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Chinese consumers’ spending on luxury goods exploded during the eight-day-long National Day Holiday and Mid-Autumn Festival period, proving the country’s strong consumption capacity and market is strongly rebounding after the country has successfully contained the COVID-19 epidemic.

An industry expert predicted that China’s luxury sales could surge by 10-20 percent this year, and could remain in double-digit yearly growth for years. 

An executive from French jewelry and watch brand Cartier in Shanghai told the Global Times that, as far as she knew, most top global luxury brands saw their sales surge by around 60 percent on a yearly basis during this year’s National Day holiday period, although she didn’t disclose the actual sales numbers for Cartier during the holiday.  

A report by tjyun.com, a Tianjin-based news website, also cited a retail manager from Florentia Village, an outlet of luxury brands in North China’s Tianjin, as saying that the village’s customer flow had increased stably since March 25, when it resumed business, and had reached an “explosive peak” during holiday period. 

“The average daily sales revenue at the village on Thursday and Friday have reached the same level as last year,” the person was quoted as saying. 

To some extent, the explosive spending on luxury products is not surprising, as luxury spending growth has lasted for some time in China. According to the aforementioned Cartier employee, business has been “very good” for most luxury brands since about May and June, a situation which she contributed to the fact that customers had to shop domestically within China, after overseas travel became restricted due to the pandemic. 

It’s reported that a Louis Vuitton shop in Shanghai’s Henglong Square had a stunning sales of 150 million yuan ($22.1 million) in August, while its previous monthly sales amounted to about 80-90 million yuan, according to a report of financial news website xueqiu.com. 

Zhao Ping, director of the international trade department at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, predicted that China’s luxury sales could surge by around 10-20 percent year-on-year in 2020. 

According to Zhao, the surge in consumption is proof that the coronavirus did not affect the average Chinese people’s income too much, thanks to the effective control of the coronavirus in China and rollout of government polies to stabilize the country’s economy, both of which greatly supported the employment market. 

She also noted that the surge in luxury consumption is a reflection of China’s “consumption upgrade” , which directly benefits high-end luxury brands. 

“As China continues to stimulate new engines of economic growth, Chinese people’s spending power will grow as well. I believe China’s luxury consumption will continue a double-digit yearly growth in the future,” she told the Global Times on Sunday. 

Global Times