The Oliver Wyman study says only 11 percent of casual luxury shoppers are planning on spending more on high-end goods—a 15 percent drop compared to 2024.
The overall luxury slowdown has been spurned, in part, by Chinese consumers that have been reluctant to open up their pocketbooks amid economic stressors and other factors. Now, a new report shows just how wealthy shoppers in the country are changing their spending habits.
According to a May study conducted by consultant firm Oliver Wyman, 11 percent of casual luxury shoppers are planning on spending more on high-end goods—a 15 percent drop compared to 2024, WWD reported. Meanwhile, 26 percent of core luxury shoppers had their sights set on splashing down more cash on luxe items, in a 2 percent increase from last year’s figures.
The report surveyed 2,000 well-off Chinese consumers who brough in over $4,193.40 (or 30,000 renminbi, the official currency of China) in monthly household income. That shakes out to be about the top 7 percent of the nation. Oliver Wyman defined those core consumers as people who spend more than $5,591.20 (40,000 renminbi), while casual shoppers spend less than that figure.
Gen Z, an age group that played a large part in luxury spending back in 2021, has also changed things up thanks to that economic uncertainty. Instead of splurging on bigger items, like bags, consumers are focuses more on small pieces, like beauty.
“The core luxury shopper continues to spend, but that’s an increasingly smaller group of customers for brands to focus on; there are actually people dropping out of the category as well, because they are spending on something other than luxury," Imke Wouters, a partner at Oliver Wyman, told WWD.
One of those other things Chinese consumers are spending on is travel. The number of Gen Z vacationers paying for travel is set to rise, with both that generation and millennials seeking shorter weekend getaways and staycations, according to the report. And, though travel outside the nation has not yet returned to pre-Covid figures, it should get back to 2019 numbers by the year’s end. As far as splashing down cash while they’re on holiday, Oliver Wyman expects travelers’ luxury spending overseas to make up around 25 percent of China’s total high-end spending this year.
From the article by Nicole Hoey
