Buynow Electronics Market a Shadow of its Former Self

Chaoyangmen's Bainaohui Computer Shopping Mall  (also known by its English moniker Buynow) used to buzz with the sound of whirring processors, spinning disc drives, and the hum of excited customers perusing cutting-edge gadgets throughout its packed stalls.

For the better part of the past decade, the market has been the essential spot for locals and foreigners alike to buy computers, cell phones, digital cameras and other electronics this side of Zhongguancun – generating so much business that it opened a second, purpose-built location on the north side of the street with four floors packed with retailers selling all manner of computer-related gear.

But those days may be coming to an end. The south side market is now "closed for renovations," and a recent visit to the north side market found some of the premium stalls in the first foor empty, and other spots filled with merchants selling a variety of low-value goods.

Vendor Xiao Xingye, who mans a stall on Bainaohui's second floor, spends the majority of his these days time mending broken cameras. In fact, Xiao's stall is little more than a repair depot at this point, though it used to be known as a prime place to buy top-of-the-line Nikons and Cannons.

“Business is not good,” Xiao says, as he sifts through a tangle of wires to remove a fractured circuit. He then waves a hand at the half dozen customers milling between nearby stalls. “Hardly anyone is here. Now everyone shops on Taobao and JD.”

Many of Xiao’s fellow vendors have similar gripes about such e-commerce sites. Tang Mu, who runs a stall on the market’s third floor outfitted with row upon row of massive computer monitors, often finds himself staring blankly at those screens as he waits for customers to stop by.

“Online shopping is hurting our business,” Tang says. “But even I shop online a lot, because it’s easier and they’ll ship it to your home.”

Andy Mok, an IT consultant and founder of Red Pagoda Resources, says e-commerce poses major challenges to markets like Bainaohui, and most other brick and mortar retailers. “The choice, convenience, and likely greater price competitiveness provided by online retailers are proving more compelling to consumers.”

The decline in brick-and-mortar electronics markets is also evident in Zhongguancun, Beijing's IT epicenter. A recent Global Times article focused on the struggles of e-Plaza, the once dominant electronics market in the area, whose success helped the northwestern Beijing district earn its title as “China’s Silicon Valley.”

But now one e-Plaza has an all-but-vacant first floor, and it will likely be turned into an office building before long. Many of the vendors aim to oppose the plan, but the Times article says an even more daunting hurdle awaits them: official discouragement, as the city has "prohibited the expansion of brick-and-mortar marketplaces engaged in wholesale and repair of electronics,” the article states.

But some vendors remain optimistic, despite those mounting issues. Chang Qing – who repairs computers and sells accessories like earphones in Bainaohui – says e-commerce won’t make his services obsolete.

“Online shopping can be easier, because it delivers everything to you,” he concedes. “But some people still like to shop in a real store because we have better service, and they want to see what they’re buying.”

Wang, a cellphone salesman in Bainaohui's basement floor (who refused to give his surname), shares Chang’s sentiment, saying: “People want to feel what they’re buying and try it, test it out. But when you shop online you can only see the picture, you can’t try it. So I think shopping in the store is better.”

Chang and Wang’s steadfastness doesn’t seem naive to Mok, despite the hurdles they face. The IT consultant says such IT market vendors will not become extinct, but he adds that they will have to evolve in order to survive.

“There will continue to be a DIY computer hobbyist market,” he says. “My prediction is that traditional retail will never entirely disappear, but instead may assume new functions such as display rooms and distribution or pick-up centers. "However traditional retail, like any other industry in China or anywhere else around the world, is being dramatically reshaped by the mobile internet revolution.”

Images: Kyle Mullin