In China, a drab gray Mao suit was once the required attire for men and women. No longer. The country is poised to become the largest luxury apparel market worldwide by 2025. With a 2020 population of 1.4 billion and a flourishing middle class with an appetite for foreign luxury goods, China is dominating ecommerce.<\/p>\n
Despite the pandemic, the Chinese luxury market increased by 48 percent in 2020 to roughly $52 billion, according to management consulting firm Bain & Company in its annual China luxury report<\/a>, prepared in partnership with Alibaba\u2019s Tmall Luxury Division.<\/p>\n Spending on luxury items continues to lag in the United States and Europe due to the pandemic, but it has recovered in China. A decrease in international travel by wealthy Chinese nationals has increased online luxury goods purchases. The pandemic also affected \u201cdaigou\u201d agents, professional shoppers who travel overseas to buy popular cosmetics and luxury goods and then resell them in China. The country\u2019s luxury online penetration increased from about 13 percent in 2019 to 23 percent in 2020, according to the Bain report.<\/p>\n