Thailand

A $3.2 billion new luxury precinct called One Bangkok is rising in the Thai capital amid a flurry of investment by the city’s legacy department stores and malls as they renovate and expand to popular tourist destinations nationwide.

The growing popularity of ‘T-beauty’ brands across Asia has made their home country an increasingly important market for global players.

Chinese online retailer JD.com Inc. is closing its Indonesia and Thailand e-commerce sites as the company shifts its overseas strategy toward supply-chain and logistics services.

The statement leaves open the possibility that an entity associated with parent company Central Group, Thailand’s largest retail conglomerate, could still acquire the UK department store chain.

SuperOrdinary, which helps brands like Drunk Elephant, The Ordinary and Super Goop enter new markets or platforms, has invested $25 million in Bangkok-based Crea, the companies announced Nov. 17

As well as long-time stronghold mainland China, the Japanese beauty giant is counting on Southeast Asian markets to help it reach its 1 trillion yen ($8.9 billion) global sales target by 2023.

Parent company Central Retail is one of Thailand’s biggest conglomerates, operating malls in Thailand, Vietnam, Denmark and Italy.

Retail sales growth reached a five-year high in August this year, with the Thai capital expecting to add more retail floor space than any other Southeast Asian city.