In business and life, doing the same thing does not guarantee you the same result. While I was munching on some sinfully delicious chocolate from Awfully Chocolate, I am thinking about 3 of their locations in Shanghai yielding different results, all with the same products offering.
Awfully Chocolate is a successful and wonderful chocolatey chain from Singapore, with quite a number of locations in China. You can learn more about them at awfullychocolate.com
Below opinion is based on my personal observation, used for example, and is in no way to be used as fact.
Same product x different consumers = different results
They have a store in Raffles City (Shanghai). It is a to-be-seen location for young professional with good disposable income in the city. The location is perfect as it is basically a central transportation hub of Shanghai. as well. That is where acceptance for such “westernized” food is high as well. Hence, you find high traffic, high recurring, young professional munching their yummy chocolate. You might not able to find a seat too, since their shop is quite tiny, which create an illusion of scarcity as well.
Business is good for them.
They also have a store in Kerry Parkside. It is a shopping mall mainly caters to 2 types of people – nearby high-income residents, many of them expat and people with exposure to foreign culture. the 2nd type is expo visitors, as it is next door to a huge exhibition center. They have a store probably triple in size of their Raffles City one.
I think business is not good for them in Kerry, based on what I see.
Why? The nearby residents who visit Kerry, even with much higher disposable income, seems to be more conscious of what they are eating. Hence they might be opting for a healthier option, most of the time. Adding that traffic is not as good as Raffles City, even average spend probably higher, this means less order for the chocolate.
What about expo visitors? They are mostly business people and male, and I bet most do not know about Awfully Chocolate. And they are more likely to patronate Starbucks or some better known local chains.
I also believe the size of the store is hurting them because it creates a sense of desertness, which is not so good for the catering business in China.
Same product x different competition = different results
They have another store in a wonderful location with the perfect consumer, high-income tourist to Shanghai and high-income professional. That store is in IFC (International Finance Centre), which is right in the center of China most famous financial hub and tourist spot, with stores like Loius Vuitton and Apple Store.
Problem is, they are not the only treats. In fact, they are competing with world-famous treats ranging from Lady M from the USA to Zakuzaku from Japan. And both of those usually have long queues.
Business there seems to be so-so.
And in Raffles City, I see they have no competition at that level.
So business is brisk.
All-in-all, choose your products and pick your battles (locations, channels, etc.) wisely. Whoever having a complete understanding of the consumers and competitors, both current and future, will be a much higher chance of winning!