Wangfujing closed 5 stores in 2025 and swung from a ¥269M profit to a loss

2025 was the year China's department stores went dark: at least 31 malls closed, 25 of them for good, and 58% of the permanent closures were 'old department stores' that had operated for more than twenty years — from Xuzhou's 75-year-old Central Department Store to Shanghai's Zhidi Plaza. Wangfujing Group's own share was five stores: three when leases expired, two in its strategic shift.

On the evening of January 28, 2026, Wangfujing pre-announced its 2025 results: a net loss of ¥23–45 million, against a ¥269 million profit in 2024 — and once non-recurring items were stripped out, the loss ran ¥110–160 million. The causes it named: investment in new formats and upgrades that has yet to pay off, non-recurring hits, costs front-loaded by new lease accounting on long-tenure stores, and a department store business declining as spending habits change.

The company calls this a critical phase of structural adjustment, swapping old engines for new ones. Industry specialists see a Japan-style contraction: department stores retreating from national networks to core cities and districts, with consolidation along the way. Of the 31 malls that closed in 2025, six — including Beijing's Landao Building and Shanghai's Chaoyang Mall — shut for renovation rather than for good.