Suning, China’s largest retailer had benefited greatly from the central government’s policy of economic stimulation in tier 1-2 cities and later tier 3-4 cities through appliance trade-in coupon scheme. This government lead rebate program encouraged citizen’s to purchase new and energy efficient consumer electronics and appliances.

This favored policy fueled in several years of rapid expansion in an effort to unseat pervious number 1 Gome, capture market share, share value and drive sales.

Suning’s period of significant and aggressive expansion lead to an unclear implementation of their large format segment with many cannibalizing and underperforming locations. This negative situation was furthered with the human resource challenge to service the aggressive expansion into many new markets.

To bring clarity to Suring’s large format inconsistency, a new flagship was developed to provide large format leadership to the brand.

Expo was envisioned as a platform for innovation in merchandise assortment, brand relationships, merchandise sourcing and customer service. Additionally it was agreed that Expo would be refined and improved over time as the market conditions and Suning’s operations required with Phase 1 being focused on 3 key principles of economy, simplicity and flexibility.

rkd retail/iQ was responsible for the retail strategy and all creative expressions including name generation, brand + environmental graphic programs, retail planning + design and construction documentation. Beyond the initial pilot location, rkd retail/iQ will continue to implement the program across selected locations throughout China.