Decline in China's luxury consumption widens in 2015
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E-mail Xinhua, January 20, 2016
Decline in China's luxury consumption widened in 2015 amid the government's ongoing anti-corruption campaign, a slowing economy and increased buying outside China, according to a report released on Wednesday.
China's luxury consumption growth slowed in 2013 and began to contract in 2014 as the government's austerity drive and ongoing anti-graft campaign capped demand. The decline widened to 2 percent last year, compared to 1 percent in 2014, said consulting firm Bain & Company in a report.
While the anti-corruption drive continues to weigh on demand, the sustained contraction in China's luxury market, now valued at 113 billion yuan at the end of 2015, also reflects changing consumption behaviors among China's luxury consumers.
Driven by the yuan's relative strength against a basket of currencies and the boom of online retail, more Chinese consumers shop at brick-and-mortar stores in countries like Japan, Republic of Korea, the euro zone and Australia, or use overseas online retailers, Bain's report finds.
Luxury spending by Chinese consumers surged over 200 percent in Japan last year while that in Hong Kong and Macao tumbled 25 percent during the same period.
Many foreign online retailers launched Chinese language websites last year to cater to Chinese buyers and began to accept electronic payments through Alibaba's Alipay and China's UnionPay. Such moves also helped boosted transactions outside China.
Overseas retailers and domestic e-commerce firms, including Alibaba and JD.com, accounted for 12 percent of total luxury spending in China last year, Bain said.
Increased overseas shopping comes at the same time domestic retailers are seeing a further loss in consumer flows and sales. Luxury brands have either closed some of their stores in China or moderated the pace at which they expand.
More efforts, Bain said, have gone into digital marketing and upgrading existing stores to enhance shopping experience.
A slowing local economy hurt luxury sales for the three provinces in the northeast, which were among the worst performing provinces last year.
East China appears most resilient to the slowdown in luxury consumption as demand is propped up by swelling ranks of middle class.
Bain said the decline could narrow in coming years as both the government and luxury brands try to convince consumers shopping at home is a better option.
Authorities have lowered tariff for several imported products, including leather shoes and cosmetics, a move that narrows the price of the same product sold in China and abroad.
The reform of China's exchange regime, which has set the yuan weaker against the U.S. dollar since August 2015, has made it less attractive to shop overseas.
Many high-end and luxury brands quietly cut prices in China last year. Chanel went a step further by hiking prices in Europe to align prices with the Chinese mainland.
Luxury brands have also been expanding their presence on cyberspace to reach out to the country's increasingly wired consumers. Internet platforms, including smartphone apps, microblog and instant messaging service WeChat, have emerged as a major channel for consumers to get exposure to information on luxury goods.
As a result, luxury brands spent an average of 35 percent of their marketing budget on online platforms last year. Bain forecasts the share will continue to grow in coming years.
The silver lining for the contracting Chinese luxury market, the consulting firm says, is that the country's middle class is expanding in big cities despite the economic slowdown and will drive more sustainable growth in luxury spending in the coming years, provided their preferences can be met by the right mix of policy and marketing strategies.
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