Watson to open 300 China stores

AS Watson Group is planning to open over 300 new stores in China this year to further strengthen its "offline plus online" retail strategy as the market shows a gradual recovery and an improvement in customer sentiment.

In the past three years, Watsons China opened nearly 850 physical stores and renovated around 440 stores in over 300 cities, the retailer said.

Its customer insights show that the spending of its O+O customers who shop at both physical and online stores is 3.1 times higher than those who shop only at physical stores, said Malina Ngai Man-lin, chief executive of AS Watson (Asia & Europe).

"Looking ahead the O+O platform strategy will remain our core growth engine and physical stores will continue to play a significant role in creating an irreplaceable O+O customer experience," Ngai added.