The Beat: China Projected to be Largest LUXE Market by 2015
The voracious appetites of luxury goods in the U.S., Europe, and Japan have slowed as a product of the economic downturn, yet surprisingly China’s LUXE market remains robust .
High-end Chinese consumers spend more than 70,000 yuan monthly, according to a report from China Merchants Bank (CMB) on its unlimited credit card holders.
CMB, together with world credit card giant VISA Inc, unveiled its unlimited credit card in April 2008, targeting China’s high-end consumers. Each cardholder spent an average of $85,000 (more of it on luxury products than anything else) in the first eight months after the card came out, according to data from VISA Inc.
The figure is 50 times higher than the average spending of ordinary CMB credit card holders, the bank report said. Unlimited credit card holders’ overseas spending is also triple that of ordinary CMB credit card holders.
“Our high-end card holders pay a lot of attention to efficiency. High quality service is more important to them than cheaper prices. And 64 percent of them are between 31 and 64 years old, much younger than high-end consumers in other countries,” the bank said.
China consumed $8.6 billion worth of luxury goods from Dec 1, 2007 to the end of January 2009, surpassing the US to become the second largest luxury goods market in the world behind Japan, according to the US-based World Luxury Association (WLA).
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