China's luxury consumer market performance is weak

Recently, the United States large consulting company Bain Consulting and the Italian luxury brand industry group - the Italian luxury goods industry association released the "global luxury market survey" shows that in 2014 the Chinese mainland's luxury market is expected to be 15 billion euros (about *** 1178 million yuan), 2% lower than last year. Since the survey was launched in 2000, negative growth has occurred for the first time. A website in Japan also reported that the market size of China's luxury goods sales will shrink for the first time since entering the 21st century. Relevant data show that changes in the Chinese market may lead to a slow growth of the entire Asian luxury market.

The weak performance of luxury brands Reporter was informed that the world's largest luxury goods group Louis Vuitton recently announced the first three quarters of financial reports that only increased by 4%, leather goods sector sales rose by only 3%, while the wine and spirits sector sales fell by 7%. These departments are all the fastest growing businesses in China. The British leather goods brand Mulberry also announced that its operating income dropped sharply in the first half of the year. Last month, Prada, the Italian luxury goods company that released its interim results, saw its revenue increase by 1.3% in the first half of the year and its profit dropped by 20.6%. In addition, the global sales of hard luxury goods have also slowed down significantly due to the shrinking of watch in the Asia-Pacific region.

Since 2010, due to the subsequent impact of the financial crisis, the European consumer market has continued to slump, and China has been called the savior of the global luxury goods. In 2014, the scale of China's luxury goods market will drop from third place to fourth place. Therefore, the downturn in the Chinese market seems to have become a “fuse” in the global luxury market performance for a time.

The change in consumer demand is mainly due to the reporter's understanding that sales in the Chinese luxury goods market have increased by 9.6 billion U.S. dollars in the five years before 2014. Only the absolute growth of the United States ranks above China, which is $18 billion. No other country can approach this growth rate. However, such high growth suddenly collapsed at the end of the economic recovery and many luxury brands began to question their strategies in China and other emerging markets.

According to foreign media analysis, the changes in the Chinese market are not only related to the reduction in gift consumption caused by domestic “thrifty orders”, but also to a growing number of Chinese consumers who are beginning to have a close relationship with overseas shopping where tariffs and VAT are lower. . For example, the Burberry windbreaker, which is priced at 29,000 yuan on the Chinese website, is sold in Japan for only 330,000 yen (about 19,000 yuan), while in France it is 2395 euros (about ***). 1.88 million yuan).

The reporter believes that in addition to the above-mentioned factors, changes in the market are mainly related to changes in consumer demand for goods. The emerging consumer groups in China are gradually becoming mature. The demand for luxury goods and fashion consumer goods has become more rational. The pursuit of luxury brands is no longer the mainstream, and personalized designer brands and niche brands are emerging.

The luxury consumer market may usher in a turning point. The cooling down of the Chinese luxury goods sales market has caused many big brands to lose their sales confidence in China and evacuated. However, in this process, major brands only focus on the current The point of interest growth has not tapped the deep market demand. Although the sales of luxury goods have generally declined, there are still a few companies that can seize the opportunity to follow suit. It is understood that in April this year, the British luxury brand Burberry settled in Tmall, in the latest financial report, the group also said that online business and beauty together to become a high-growth sector. Therefore, the key to brand marketing is to adjust the strategy in a timely manner to comply with the mainstream development direction of the current market.

Some experts pointed out that the future of luxury goods to restore good performance in China requires channel restructuring, the Chinese market is still continuing expansion and the outlook is optimistic, but the opportunity is to leave the sub-market to meet the consumer demand after the brand. This change in the luxury market may be a good opportunity for the transformation of the consumer market.