A LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton store and a Gucci Group NV store are illuminated at night in Macau, China
Luxury goods makers have long valued Chinese consumers not just because of their huge appetite for Gucci bags and Cartier watches, but also for their willingness to pay more than their Western counterparts.
So it wasn’t business as usual in July when a pair of light brown Salvatore Ferragamo Carla leather pumps was being sold at 40 percent off, for 3,120 yuan ($507) on a site run by e-retailer Xiu.com, which is less than the item’s European retail price.
Likewise, at a downtown Shanghai outlet of Kering SA (KER)’s Gucci, a light pink Soho leather shoulder bag was discounted 30 percent to slightly more than 12,000 yuan, about the same price as a similar bag in the U.S., Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its Sept. 1 issue.
Several forces are fueling the price slides. Sales in China of goods from Europe’s most prestigious fashion houses have been damped by the government’s anti-graft campaign, which has curbed gift-giving. And steep import and consumption taxes on luxury goods bought in China have led an increasing number of wealthy locals to shop more while overseas.
Left with stacks of unsold merchandise in their mainland stores, high-end brands are resorting to something they rarely had to do earlier: price-cutting. Read more
Shhh … Luxury Goods Are Discounted in China
