Policy Dongfeng and Industry Self Help: The Department Store Industry Enters the Deep Water Zone of "Stock Adjustment and Reform"

In 2026, the Chinese department store industry stands at a critical crossroads of transformation. The Ministry of Commerce and nine other departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Innovative Development of the Retail Industry", which pointed out the direction for the industry to overcome difficulties from the institutional level, and clearly proposed to solve pain points such as "imbalance between online and offline".

Driven by this policy orientation and market pressure, regional leading enterprises represented by Xinhua Department Store, Zhongbai Group, and Hefei Department Store have successively disclosed their "self rescue" roadmaps at the 2026 performance briefing. Its core strategy is highly consistent: on the one hand, it consolidates the basic market by optimizing the structure of stores and products, comprehensively reducing costs and controlling expenses; On the other hand, relying on the supply chain reform of "direct operation+direct procurement+base direct supply+self owned brand", it attempts to transform from "operating assets" to "operating users".

The report released by the China Department Store Association points out that the department store retail industry is facing the dilemma of declining sales and profit pressure, and the industry has entered a deep transformation period of stock adjustment and structural upgrading. In this context, the precise positioning of "one store, one strategy" has become mainstream, such as strengthening the luxury matrix in city center stores and focusing on life support and convenient services in community stores, in order to counter the "siphon effect" of e-commerce