Retail in Asia

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Chinese shoppers make 40% of luxury purchases abroad

A recent report titled “Who Buys Where: Decrypting Cross-Border Luxury Demand Flows” by digital direct marketing services provider ContactLab and Exane BNP Paribas Research maps out spending patterns by tourists from all over the globe based on three years of data.

ContactLab’s research ranks Chinese travelers second in terms of the proportion of spenders who buy luxury goods abroad, finding that 40 percent of Chinese consumers’ luxury spending occurred overseas in the first part of this year.

SEE ALSO: China’s luxury lifestyles fall prey to the Far East slowdown

While Chinese consumers spend most of their budget on luxury items abroad, this year, overseas spending dropped 5 percent, but rose 5 percent domestically. ContactLab attributes this to price corrections by major luxury brands like Chanel on the mainland to deter daigou sellers.

The value of purchases Chinese travelers make in “European Heritage” countries, the United States, and Japan is significantly lower than it is in China—by 20 to 30 percent.

In Asia, Chinese tourist luxury spending has gone up in the last few years in Japan and Korea.

The report also confirms known trends in Hong Kong and Macau’s luxury retail industry. Chinese tourists went from spending 70 percent of their luxury goods budget in Hong Kong in the first four months of 2014 to spending 35 percent in the same period this year.

Hong Kong’s luxury retail industry has been struggling with the absence of Chinese tourists. This month was the first in over a year where Hong Kong finally experienced a rebound in tourists from the mainland.

(Source: Jing Daily)