Made in China

Why would luxury retailers want to ease Chinese visa requirements into the United States?  Turns out Chinese women are quickly replacing Americans as the most voracious shoppers on the planet, and Chinese tourists are known for opening their wallets when traveling abroad.

What makes good economic sense for the United States has deep underpinnings in a socioeconomic cycle that has changed Chinese retail culture.  In effect, a country that, just a couple decades ago, was seen as a developing Communist bastion and teased for its poor quality "Made in China" gizmos is today becoming a retailer's mecca.  And while you still may associate China with knockoff luxury, the real deal is making quite an entrance in the PRC.  Luxury goods are coming in with a bang in China in no small part due to the power of the rising Chinese woman.  Previously, as in much of the world, she was a housewife who relied on her husband to provide for her.  Today, a Chinese woman is not only able to provide for herself, she's able to treat herself to the finer baubles of life, courtesy of drastic development and a consumer culture that places emphasis on showing wealth off.

 

 The Fashionomist found this article from The Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703864204576315291406475666.html), citing a McKinsey survey citing the innate need of women to be more on trend than men in the growth of luxury shopping amongst Chinese women.  What is driving the luxury boom in China?  A combination of market and cultural forces are allowing Chinese women to indulge in their inner fashionista:


In two years, China will become Chloé's biggest market because of the rise of female shoppers, says president and chief executive Geoffroy de-la-Bourdonnaye. "Women in this country are becoming more independent, more career-oriented, and more powerful in the market," he says.

Seems like retailers are discovering an age-old secret that economists have tirelessly ranted on for time immemorial - the woman that runs the house and work a job is a company's goal for the bottomline.  It is through a self-supporting woman that an economy is able to not only succeed but thrive in development.  Check this out for proof:  Among the 20 wealthiest self-made women, a whopping 11 are Chinese nationals.  More astonishing:  153 women are the Chinese equivalent of billionaires.

In short, the best way to development?  Soccer moms.

Perhaps Sun Ningning, the GlaxoSmithKline sales manager profiled by the article, represents the new Chinese woman best:  "There's just something about buying luxury that makes me feel happy."

Well, it's making the world's economy feel quite happy too.

But while we're celebrating the rise of the Chinese woman as economic sword wielder, let's not forget their other halves (http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/06/13/chinese-men-get-their-lux-due-too/).  Yes, Chinese men are making a dent on the world economic scene and in the heady infantile Chinese luxury market.  Apparently, men are the ones that like to flaunt their newfound wealth off:

“Men are typically the first luxury spenders in emerging markets, as they buy watches and branded accessories as status symbols before they start spending on the women in their lives,” writes Ms. Passariello in her article, noting that after Japan caught the luxury bug in the 1980s it took many years for a young generation of working women to surpass men in spending.

 

 

And before you snicker at the man bag, give it respect in China - it is a powerful tool of conveying status in this class-conscious country.  Men also spend a considerably larger amount of their paycheck on designer clothing in China compared to women.  Surprising?  Not really, when considering the fact that China remains a traditional culture that places emphasis on males in the household and their status as breadwinners before women, though that view is beginning to ease slowly.

The Fashionomist's take on this?  The Americans and Chinese are double dipping in a little Ricardian dance of sorts - the Chinese practically invented the fast fashion that Americans have come to adore what with the recent recession and newly reduced spending habits, while American lux and keeping up with the Joneses is infiltrating the Chinese strata.  A cultural exchange at its best.

*The Fashionomist*