of stores to 50 by the end of next year. J.Lindeberg expects its revenue from China to total $57 million this year and expects half of its revenues to come from China by 2015.

July 17 – Retails sales at China's 3,000 largest retailers were up 8.2% year on year in 1H 2012, the Ministry of Commerce said.

July 13 – Retail sales in China rose 13.7% year on year to ¥1.66 trillion in June, the National Bureau of Statistics said. In 1H 2012 retail sales were up 14.4% to ¥9.82 trillion.

July 12 – 7-Eleven said it will allow franchising in Shanghai in January 2013, without revealing terms. The convenience store chain previously said it planned to open 300 directly-run stores in the city during the next five years, up from 100 now. It already has allowed franchising in Beijing, Chengdu and Guangdong province, with different terms because the stores are managed by different parent companies.

July 11 – Tesco opened a store in Tongling, Anhui province. It is the British retailer's fourth store in the province.

July 11 – Sephora, a cosmetics retailer operated by France's LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, opened its 121st China store in Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Sephora has established a presence in 39 Chinese cities since it first came to the country in April 2005. It said in May that it plans to open 28 stores in second and third tier cities this year as the markets are already saturated in the largest cities

July 10 – Marks & Spencer opened a 4,500m2 store in Shanghai, the fifth in the city and the largest in Asia. The British retailer currently operates eight stores in China and plans to open another eight in the next 12 months.

July 9 – China's national handset shipments reached 194.91 million units in 1H 2012, including 106.87 million 3G phones, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's China Academy of Telecommunication Research. Separately, smartphone shipments in China surged 164% year on year to 33.1 million units in Q2 2012, becoming the world's largest market, according to Needham & Company, an investment banking and asset management firm.

July 9 – China's consumer price index eased to 2.2% in June from a year earlier, marking a 29-month low in tandem with a slowing economy, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics. Food prices, which make up one-third of the inflation basket, were up 3.8% compared to the same month a year ago. In 1H 2012 the CPI was up 3.3% from 1H 2011.

July 9 – Tous, a Spanish jewelry retailer, said it plans to open 50 stores overseas this year, including 20 in China, marking its second attempt to explore the Chinese market after it retreated three years ago due to a flawed local partnership.

July 5 – US sandwich chain Subway said it plans to operate over 900 restaurants in China by the end of 2015. It has opened 318 restaurants in the country since 1995. Subway opened nearly 70 restaurants in China in 2011, and 100 in 1H 2012.

July 4 – Metro AG plans to open 10 stores in China annually in the years to come, said Metro China president Uwe Hoelzer. The German retailer recently opened its 55th store in the country.

July 1 – American Dairy Queen Corp said it plans to open 1,000 restaurants in China in the next five years, making the country its second largest market. The frozen treats retailer currently operates over 500 restaurants in China.

June 29 – China's total consumption was ¥22.5 trillion plus $1.2 trillion worth of imports last year, just 48% of gross domestic product, according to Guo Shuqing, chairman of the nation's securities regulator. This means the Chinese saved 52% of what they produced, an alarmingly high level against healthy economic development not seen elsewhere in the world.

June 29 – Germany's Metro AG opened its 55th store in China.

June 29 – Lotte Mart opened its 96th store in China, helping the country exceed its home market of South Korea in number of stores.

June 28 – Inditex SA, the owner of the Zara brand, said it plans to open an online Zara shop in China by the end of September. Zara plans to increase its number of Chinese stores by 150 to 425 by the end of this year.

June 27 – The number of deal-of-the-day websites in China has fallen to 2,996 as of the end of May, 56 less than a month earlier, according to Tuan800.com, a site that collects information about group-buy deals. It was the first time the number fell below 3,000 since 2011.

June 26 – Refrigerator sales in major Chinese cities were down 35.3% in volume and down 33.8% in value in Q1 2012, according to a joint report released by the State Information Center and the China Home Appliances Association.

June 22 – Armata, an Italian designer clothing retailer, opened its first China store in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

June 21 – China's spending on luxury goods will grow over 20% annually in the years to come, according to Deng Zhongyuan, director of the National Center of Fashion and Innovation. China is the world's largest luxury goods consumer.

June 21 – FamilyMart, Japan's biggest convenient store chain, said it will open its first stores in Chengdu and Shenzhen by the end of this year. FamilyMart was operating 868 stores in four Chinese cities as of the end of April, most of them in Shanghai.

June 20 – A quarter of household income is spent directly on children in China, and this share is increasing at an annual pace of 9%. There are 250 million children under 14 in China, 90 million of which live in cities.

June 20 – Tesco opened a store in Wujiang, Jiangsu province. It is the British retailer's 18th store in the province.

June 14 – Marks & Spencer opened a 4,500m2 store in Shanghai. It is the British retailer's eighth in China and fourth in the city. M&S is to open another two stores in Shanghai this month, one in Yangpu district and the other in Baoshan district.

June 9 – China took a 9% share of the Asia Pacific's $132.2 billion direct selling market in 2010, according to the World Federation of Direct Selling Association.

June 9 – China's retail sales rose 13.8% from a year earlier to ¥1.67 trillion in May, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Between January and May, retail sales were up 14.5% year on year to ¥8.16 trillion.

June 9 – China's inflation slowed to 3% in May compared to the same month of last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The rate was significantly down from 3.4% in April.

June 8 – Hugo Boss AG plans to open 20 stores in China annually in the years to come, Asia Pacific CEO Gerrit Ruetzel told Yicai.com. The German fashion company was operating 86 stores in China as of the end of 2011 after opening nine during that year.