Bosideng, the Chinese retailer with thousands of shops in its home country, opened its first UK store last year.

Bosideng, the Chinese retailer with thousands of shops in its home country, opened its first UK store last year. It did so with an architecturally show-stopping building at the top of London’s South Molton Street that took the place of the scruffy-looking Hog in the Pound pub. Few tears were shed about the pub’s demise, it had over-charged tourists for years, and the new store seemed a positive addition to the north end of this exclusive thoroughfare.

Then it opened and nobody came. And so it continues. Walk into this one and there are generally plenty of staff, but if you see a shopper, much less a purchase being made, then it’s something of a red-letter day. The problem is the stock, which does not look as if it has a great deal to do with UK customers.

Then there are the graphics. A lounger-suited bloke with a bird of prey on his arm set against a landscape of snowy mountains may play well back home, but it looks just plain weird in this part of the world – Genghis meets Shanghai billionaire seems to be the curious message on first inspection.

The point about all of this however is not to single out Bosideng for vitriol – being a pioneer in a new market is always tricky. Instead, it is to wonder about the anticipated wave of Chinese retailers that sources tell us to expect to arrive in the capital during 2013.

New market success depends either on a brand already being well-known in unfamiliar territory and its absence being keenly felt, or an offer being tailored to make it appropriate to local shoppers. Both these elements seem to be absent in the case of Bosideng and the results are clear.

UK retailers could of course provide a few object lessons for the Chinese as the annals of retail expansion into the US by operators from this market are littered with failure and ignominious retreat - a few high-profile successes in NYC notwithstanding. So what should Chinese retailers do in order to cut it around 5,000 miles from home?

The answer might be to come and spend some time looking at what shoppers want and what they buy before signing on the dotted line. There’s more to retail success than setting up a shop, opening the doors and then hoping - just ask the management at Fresh & Easy.