New Business
More Hong Kong shops to close as retail habits change, shopping shifts online
With the shopping habits of both Hongkongers and visitors to the city going through a sea change, more brands and retailers are making online sales a central part of their strategy to navigate the shifting tides.
More companies are likely to close shops or be cautious in their expansion plans in 2025, according to Jeanette Chan, senior director of retail at JLL in Hong Kong. However, online shopping is on an upswing.
“Before Covid, online shopping only came to about 3 to 4 per cent of Hong Kong’s total retail sales,” Chan said. “But during the pandemic this percentage increased to double digits. After Covid the percentage dropped back to single digits, but now we actually see this trend increasing again in the second half of this year as more people shop online.”
Hong Kong’s retail sales declined for the eighth consecutive month in October, dropping 2.9 per cent year on year, according to the Census and Statistics Department. Retail sales in the first 10 months of the year fell 7.1 per cent to about HK$312.3 billion (US$40.2 billion), compared with the same period in 2023, according to the government’s provisional estimates.
But online retail sales accounted for 12.3 per cent of total retail sales value in October, or HK$4 billion – a year-on-year increase of 8.4 per cent.
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