That day might have finally come.
China’s own Li-Ning, the world’s third-largest activewear company, officially launched a U.S. e-commerce site last week. “The Villain” basketball sneaker goes for $100 and the “Turningpoint” basketball jacket goes for $80.
At first glance, the brand — named after a Chinese sports star who won six medals in the 1984 Olympics — seems to be kind of limping into U.S.
A Web site does not seem like the vanguard of a great market-changing force. Plans to scoop up some of the excess real estate on the market and roll out a fleet of stores, yes. But a Web site?
Once my colleague Karyn Monget got Ray Grady, general manager of the brand’s U.S. operation, talking, the online venture began to look more interesting.
“We are launching into the [digital] retail landscape at a time when retail is evolving and changing — Gap is shuttering stores while Amazon is wildly successful….Our target demographic skews younger, Millennials or even if they are not Millennials, they are open to change,” Grady said.
“Our approach is candidly what our competitors are trying to reinvent themselves with….We have a pilot campaign with Pandora and we are currently in talks with other brands….The brand is also showing up in sneakerhead blogs, a huge [basketball] subculture, and when we talk to the running category it’s a slightly different voice with a biographical, philosophical approach,” he said.
Yes, it would seem more solid if Li-Ning charged in with plans for 300 stores. But that rarely seems to have worked in the past. Think of Esprit, which last year admitted the brand had “lost its soul” and said it would close down its U.S. stores.
Still, it’s not clear that Li-Ning is the game changer.
For one, the brand is working through some issues.
The company’s revenues slipped 4.8 percent to 4.29 billion yuan, or $655 million at average exchange for the six months ended June 30. Profits attributable to shareholders declined 49.5 percent to 293.7 million yuan, or $44.9 million and the company said it is taking steps to revitalize its brand and reform its distribution.
If Li-Ning doesn’t take the U.S. market or the world by storm, it seems reasonable to assume some other Chinese brand eventually will. And when the roll out comes, there’s nothing that says it has to look like anything we’ve seen before.
I really love Shanghai, it’s kinda like high school again. College was too busy of a time for me to really enjoy friendships. Now that I’ve left the boonieville of Max Oriental, I’m making friends again and it feels amazing! I met this dude named BC Park, works for California Pizza Kitchen operations. Super cool and laid back giant. Bobby, works for Gap, I think in real estate or something like that. Debra, she used to be an architect back in the States but she’s now in SH real estate development. Sisi and Clement (we have mutual friends in SF) are architects in Shanghai. Double coolness. Chris is a new bud in cookware, I think we could be gal-pals if only he were gay. Charlene works for Topson Down and runs their SH office. Tina works for H&M marketing. Joanna is in marketing, newly moved from LA to join her restauranteur boyfriend. Paul works for Apple, opening stores! Harder than it sounds! Kouler works for a toy model airplane company exclusively for high end clientele. You know, the ones that drive the Land Rovers. Kouler’s girlfriend Elin works for Giraffe English School in SH. So many different jobs exist for expats in SH. It’s full of energy!
So far, I’ve met two people who became goooooooood friends off my blog. One was Jennifer Hu; she found me googling Max Oriental before she joined us at the Company! She’s a cool cat from New Zealand and now she’s living in Hong Kong! Globe trotter! We became fast friends working together at Max. She’s so chill!
And yesterday, after playing phone tag for nearly 2 years it seems like, I met Sabrina in Shanghai’s Ding Tai Fung (a super famous delicious steamed dumpling place!). She treated me to dinner because I told her I was starting my own business and she felt sorry for me. Hhaha. Yeah, it definitely is expensive! Sabrina works for Top Gloria, a cool brand that’s all over Shanghai’s Taxi Media. Their spokesperson is some Taiwanese celebrity. She’s a media/PR chick now. I am so happy she isn’t stuck in the factory in Guangzhou everyday now. She spends 3 weeks out of the month in SH now working near Xing Tian Di!
Sometimes doing work is so painful especially if you don’t know what you’re really doing but you also know it’s crucial you do it! I’m probably losing my hair due to stress…or it could be my hair extensions hahaha! Building a brand and writing a brand profile seems so easy but at the same time, as an entrepreneur you want to sell to everyone, but the key is to be niche in the beginning. I find myself struggling over word choice and fearing excluding customers…
Forget about milestones…it’s so giant and far away feeling…but I still had to just jot it down. You just got to have them down. You write with faith. That’s the only thing that keeps me trucking!
Did you know if you’re a foreigner, and not local Chinese, you can’t really sell on Taobao in China? Only if you’re Hong Kongnese, Taiwanese, or maybe from Macau and you’ve got a local Chinese national, can you become a seller. It’s a long process. I’ve been at it for a week now. Lots of taking pictures of your ID, your guarantor’s signature, scanning uploading, opening the right bank account etc…lots of hoops. I guess it’s just part of the game!
So I just arrived back to Shanghai yesterday evening after an eventful week with my partner in Nin Xia and Yin Chuan! Besides just seeing her family and getting to know her background better, I was there just to see another side of China. If I’m not translating incorrectly, this area of China is where coal is. Sure, there are poor folk, but most of Chen Hua’s friends and family were doing quite well.
We went shopping to see the market and my partner’s cousin Yuan Yuan took us to this little apartment converted to a super POSH store! I guess this is a trend now. I was getting scared walking into a random apartment building all dark and scraggly. Then the door swings open and I see the nicest little shop with nice walls and nice furniture! The clothes were not cheap, $1000rmb/$161usd for dresses, handbags for $1600rmb/$250usd, and I was immediately impressed with the economy in Nin Chuan. Even when we chatted with my partner’s old friends who are “middle up” economically, they consider no name handbags at $400rmb/$65usd really cheap, and t-shirts for $200rmb/$32usd a normal thing. I was gagging at the opportunity. Since there aren’t a lot of options yet in Nin Chuan, the customers are loyal to their favorite haunts. I didn’t see any franchises, no McDonalds or KFCs! I really wanted to invest in something in Nin Chuan! Maybe I will. We are considering putting our backend support here and opening a physical store too. We’re just planning now. We’ll see if we can get good staff. Shanghai is just too expensive to hire a lot of staff, but it’s where I want to build my life!
I just talked to my parents and committed to staying in SH for a year at least. They will rent their apartment to me. I will try to rent out the second bedroom. With no income coming in and all investment going out, I’m gonna need all the pennies and cents I can get! I’m so scared and excited! I think I’ve been saying that at every blog entry!
After reading my blog, my sister in law Marissa, whom we all call Honey wrote me. I really appreciate this because it’s just all a blur honestly. The more I keep going, the more I learn I have to do, have to learn, have to figure out. Quite overwhelming! But I’m glad people are rooting for me. God help me! I’m down on my knees!
Honey wrote:
•Make sure you have a clear vision statement and mission statement. A vision statement is what you set out to do. A mission statement tells you how you will achieve your vision.
•Having a clear, concise, impactful elevator pitch is always a huge plus when trying to sell your product/service to potential customers.
•Even though your industry doesn’t normally practice Six Sigma, having a Six Sigma-esque project charter is super helpful as well.
•Really take the time to figure out the metrics for measure ROI. Having something clear, defined, and measurable is absolutely necessary especially if you have investors.
So Chen Hua, her mom, her baby son, and I left her apartment at 6:20 am in Shanghai to catch a 8:10 am flight to her hometown of Nin Chuan, specifically Nin Xia. Such a beautiful place. I’m surprised I’ve never really heard of it because it’s really developed and the people are super nice. I must admit that I really admire Chen Hua and how close knit her family is in her home town. We’ve been invited to dinner, KTV, and more food, and more food. I’m staying at her friend’s apartment that’s really close to Chen Hua’s grandparents’ place. I haven’t spent a penny, or a kuai. Anyway, I just emailed my husband Kenneth the funniest thing. We sang karaoke (KTV) tonight and one of our friends sang this super serious Chinese love song…then in the middle of the song, the lyrics mention “that old ostrich”…a love song that reminisces about farm animals. It’s so awesome! So China. You just gotta love it because that stuff is what cracks you up and keeps you young here!
This Saturday, we’re going to meet some web developers and Tao Bao experts in Nin Chuan. Hopefully we can find some people here to do our back office support. Shanghai is too expensive. Gotta be smart with our money.
I’ve been in Shanghai a week and it seems like I’ve accomplished much less than I expected. I’m halfway to finally opening a Tao Bao account (much more complicated for a non-Chinese national). It took my Taiwanese friend a month to figure out the process. I opened a new bank account in SH and got a new sim card. Met several web developers. Talked to Chen Hua more about our business. Talked more to Min Yoo (my advisor). Now I have to do research. Will Chinese people like what I pick out? Difficult to say! I’ll do the business plan by myself first. This little blip is more like my have done list and my to do list.
My in-laws used the term hustling once and I thought hustling meant hustling drugs or pros…hahaha!
Now I know it just means busting your butt to make a penny!
I just arrived in Shanghai last night after a 4 hour delay at the airport in Shen Zhen. This is completely normal, albeit annoying. On the plane ride over, I met a nice older gentleman named Larry Li and he and I chatted about our marriages and our no baby policy (for now). We talked to cultural differences and how difficult it can be for a local Chinese to assimilate in America later on in life. I moved from Taiwan to California at age 6, but even then I felt like an outcast. My own cousins would be embarrassed of me. I can only imagine how difficult someone older (especially high school) would have it. Anyway, I was hustling my business plan about how I want to start my own business by outfitting business ladies in China or office ladies who work for international firms or deal with international customers. Larry didn’t even realize Chinese ladies and Western/American ladies dressed differently. I laughed. Heck yeah it’s different. We can spot each other from a mile away. People can tell I’m not from China even though my skin be YELLOW! And when I’m back in the States, I can spot Chinese people easy.
Anyway, fun fact; Larry’s wife is in the business of iron ores. She runs her own trading company. So random right? I guess we need that stuff. I was like, Wow! That sounds so different from what I do! It’s awesome because it sounds so dang manly to me, but she’s doing it!
Larry works for a company that runs the Shanghai and Shen Zhen “Terminal” which means the docking area/wharf thing. I’m so vague about it because I didn’t understand the details. It’s where the boats that carry cargo land! It’s kinda amazing all the different jobs out there. U just don’t think about them all. Everyone in my circle are either fashion/manufacturing/or finance stuff. Wharf dude and iron ore lady is definitely cool!
