Ruohan picks Shanghai as home to first monobrand store

Ruohan is about to reach a new milestone in its brand development. The Chinese label, which will show once again in Paris on September 30, is set to open its first monobrand store. Ruohan Nie, the label’s founder and creative director, and CEO Waël Benkerrour, have picked Shanghai as the home of their new store. 

The store’s architecture, a project that has taken over a year to develop, is inspired by the personal house of Mexican architect Luis Barragán, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It will be located on Hunan Road, a rather quiet street in the district of Shanghai’s former French concession. The store’s opening will coincide with Shanghai Art Week, and will mark the Chinese independent label’s debut into the world of monobrand retail. 

A window on Ruohan’s world

The site will consist of two sections. The main building will showcase items from Ruohan’s latest collection as well as the fabric archives that have been created since the label’s inception. “People will be able to better understand the brand. We’ll have a reception room and a retail area. We’ll also have a separate building, smaller than the main one, with a more artisanal feel. There will be a small cinema on the ground floor, screening our campaigns and shows,” said Nie.

“I think it’s crucial we have a space for people to understand our history and atmosphere. That’s why we want to open this kind of store, rather than a strictly commercial venue,” she added. The main building will extend over an area of 225 square metres, and the secondary building over 38 square metres, and there will be a 140 square-metre garden. The store’s main focus will be hospitality and the customer experience, and it will have only one fitting room, extending over nearly 50 square metres. 

Suzhou Creek studio morphs into showroom

The store will actually be like a private shopping lounge, inspired by Lane Crawford’s Platinum Suites, designed to put shoppers and their entourage at ease in a large, comfortable and well-appointed space. “Initially, we thought about setting up an artist residency, because we have so many friends coming to visit us in Shanghai,” said Nie. A plan that will have to be put on hold for the time being. “On the last day of July, we reopened our Suzhou Creek design studio,” said Nie, “a place where we welcome the media and our wholesale partners to view the new collections,” she added. The Suzhou Creek studio was enlarged this summer from 100 to 450 square metres, becoming, among other things, a showroom.

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Ruohan’s first monobrand store has drawn on the profits generated by the label over the years. “So far, we’ve been 100% self-financed. This enables us to make choices that put much more of a premium on brand value rather than sales,” said Benkerrour.

The cornerstone of Ruohan’s retail approach

This first step into the world of monobrand retail marks a clear turning point for Ruohan. “A wholesale-based business model is quite reassuring for young people and emerging designers,” said Nie. “When you work with the wholesale channel, you mostly bring in money when you deliver the products. So, in terms of income, you are not operating as you do in retail, where you have to buy the inventory first and risk losing money,” said Benkerrour.

“One of the key things for us is to move from a B2B model, where we have a margin on wholesale prices, to B2C, where we’ll start having our margin on the full price of a product. It’s quite a leap for the brand, from selling as a wholesaler to selling as a retailer,” he added. Ruohan’s first store will be a test for the label. It will enable it to “reach end-consumers” and start a “conversation” with them, so that the model can be tweaked and possibly duplicated.

Ruohan’s distributive overhaul

Ruohan’s distributive strategy has undergone a thorough transformation in recent times. The label has rationalised its network of distributors in mainland China, falling from 60 to 45 retail outlets over the past three years. In parallel, Ruohan has doubled the number of international retailers it works with, from 20 to 40 partner stores. The label has a retail presence in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Italy and the USA. In Paris, Ruohan is exclusively distributed by Le Bon Marché since August 16, and it is also sold via Selfridges and Net-a-Porter in the UK/Europe and the USA. 

“Le Bon Marché was a place I went to all the time, when I was a student in Paris. When they contacted me to buy our products and collaborate, I was over the moon,” said Nie. “Their designer concessions are split in two segments: ready-to-wear and slightly more upmarket labels. They don’t really put designers together based on their popularity … I think it’s a very good choice for our brand’s clientèle,” she added.

The share of Ruohan’s sales outside mainland China has increased from 15-20% to 35-40% in nearly two years, and the label is thinking about exploring other markets, notably tackling South Korea in the near future. These new developments mean Ruohan is faced with the challenge of scaling up and assembling a senior executive team to streamline its operations. For the time being, Ruohan has a staff of approximately 20 people.