Hangzhou Residents Go From “Fake Foreign” Brands To Top-of-the-Line In One Decade
Hangzhou’s largest shopping mall, MixC, opened last spring
Previously in Jing Daily’s “Second-Tier Spotlight” series, we’ve looked at some of the major trends shaping China’s provincial capitals, more commonly referred to as “second-tier” cities. While many observers of mainland China’s consumer market focus on the country’s “top-tier” cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen), the consensus of consumer analysts is generally that second- and third-tier cities will offer the most sustained growth, for luxury brands and mass market retailers alike, in the years ahead.
This week, we turn to Hangzhou, capital of southeastern Zhejiang Province and home to nearly 9 million people. While Hangzhou’s natural beauty has made it a draw for China’s elite for centuries (and its domestic tourists in more recent years), its proximity to Shanghai has made it something of a budding economic powerhouse. With the intermingling of these two key factors, over the past ten years Hangzhou has become an important and fast-developing luxury and consumer market, with the market heating up even more over the past five years. This week, the Chinese-language fashion portal Efu (中国服装网) traces the evolution of Hangzhou’s red-hot luxury market, which became China’s third-largest in 2009.
From Efu (translation by Jing Daily team):