Savills: luxury brands’ concrete pivot to Asia
According to data from property specialists Savills, luxury brands opened more stores in Asia than in any other region from January through October 2020.
In a move which marks a concrete pivot to Asia, store openings in the region have surpassed those in Europe for the first time in the property firm’s records. North American store openings have halved compared with 2019’s rate.
Post-covid-19 mainland China has seen the greatest growth. Data suggests that the mainland accounted for 19% of all stores opened in the world so far in 2020, a relatively large leap from Chinese cities’ 6% average share of global openings over the past three years.
Reports suggest that this trend will outlive covid-19’s effects upon the retail landscape.
Prior to the pandemic, 70% of Chinese consumers made their luxury purchases abroad, particularly in European cities such as Paris and London. The Beijing government’s activities over summer 2020, which included tripling consumers’ duty-free allowances and opening domestic duty-free stores (where the quota can be spent up to six months post-trip) may have put paid to hopes of a return to pre-pandemic overseas spending levels, however.
Image shows a Tod’s store in Ningbo.
