![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/534b.jpg\")
A Louis Vuitton store in Beijing – Louis Vuitton<\/p>\n\n By
\n
Bloomberg\n <\/p>\n
\n Published
\n <\/p>\n
August 14, 2026<\/p>\n
\n China\u2019s luxury-spending slump has comfortably\u00a0turned the corner, but what has emerged looks markedly different\u00a0to the pre-pandemic heyday. Brands\u00a0hoping to capitalise on the recovery will need to adjust to a new set of consumer priorities.<\/p>\n
A Louis Vuitton store in Beijing – Louis Vuitton<\/p>\n
First, the good news. The world\u2019s second-largest high-end retail market after the US\u00a0is finally expanding\u00a0again. Although it tripled in size\u00a0in the five years to\u00a02021,\u00a0the sector shrank a year later\u00a0as a result of the sweeping lockdowns that brought major cities like Shanghai to a standstill- and again in 2024 after a property rout\u00a0sapped consumer confidence, according to Daxue Consulting. However, strong earnings from Cie Financiere Richemont<\/a> SA to Ralph Lauren<\/a> Corp. suggest\u00a0a rebound that took hold in the final months of last year\u00a0has gained momentum.\u00a0McKinsey & Co. reckons China\u2019s luxury industry will\u00a0grow by as much as\u00a06% a year to 2030.<\/p>\n European and American luxury houses and their investors are counting on Chinese consumers\u2019 renewed appetites, but they need to manage their expectations. Although the\u00a0pace of growth may be\u00a0faster than other regions, it\u00a0pales in comparison with the double-digit\u00a0rates of the boom years.<\/p>\n The reality is that Chinese shoppers\u2019 spending power on high-end products has peaked, at least for now. They\u2019re not\u00a0the force they were in 2019, when\u00a0Bain & Co. estimated\u00a0that\u00a0China\u00a0accounted for 90% of the growth\u00a0in the luxury industry globally.\u00a0As a result, they\u00a0will also struggle\u00a0to make up for\u00a0the impact of the Iran war on\u00a0the important\u00a0Middle Eastern markets, where luxury sales have been hammered.\u00a0<\/p>\n Structural changes to the economy\u00a0make a return to those days unlikely.\u00a0Beijing continues to prioritize\u00a0export-led growth\u00a0over policies that would meaningfully boost\u00a0personal\u00a0consumption, while a tough job market is putting additional pressure on younger shoppers. These factors have reshaped consumer behaviour in two important and potentially lasting ways.<\/p>\n For one, the relationship between China\u2019s\u00a0rising middle class and luxury has\u00a0changed.\u00a0During the gogo years,\u00a0consumers stretched themselves\u00a0financially to buy entry-level products such as leather\u00a0handbags from high-end labels. But shoppers are now\u00a0more price sensitive and increasingly choosing\u00a0higher-value-for-money products. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the growing preference for prestige beauty, which is\u00a0more affordable than\u00a0traditional luxury staples such as leather goods. The latest earnings results\u00a0bear this out.<\/p>\n \u00a0L\u2019Oreal SA sales in\u00a0North Asia were up 4.5% in its most recent quarter,\u00a0a marked improvement from last year\u2019s flat results.\u00a0The performance was driven by 10% growth of the Luxe division- which includes\u00a0Lancome, Kiehl’s, and Helena Rubenstein- in China, chief executive officer Nicolas Hieronimus<\/a> said in a\u00a0July\u00a0earnings call. The mass market, on the other hand, had \u201cturned negative,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a similar picture at\u00a0Estee Lauder<\/a> Cos. High single-digit growth\u00a0in the quarter ended March was led by prestige brands\u00a0like La Mer<\/a> and Estee Lauder Supreme. Beiersdorf<\/a> AG said there was \u201cstrong momentum\u201d in China for the La Prairie<\/a> line. By contrast, Chinese demand was flat at LVMH<\/a> Mo\u00ebt Hennessy Louis Vuitton<\/a> SE, even as its\u00a0beauty emporium Sephora<\/a> did\u00a0well.\u00a0<\/p>\n It all tallies with the idea that younger consumers have become more cautious and selective with their spending.\u00a0A survey\u00a0from consultancy Oliver Wyman and the Tax Free \u200bWorld Association found Chinese travellers expressed a much greater propensity to buy\u00a0beauty and luxury apparel rather than higher-ticket items\u00a0such as watches and leather goods.<\/p>\n Secondly,\u00a0fewer Chinese are venturing overseas.\u00a0Compared with\u00a02019, when the\u00a0majority of luxury purchases were made abroad, most buying\u00a0now happens domestically.\u00a0<\/p>\n Households\u00a0are still\u00a0bruised by the\u00a0five-year-old housing\u00a0slump, which will take time\u00a0to resolve. This\u00a0matters enormously in a country where roughly 70% of\u00a0wealth is tied up in property. Last month, the authorities officially designated real estate as \u201cdurable goods\u201d in the same category as automobiles and air-conditioners. It was an honest assessment\u00a0of its diminished place in the Chinese economy: No longer a seemingly inexhaustible store of net worth, but an asset that depreciates with age.<\/p>\n For years, high-end\u00a0retailers\u00a0could count on China to deliver extraordinary growth almost regardless of what they sold. That era is over. The recovery taking shape is more measured and\u00a0discerning. The winners will be ones\u00a0that recognise that\u00a0the old Chinese luxury\u00a0shopper isn\u2019t coming back.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Bloomberg Published August 14, 2026 China\u2019s luxury-spending slump has comfortably\u00a0turned the corner, but what has emerged looks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12704],"tags":[1576,40771,40772,19431,997,12998,22975,40770,2773,2009,4955,19247,14449,27583,14942,36425,12733],"class_list":["post-65652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-louis-vuitton","tag-beauty","tag-beiersdorf","tag-cos","tag-estee-lauder","tag-fashion","tag-kiehls","tag-la-mer","tag-la-prairie","tag-louis-vuitton","tag-luxury","tag-lvmh","tag-network","tag-nicolas-hieronimus","tag-professionals","tag-ralph-lauren","tag-richemont","tag-sephora"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}