The vast nation of China has always been a mystery, a country with over a billion population that only I have come to understand through the fiction stories, movies, news and friends that have helped shape my idea of this big country that is taking over the world. I was very excited about my first trip to Shanghai and was eager to begin providing explicit coverage through my blog.
That was the plan! After finally making it to the hotel and surfing the internet, I type my blog’s url in and to my surprise it didn’t work! I start looking for other blogs and then I realized the blogger website was actually blocked!
So I decided to do usual regime online, Gmail, facebook and twitter after successfully entering my email I was shocked to find every social media network inapplicable and blocked by china! And I was sitting and complaining about the circumstances of the UAE. I didn’t understand the reason behind the governments descion to block such sites but more importantly from a business perspectives this nation opened an ample of opportunity for national companies to benefit from the money that can be made in social media and blogging in China. Then it hit me, this daunting image that China, making a majority of the world has been virtually secluded from the west, this could be another good reason why we do not know about the region.
Yet,There was a Buzz in the air of Shanghai, the same buzz that was felt in Dubai years before the recession had hit us hard, and the recession has clearly not damaged Shanghai, perhaps it has done the opposite, make it stronger! as the rest of the world had suffered and companies had to close doors to some of their flagship in North America and Europe, they are soon replaced their old bircksand began building new flagships in China.
The purpose of this visit was mainly for the INNO Luxury Summit that took place at the four seasons in Shanghai, I have always had a basic idea of the large buying power Asia had on the luxury industry so this was a great opportunity for me to learn more about this market.
Through this two days summit my assumptions turned into concrete numbers and evidence of how large is” LARGE” in terms of their buying power.
Speakers from the luxury industry such as BALLY provided us with their current updates of their success in the China market, Bally stores around the world make it clear to Chinese customers that their international branches include a Mandarin speaker, in addition, their success has led them to open in other urban cities other than the capital and Shanghai.
Bally had announced their move towards online medium in China! Yes, shockingly as much as many of the high-end luxury brands have shown their distaste for the internet because luxury is hard to translate over the internet. The trend in internet shopping in Asia is larger than the US, thus the internet is becoming highly important for them to take part in. Number indicate that there are over 420 Million internet users in China and over 70% have used the internet to shop for something (South Korea has 97% of their online users shopping online) (Statistics from Reuters and ADCMA).
Similarly Ms. Maria E. Girón founder of Megadvise, professor and Author of the book spoke how social media today works towards helping Fashion brands, her statistics indicated that markets such as China have consumers with large buying power to be as young as 20 years old. Thus, these consumers are comfortable with technology and use it more often in their lives. As a result Giron states that fashion brands must develop strategies that align with the internet.
I have come to learn through talking with various people in the forum and through observation that wealth and status was very important to prove, especially in the city of Shanghai. Entrepreneurs in china are growing vastly and to prove their profit and loss sheets were doing well can be seen in their attire, the Cartier watch, the channel bag and tiffany bracelet. I was shocked to see the amount of designer labels present on the streets only to see there is a demand, I saw woman holding Gucci, Bottega Vennta and Channel bags everywhere! It was truly the home of Fashion.
The CEO of Miss sixty recalled how a young trainee on an internship pay actually manage to purchase a 300 dollar jeans, he asked her how she could possibly afford such jeans and she replied stating that she and her friends have put in money in order to share these jeans.
This is what it has come down to, the importance of being branded! The influence fashion has on this generation and their willingness to purchase even when they cannot afford just scares me.
It is interesting to see the world of fashion evolving; to become part of the industry you must speak the mandarin language and that is the only way you can have a leg in the business.
I have come to realize Karl Lagerfield and Jimmy Choo don’t care about me anymore! It’s China baby all the way! And I finally understood why certain brands manage to hold large flagship stores in Milan despite low sales in Europe and you pass by their Shanghai branch and see it filled with customers like it was your average wall mart.
After leaving the forum, I was even more interested to learn about the industry in Asia and began my eager research about its brands and their industry of luxury and was utterly surprised by what I found. All of which I will present to you in my next blog!!
