Six Ways to Get Ready for China in 2021: Heuritech Report
LONDON — Heuritech, a fashion technology start-up, on Thursday released a report on fashion in China, cowritten with Luxurynsight, a data analysis firm specializing in the luxury sector.
The report describes the Chinese market as “an indispensable and essential pillar to fashion and luxury brands’ growth,” and a “brand needs to be agile enough to widen its purchase locations to China.” China is now the second-largest apparel market with the fastest growth and is on track to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest by 2023.
In the luxury sector, China is the fastest-growing market for accessible luxury fashion worldwide, with a predicted CAGR of 10.28 percent from 2016 to 2020. This is led by the premiumization of Chinese consumers’ emphasis on quality and thus the popularization of accessible luxury products, the report finds.
The report highlights three groups of demographics that are key sources of growth in China. They are the status and value-seeking post-Eighties generation, the savvy fashion-loving post-Nineties and 1995 generation, and young free spenders in lower-tier cities.
Amplifying nationalism, the street fashion boom, retail upgrades, fashion and digital, eco-fashion and genderless fashion are identified as key macro trends in China.
The report compares the popularity of six women’s fashion trends: turquoise, tie-dye, leopard, linen and corduroy in China, Europe and the U.S. from search data, and suggests that turquoise, linen and tie-dye trends can fit in the macro trends of amplifying nationalism, eco-fashion and the street fashion boom, respectively.
For 2021, the report offers six pieces of advice for brands to stay ahead of the game.
1. Seek new opportunities in the mainland. As China’s luxury market is returning to normal, further growth in the mainland market is expected, especially in the free trade zone.
2. Adapt to new behaviors such as increasing interest in online channels and well-being.
3. Understand emerging consumers. Men and Gen Z, especially from lower-tier cities, are fast emerging, with a greater appetite for products tapping originality and national pride.
4. Embrace new retail and apply creative methods to thrive in the new retail, leverage advanced technologies to accelerate digitalization and sublimate one-to-one activations.
5. Stay connected and entertaining. Grasp the great opportunity for brands to create deep connections with consumers by leveraging music or education feeds digitally.
6. Seize the zeitgeist. Resonate with modern women and young generations by tapping current cultural discussions and the social zeitgeist.
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