While consumer confidence in China might be high in general, the so-called middle class – earning between 6,000 and 115,000 US dollar per year – are fairly pessimistic, explains business analyst Shaun Rein at CNBC. Mid-tier consumer brands are being hit, he predicts.Read More →
China consumers are outspending the moderate GDP growth, but underlying changing undermine the big players in retail, as the sales increasingly go to the little guys, including e-commerce, writes retail analyst Paul French in the China Economic Review.Read More →
The French L’Oreal groups bought China’s leading facial masks group Magic Holdings. A brilliant move, says retail analyst Ben Cavender in the China Daily, in a fast growing market segment.Read More →
Adidas is gaining ground on the China market leader for sport articles. While Nike focuses on the big stars, Adidas is winning because of a marketing strategy that focuses much more on the lifestyle of ordinary users, tells retail analyst Ben Cavender in AdAge.Read More →
China has become a major market for film fans, but increasingly their taste is going into the direction of domestic movies, leaving Hollywood blockbusters behind, tells business analyst Ben Cavender at the WSJ. How domestic movies makers changed from an underdog into a winner on the China market.Read More →
Paris and Europe in general are losing track as hot spots for buying luxury goods, as the crisis hits China’s middle class, and consumers move from luxury goods to lifestyle, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in WSJ. “Why buying expensive goods, if you cannot have clean water and air?”Read More →
For the first time in a decade growth of luxury goods in China has stalled, as inflation is larger than the recorder growth, says China’s rich list founder Rupert Hoogewerf, and composer of the China Luxury Goods Price Index in the Shanghai Daily. Causes: the fight against corruption and the economic downturn.Read More →
China-bashing occurs in the odd years, notes China analyst Arthur Kroeber in ChinaFile, because in the even years – election years – US politicians have to focus on problems American really care about. This week, in 2013, the US Senate scrutinized the Smithfield-Shuanghui pork deal, one of the more sillier problems in US-China relations, writes Kroeber.Read More →
Foreign fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC are wildly popular in China, but domestic chains failed to have a similar success. Retail analyst Paul French explores in Foreign Policy why his favorite Real Kung Fu restaurant has only a few hundred outlets, while foreign competition has many thousands.Read More →
Australia has been dropping on the list of favorite destinations for Chinese tourists, reports the Brisbane Times. China Rich list composer Rupert Hoogewerf explains why other destinations like the France, Singapore, Italy, the UK, the US and Switzerland are today doing better.Read More →
The bird flu and food scandals did not help KFC to continue their success story in China, their largest market. But also in terms of their offerings KFC is losing grip on the market, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in Business Week.Read More →
Hong Kong retail is booming, as mainland shoppers in first-tier cities saw wages going up 12% in 2013, says business analyst Shaun Rein on CNBC. But consumer confidence is still weak, especially middle-class men who are fearing wage stagnation as investments drop.Read More →