A customer tries out a pair of sunglasses at a new duty-free experience shop opened in a resort in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. File photo: Xinhua

 
Consumer confidence in the Chinese mainland has returned to the pre-pandemic level, and it has basically recovered in Hong Kong as well, according to an industry report. 

Ruder Finn, a leading global communications agency, and Consumer Search Group (CSG), a Hong Kong-based market research firm, jointly published the China Luxury Forecast 2021 on Tuesday, highlighting the recovery in consumer confidence in both the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It also said that Chinese mainland consumers are expected to spend more on luxury goods in 2021.

Sanya in South China's Hainan Province has become the fifth top destination for domestic luxury shopping, the report said, as consumers are paying more attention to domestic purchases to benefit from a more comfortable shopping experience as well as more convenient after-sales services.  

Younger generations are expected to have strong purchasing power, with 40 percent of those in Generation Z purchasing luxurious items at an average age of 19.6 years old to reflect their achievements. Among respondents from the Chinese mainland, 40 percent made their first luxury purchases between the ages of 21 and 25. Those in Hong Kong started earlier, with nearly half of them purchasing their first luxury item before they were 20 years old. 

Consumers from the Chinese mainland are now more confident in Chinese brands, according to the forecast. Even though Chinese domestic brands are still developing in the mainstream luxury market in China, their fast rise is a wakeup call for all the more established luxury brands out there, Gao Ming, senior vice president of Ruder Finn, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

The majority of respondents from the Chinese mainland and some respondents from Hong Kong said it was important to embed Chinese elements into luxury products or services. 

Mainstream luxury brands view the Chinese mainland market as a significant growth point after the epidemic, Gao Said. Even though 70 percent of Chinese consumers still stick to established luxury brands, the other 30 percent are willing to try niche brands, which will provide these brands with opportunities to enter the Chinese market, Simon Tye, executive director at CSG, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Global Times