Chinese Consumers Continue To Upgrade Luxury Goods In China.

< p > "sometimes you can see customers queuing at the gate of GUCCI when you visit the country at noon."

This summer, when I was talking to a friend in Wuhan about the local high-end consumption, she was very excited to mention this scene to me.

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< p > this friend's "Guoguang" is the abbreviation of Hankou Wuhan International Plaza Shopping Center in Wuhan Guangzhou business circle in Wuhan. It is the most high-end shopping mall in Wuhan. GUCCI, LV, Hermes and other luxury brands have opened stores here.

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< p > later, due to the rush of time, I did not have time to go there to verify the liveliness of GUCCI.

But from another friend who works in the luxury industry, the only store in Wuhan is a href= "//www.sjfzxm.com/news/index_c.asp" > GUCCI < /a >, which was once the best selling store in China this year, which has been occupied by Beijing Xinguang Tiandi store.

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Less than P, Wuhan's luxury market does not seem to match the overall expectations of luxury goods in the Chinese market. This should be the most difficult year for luxury brands in China.

China's luxury market grew by only 7% in 2012, much less than 30% in the previous year, and the first decline in 6 years.

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In addition to the impact of the Chinese government's anti-corruption actions and the slowdown in China's economy, more importantly, Chinese consumers began to turn to the growth of luxury purchases from overseas, and in terms of consumption concept, they prefer to pursue luxury products with unique and personal characteristics. P

Some brands, including GUCCI, have begun to slow down or even suspend their store expansion plans in China.

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< p > but from the perspective of Wuhan's performance, it does not seem like a market that is slowing down.

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< p > "compared with other cities such as Hangzhou, there are not many high-end shopping malls in Wuhan.

At present, only Wuhan International Plaza meets the standards of Hermes opening stores.

When the first store opened in Wuhan last year, ray Rong, President of Hermes China, told the media.

At the same time, he pointed out that, "a href=" //www.sjfzxm.com/news/index_c.asp "high-end consumption < /a > level, Wuhan market is still relatively new, without Beijing, Shanghai and other front-line cities mature, consumer awareness of brand still needs some time to cultivate.

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What Lei Rongfa said is not mature enough. The main point is that the consumers in the new tier cities are more concentrated on the wealthy class. On the one hand, they regard luxury consumption as a symbol of wealth, and on the other hand, they do not really understand the intention of the culture and idea behind the brand. P

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< p > this is a product of GUCCI and LV. Logo's obvious big name can still receive more attention in Wuhan. You can't immediately feel the reason for the end of the luxury brand honeymoon.

Including the fact that you can still see many luxury advertisements in the urban newspapers of new front-line cities, the number of print advertisements in the first tier cities has already shrunk.

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< p > "every weekend, you will find that the traffic in and out of Wuhan has become very congested. All kinds of cars with surrounding city licences are driving into Wuhan. They usually go straight to the high-end shopping mall such as Guoguang."

My friend also reminds me that the high-end consumption in the Wuhan market still depends to a large extent on the affluent people in these surrounding cities.

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< p > luxury consumption, another famous new first tier city is Shenyang. It is generally considered to be the third largest luxury consumer market in China.

There are a total of 53 stores in Shenyang, ranking first among non-traditional first-rate cities.

This includes 4 LV stores, the same number as Shanghai, less than Beijing.

Recently, Cartire also put its famous "Cartire collection" exhibition in Shenyang. This exhibition is the fourth exhibition in Greater China, and the first three trips to Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei.

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< p > some people have analyzed the reasons why Shenyang's luxury market is so prosperous from the perspective of regional character. They think that the northeast people are bold, generous and face saving, which meets the needs of luxury consumers in the early expansion of the Chinese market.

Perhaps this is not unreasonable, but you can not ignore the economic base of the region. The total population of the Shenyang economic zone is over 25 million, second only to the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. It is one of the largest urban clusters in China, and its radiation coverage can cover almost the entire East and north region.

Research shows that Shenyang's luxury consumption, consumers from Anshan, Fushun, Yingkou and other surrounding cities also accounted for a sizeable proportion.

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P, McKinsey, published in a report last year entitled "no boundaries in luxury market: escalating Chinese consumers", pointed out that the rapid growth of China's luxury market mainly benefited from very rich families with annual disposable income exceeding 1 million yuan.

They expect that the number of consumers will increase by about 20% every year in the next 3 years.

By 2015, this figure is likely to double.

Apart from the increase in volume, this group also presents a trend of consumption upgrading: like buying more expensive and more luxurious products.

By 2015, the group's total consumption of luxury goods will account for 28% of China's market.

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< p > but the report also points out that the future growth of a href= "//www.sjfzxm.com/news/index_c.asp" > luxury goods < /a > consumption will be more dependent on new buyers of luxury goods.

Most of them belong to the fast growing middle class with annual household disposable income between 50 thousand yuan and 250 thousand yuan.

Although the consumption of single middle-class families is much lower than that of ordinary wealthy families, their growth is astonishing.

McKinsey predicts that the contribution of middle class families will be important by 2015.

Many new buyers of luxury goods come from China's second tier cities.

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The trend seen by P is very important for luxury brands that have been cautious in China.

As we keep mentioning, the traditional second tier cities are rising rapidly, and people in these cities have begun to have a life style closer to the first tier cities.

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"P", a few months ago at the Basel Swiss watch exhibition, the GUCCI brand CEO and President Patrizio di Marco once said to me, "Chinese consumers are making progress so fast. I saw in the Japanese market that what happened in 20 years in China took 5 years to complete."

The changes he saw in the past 5 years were the first tier cities in last year's consumers who began to abandon luxury goods with obvious Logo. This prompted GUCCI to launch more low-key products without obvious Logo in the Chinese market this year.

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It may not be long before Patrizio di Marco will find that the pformation of interest shown by Chinese consumers will spread wider and similar changes will develop rapidly in the new and lower tier cities, P.

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< p > although you can see that there are still a lot of conspicuous consumption in these cities, many consumers are still pursuing a canvas bag with LV or GUCCI Logo, but the luxury brands that have already tasted the dividends of consumption concept in the first tier cities have already begun to layout in the new first tier cities.

In September alone, Prada had opened two stores in Nanning and Tianjin; Chanel opened its first perfume and beauty shop in Nanjing; and the company that integrated more niche brands has announced plans to open shop in Chengdu.

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