To cultivate customer loyalty and boost confidence in product quality, the nation's two largest hypermarket operators are launching their own brand labels, as they hope to expand their customer bases even further.
Carrefour Taiwan, which operates 37 outlets nationwide, is launching a large-scale marketing campaign to strengthen brand awareness of its quality-oriented own-brand product line under the name "Carrefour," which will be priced 20 percent lower than other leading brands.
Its other private label, No. 1, which relies on pricing as its competitive edge, offers products with prices 40 percent cheaper than competing goods.
Increasing the value and sales of private labels has been a trend for international retailers. Europe and North America have seen own-brand products secure 23 and 16 percent of the market, respectively.
In contrast, local retailers apparently see great potential for this segment's development in Taiwan from its current less-than-ten percent market share, said Marc Oursin, Carrefour Taiwan general manager.
"Carrefour will launch a series of campaigns for the Carrefour brand ... We target a 20 percent share of sales by the end of this year and are chasing the same share achieved in more developed markets by 2007," he said.
Operating along the same lines, RT-Mart (大潤發) plans to adopt a dual-brand strategy by introducing its own "top-class" private label, provisionally named "RT-Mart," in the latter half of this year to complement its low-priced "First Price" brand, said PR official Margery Ho (何默真).
RT Mart expect to increase the First Price product lineup from its current 1,200 items to 1,500 items by the year-end, she noted.
However, the popularity of such brands is low in Taiwan as 73 percent of local consumers said they did not trust the quality of own-brand products, according to a survey conducted by ACNielsen Taiwan in September last year.
The report pointed out that image building and consumer education are the biggest challenges for retailers when trying to win consumer trust in their own-brand products.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) halted shipments to a customer this month after its semiconductors were sent to China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為), potentially breaching US sanctions, a government official said. The US slapped sanctions on Huawei in 2019, and expanded them the following year, over fears its technology could be used for Beijing’s espionage operations. The restrictions prevent TSMC from selling semiconductors to Huawei. However, TSMC discovered on Oct. 11 that chips made for a “specific customer” had ended up with the Chinese company, a Taiwanese official with knowledge of the incident said on the condition of anonymity. TSMC “immediately activated
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
Shares of Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) surged more than 53 percent on its debut on the Taiwan stock exchange yesterday. Starlux shares closed up 53.75 percent at NT$30.75 from its initial public offering price of NT$20 after retreating in late trading from a 60 percent rise. China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) rose 0.90 percent to close at NT$22.35, while EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) gained 0.40 percent to close at NT$37.70. In Taiwan, a newly listed stock is allowed to go beyond the 10 percent maximum increase or decline in its first five trading sessions. At the listing ceremony, Starlux chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) said
RSS