Luxury Daily’s China Outlook 2020 conference will aim to offer a roadmap to marketers targeting Chinese consumers and overseas travelers on what to expect next year, how to plan, execute, implement and measure marketing, retail and digital strategy, and what to do next with lessons learned from 2019. 

Aware of the growth potential, brands and retailers are also coming to grips with another reality: more than 80 percent of luxury purchases in China are made by millennials and Gen Z versus 40 percent for those two generations for rest of the world.

The future has already arrived in China. And like it or not, luxury’s future is wedded to China’s well being.

But there is plenty of flux in the Chinese luxury market.

While sales are strong, many luxury brands are struggling to turn a profit in China. Platforms are the social, mobile, ecommerce and payment gateways to consumers, hindering brands from developing a direct relationship with consumers. Ubiquitous ecommerce and mobile adoption question the proliferation of bricks-and-mortar luxury stores except for branding. Grey market sales hurt brand equity and an astoundingly high return rate – 50 percent for goods priced $300 and up – with the presence of fakes disrupts sales.

On a macro level, trade issues with the United States may slow travel plans to that market, hurting tourism, hospitality, real estate, art, dining, fashion, watches, jewelry and education. Add to that government curbs on ostentatious purchases, turmoil in Hong Kong roiling sales of luxury goods, and a general slowdown in the Chinese economy.

The outlook for 2020, unsurprisingly, is not clear.