Why small Chinese cities like Hohhot are the future of global luxury goods consumption
More than half of all luxury consumers in China live outside the top 15 cities, and they are young and well educated, report finds
In China, luxury goods are no longer exclusively for well-heeled city folk. In fact, the future of brands like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci and Prada may lie in smaller cities like northern China’s Hohhot, which is 10 hours by rail to the capital of Beijing and has a population of three million.
Luxury goods, more often associated with sophisticated city dwellers, have become commodities to be bought by the aspirational classes and strivers from the boondocks.
Such a fragmentation was made possible after brands digitised the marketing and purchasing process, and as Chinese consumers increasingly obtained information about luxury goods online, especially via smartphones. Mobile apps and content take up more than half the online attention of luxury buyers, through engagement by social media accounts of key opinion leaders and the brands themselves, and via apps, advertisements and third party e-commerce platforms, the report shows.