Cooking up success with a sweet touch

What prompted you to make the Godiva outlet in Xintiandi, Shanghai your global flagship store?

Our optimism about China stems from the growing demand from Chinese consumers for quality products. It is obvious that they want the best things. We see China as a huge market with so many opportunities.

Godiva has 15 stores in Shanghai. Xintiandi is a place where the eastern culture meets western culture, and it's a major tourism area. It is not only a great store for the local community, but also for Chinese and international tourists. We are planning to open many more stores in Shanghai.

What are your competitive advantages vis-à-vis other luxury chocolatiers?

We are a boutique brand that has strong emotional connections with consumers. Most of the other brands just sell their products in supermarkets. That is a core difference.

Could you tell us a little about how Godiva is planning to spread its reach in China?

We will continue to open many more stores and expand into many more areas in China. Currently, we have 55 stores in China, and we hope to have at least 100 stores very soon, and then beyond that.

We have stores in 16 cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. We are also in Qingdao, Wuhan, Chongqing, Chengdu and Ningbo. We are in the east coast, and also in the inland regions.

We also plan to expand to some of the key third-tier cities, and there are some areas in western China that we are looking at. We are still in negotiations.

Do you have any e-commerce expansion plans?

We have e-commerce on our own official website. We are on Tmall.com and we just launched on JD.com. We are also looking at other platforms. China is a vast country and we cannot open a boutique in every city. We have already reached over 300 cities with our e-commerce plan. We want to continue doing so. The growth of e-commerce in China is a lesson to the whole world on how it should be done. I expect the sector to grow exponentially over the next five to 10 years.

What is the main difference between China and the Western markets?

If you look at the product range, everything is pretty consistent globally. If you look at Asia all the way through, people here prefer chocolate that is less sweet, while Americans tend to like it very, very sweet. But our core products in China are the same as what is being sold in the United States. We do not want to alter the taste, as customers are actually getting a taste of Belgium and its rich heritage. I think some brands failed in China when they tried to adjust the products too much.

Have you developed some specific chocolate products for the China market?

Absolutely. We are always doing special collections. We celebrate a number of holidays like Easter and Christmas in the West. China also has a number of different holidays. We developed chocolate moon cake for the Mid-Autumn Festival and I can tell you it is very delicious.

We also celebrate Chinese Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year with special packaging and different types of chocolates. The chefs understand the local markets.