Why Western fashion brands fail in China, and tips on succeeding in a country where millennial consumers are taking over
A lack of understanding of Chinese consumers and how they shop has cost many international fashion brands dearly as they try to make it in the China market. We look at where they go wrong and what they should do instead
For a growing number of retailers, China presents a major opportunity for expansion as local consumers get richer and demand quality goods and services. Yet there are many high-profile cases in which Western brands have fallen short in their pursuit of the Chinese consumer.
One of the biggest missteps in recent memory was the exit of Marks & Spencer, which announced in January that it would end online sales in China through its store on Tmall. This was after it promised in 2016 that it would continue selling online despite closing all of its loss-making brick and mortar stores throughout the country.
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The London-based retailer struggled to make a mark in China’s high-street fashion scene, despite a growing retail market in China and a fondness from consumers towards many other traditional British brands.
“One of their problems is they tried to sell to a middle-class consumer by creating middle-class brand positioning,” says Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research and author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order. “Most brands that do that in China fail.”
Marks & Spencer failed to cater to consumer tastes by offering styles that were too “middle class, suburban, UK housewife”, Rein says. Sizes for Asian body types were also not considered. Meanwhile, at locations such as Marks & Spencer’s brick and mortar stores in Beijing and Shanghai, Chinese consumers could go right next door to H&M to shop the youthful and more on-trend styles that reflect one of China’s biggest emerging markets: millennials.
