Pandora Cuts China Prices to Combat Grey Market

RAPAPORT… Pandora has lowered retail prices for most of the jewelry it offers in the Chinese market in an effort to combat revenue loss
from illegitimate sales.



The jeweler has reduced the cost of products by
approximately 15% across all its platforms in the region, including eSTORE
and its listings on Alibaba Group’s Tmall-ecommerce site, it said last week. By lowering prices, Pandora
hopes to limit grey-market purchasing, as well as reduce the retail-price
difference between mainland China and other markets.



Revenue declined 9% in Asia
Pacific for the first quarter of 2018, it said in May. In China, growth slowed from 62% in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 16% in the first three months of this
year. Pandora attributed that relative weakness to an increase in grey-market trading, in
which retailers sell a manufacturer’s genuine products without authorization.


“This price reduction across our jewelry assortment is one
element in our strategic program to limit grey-market trading of our products
in China, and continue to enhance our customer experience in the world’s
largest jewelry market,” said Kenneth Madsen, Pandora’s president for the Asia-Pacific
region.


Pandora currently operates more than 170 concept stores
throughout China.