00:00Let's talk about the Chinese fashion chain, Urban Revivo, first of all.
00:04400 locations in China and Southeast Asia, now opening here in London.
00:10What brand is it? What kind of brand is it?
00:13Thanks for having me, Jamie and Paul.
00:15Urban Revivo is, many people call it the Zara of China.
00:21Like many Chinese companies these days, they're working very hard to build a trusted brand overseas.
00:25So they're not just selling clothing, they're working on an image and a reputation overseas.
00:30And I think we're seeing, as we just saw, you just mentioned, they've opened their latest store here in London.
00:35I think this news is sort of in the bigger context of China in general, building branding overseas and expanding internationally.
00:45And not just being the manufacturer of the world, they're being, in the future, I can foresee them becoming the branding capital of the world, if that makes sense.
00:53Going overseas and competing with overseas brands.
00:56So I think that's what we're seeing with Urban Revivo as an example.
01:00Interesting that you call it the sub-Chinese version of Zara.
01:03Zara, though, still has real supremacy, dominance in the retail market, doesn't it?
01:09Amazingly, Topshop making a comeback, a huge part of my youth here in London.
01:14Can Urban Revivo really make its mark against these kind of really established Western names here in London, here in the West?
01:20Such an interesting topic, you know, to go to other industries, for example, you would call BYD, also expanding quickly in the UK as the Tesla of China, if you want to say it that.
01:30But they've actually exceeded Tesla recently in some numbers.
01:33So Urban Revivo, are they going to exceed Zara or exceed Western brands?
01:38It's a question mark, but whether it's Urban Revivo or other Chinese brands, I think they're going to give Western brands a run for their money in terms of business development in the future.
01:47Now, as you can tell, you're talking to two dedicated followers of fashion, the wrong end of middle age, of course.
01:54And the kind of generation, probably, who'd like to walk into a shop and feel the clothes.
01:58I mean, it is worth saying, isn't it, that we've reported on this program that the story till recently was all about brands walking out of bricks and mortars premises and moving online.
02:10Is that changing?
02:11And what is the future for the high streets?
02:14So interesting, isn't it, that over the last 10 years, it's been a move to online sales and cross-border trade, Amazon, etc., including with Chinese brands selling on Amazon, etc.
02:24I think you're right that the next five years to 10 years, we're going to see an offline revolution or a return to offline across industries.
02:33What we're seeing, my company has helped over 300 different brands from China expand overseas.
02:38All of them, without exception, are focused on offline because if you want to build trust in the market, you need to meet your consumer face to face.
02:45And I think we're going to see that more in London in the future, too.
02:47We were just reporting that Xi'an, which has got a big name here, actually saw global profits fall in part due to these tariffs in America.
02:56How important, you know, for the people that you work with, how important is Europe now as a growth area for Chinese, specifically for clothing brands?
03:04Are they really focusing on Europe now?
03:05We've seen an uptick of 50% in terms of our revenue and interest in the U.K. and Germany compared to a few years ago.
03:15If you ask Chinese brands where are they growing to, they'd say probably the U.S.
03:19The last two years, because of Trump, the de minimis tax, the exemption being removed for companies like Xi'an.
03:29We're seeing Chinese companies expressing more interest in the U.K. and Europe more generally.
03:33So I think it's an interesting opportunity for the U.K. to seize that.
03:37And there's more to be done in terms of the diplomatic relations, but I think there's opportunities there for sure.
03:41And can I ask you, when you're doing all your research for all of these many companies you represent, there's no such thing as the customer, is there?
03:50There's loads of demographics, aren't there?
03:53I mean, are you talking essentially about a very mobile, younger consumer where older consumers, I'm not pointing to you particularly, but I mean, older consumers just do what they've always done and are very difficult to change in our own purchasing habits.
04:07Are you talking about young consumers?
04:09I think they're targeting younger people that are interestingly less interested in social media and more interested in the offline experience in a store.
04:17So the brand is more interested to connect with people in person and the younger demographics are also changing how they're buying things, especially clothing where you want to touch and feel what you're buying, if that makes sense.
04:27And just a very last question.
04:29In five years' time, are we going to be talking and reporting about the death of online and all of us are going to rush back to buy on the high streets?
04:36I think we might be wearing Chinese-made branding suits and talking about offline stores.
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