Kering Group’s luxury brand Gucci closed its stores at Réel Department Store and New World Daimaru Department Store in Shanghai on February 17, reducing the number of Gucci stores in the city to seven. More significantly, on the luxury shopping street of Nanjing West Road, Gucci now has only one store at Shanghai Hang Lung Plaza, signaling a strategic contraction. In addition to the closures in Shanghai, Gucci closed its Fuzhou Grand Ocean store in December, a location that had just been upgraded in 2023; its Dalian Times Square store in November, which had been the brand’s first in Dalian since its opening in 2008; the Shenyang Zhuozhan store in August, which had been the first Gucci store in Shenyang; and its Taiyuan Wangfujing store in July, the first Gucci store in Taiyuan opened in 2010. Since last year, the six major luxury brands (Hermès, Chanel, LV, Dior, Gucci, Prada) have slowed down their expansion in mainland China, with some brands closing stores, removing construction barriers, delaying openings, and focusing new store openings on renovations.