AY1516 T2 Group11
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CHARLES & KEITH (C&K) was founded by Charles and Keith Wong to produce an innovative footwear line that focuses on clear design aesthetic in order to cater to the preferences of the modern women. The company is renowned to be one of the prominent fast-fashion lifestyle retailers due to its strong following. Currently, C&K has expanded its product range and diversified into different product categories. The products range from ladies footwear, in house designers bags to accessories, such as belts, sunglasses, bracelets and tech accessories. Impressive international presence on the global front can be attributed to its successful venture into prominent shopping districts in Tokyo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Cairo, Dubai (Charles & Keith, n.d).
China’s fast fashion industry has been expanding rapidly, with its customer base increasing at an exponential rate. The Boston Consultancy Group expects the fashion market to increase threefold the second time in the second decennium (NLambassade, 2014). With the increasing income and rising standard of living of its citizens, China potentially provides the largest consumer market in this industry. As such, due to the high market potential, many international fast-fashion brands, such as H&M and Zara, have been concentrating on its aggressive development and recognition into the mainland and new brands, such as Forever 21 and Gap, are also budding (SCMP, 2015).
Charles and Keith also grasped the opportunity and entered the Chinese market, with up to 95 store outlets spread across various cities. Having spoken to Charles, the CEO of the company, the company plans to focus on the China market and strengthen its foothold locally. Given the intense competition posed by other Multinational Companies (MNCs) as well as domestic SMEs, it is increasingly important for C&K to understand the China market to allow for better business strategizing to strengthen its competitive advantage.
Furthermore, the different economical, social and demographical characteristics of these China cities has made it more complex for C&K to understand local buying preferences. As such, the application of analytical techniques would be especially useful for the business to gather local market insights.
As of present, C&K does not allocate much of it’s resources into data analytics as much of its resources are tied down to the running of its daily logistics and operations, as well as, for its overseas expansions. The only area where data analytics is being applied is on the business’s supply chain and inventory management.
The objectives mainly involves: Visualise the overall generic consumer purchasing patterns and behaviour within China Identify best selling products and itemset for different regions or tiers of cities Highlight the differences between transactions of different locations in terms of product specifications or types
