Consulting company McKinsey & Co said China will overtake Japan to become the world's largest consumer of luxury products in the next three years, a result of a rapid increase in the number of middle-class families in China.
The company said tastes are changing. Rather than engaging in conspicuous consumption, people are now tending to pursue quality and good shopping experiences.
"After 20 years, the purpose of consuming luxuries in China has gone from showing off to being something more practical," said Zhou Ting, head of Fortune Character, a magazine that covers luxury markets.
Luxury buyers are now tending to think that highly noticeable logos are obnoxious, she said.
In another sign of the trend, a larger number of consumers are now shopping overseas. A report from the National Tourism Administration said 77 million Chinese tourists may have traveled abroad in 2012 and spent $80 billion. A year before, 70 million had gone abroad and spent $69 billion.
Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said the country's consumption patterns have changed, noting that sales of home appliances and automobiles, as well as in restaurants, are increasing at a slower rate.
"These trends suggest we'll face significant pressure in the expansion of consumption in 2013," he said.
He also agreed the service industry may be the next big driver of consumption. One indicator of the trend is that more foreign capital is now being transferred from manufacturing to the service industries, Shen said.
Black-headed gulls come to Kunming for winter
Feedback
RSS
