Last week I was telling you Children's Day here in China... Read below

So here I am back in Yiwu, China. We have an office and warehouse (and now a small factory) here so I'm often in this town. For those new to this newsletter, or have not come across this Chinese city before: Yiwu is a trader's paradise. 80,000 factories have showrooms in this city - they have a market for every small commodity you can imagine. From scarves to socks, to silly pens.

The other day I visited the main gift-ware market, it is maybe 3 months since I was last there, so it's interesting to see just how many new items have appeared, and which ones have disappeared. Only by been a regular can you see such things. A lot has happened in three months, the Chinese currency has shifted 10% and the shipping costs have doubled, wages have increased 20% meaning cheap and cheerful things are much less viable. So like little whippets they are reinventing themselves with higher value designer type items.

One thing is for sure the world is changing fast, exciting times. I read about a very small chain of Chinese Feng Shui shops that made over a million pounds in Singapore last year, they are floating on the London stock exchange (at a lucky 8p of course) and coming to Europe and opening up across China.

I think that's very interesting, there's money in Feng Shui, retailing is not dead. But more precisely specialist retail is not dead because it marries well with a web-shop. People love specialists, and an enthusiastic is naturally endearing. In the future I see retailers specialising more and more.
Feng Shui Shop - Retro Jewellery Shop - Ethnic Soft Furnishing Shop - Everything Lavender Shop - Funky Collectables Shop -

Like the Chinese we need to reinvent ourselves quickly..

More thoughts and news next week.. from China.

Regards

David