Following 30 years of economic reforms, China has achieved remarkable success
in economic development. Now few economists and marketers doubt that China will
evolve into a nation of spenders. Along with the rising of income level, the
purchasing power of Chinese consumers has been increasing rapidly. Clothing
expenditures have also been growing fast. The retail sales of China market in
2007 reached US $ 2970 billion with clothing's contribution of US $ 150 billion,
according to official figures by National Statistics Bureau. Kurt Salmon
Associates forecast that by 2020 total clothing consumption of China will be
about 120% of that of Japan, from current about 10% of Japan. It is this market
perspective that has attracted many overseas investors. Many international
clothing manufacturers and retailers are increasingly viewing China as a huge
potential marker.
However, the apparel market is very competitive and challenging both in
manufacturing and in retailing. To conduct effective marketing, it is necessary
to understand the consumption patterns of the people, and important to have
appropriate market segmentation. Some research has been reported in the
literature. For example,Gallup conducted a geographic analysis and suggested
that in China the urban market was much more important than the rural one. Urban
residents have higher income and hence higher purchasing power, and are more
sophisticated than the rural people. Cities trend setters and testing grounds
for future marketing strategies. On the other hand, demographic analysis
indicated that the most promising consumer segment in China was the young
people. It was also found that the younger consumers (aged 15—35) had more
experience with western products, compared with the older ones (aged over 35).
Regarding the influence of gender, it was reported that young women were least
concerned about price.And they love the clothing such as bape hoodies,bape shoes,lrg hoodies,10 deep hoodies,ed hardy hoodies etc.
In order to touch the most active clothing consumers, a questionnaire was
designed for respondents aged 15 to 45. Questionnaire survey was carried out in
six cities of China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Harbin and
Xi'an. These are among the largest cities in China, and are relatively evenly
distributed geographically: Beijing in the North, Shanghai in the East, Xi'an in
the Northwest, Chengdu in the Southwest, Guangzhou in the South, and Harbin in
the Northeast. They are the most important cities in each of the regions
respectively in terms of economic and societal life, and are regarded as fashion
centers of die region. These cities are considered to be very influential in
patterns of consumption for other cities in China, thus an investigation of
clothing consumption may give a good indication not only of the current
situation, but also future trend for the entire nation.
From the analysis, we can conclude that the clothing expenditures of Chinese
urban consumers are increasing rapidly along with the development of China's
economy. And, how much money the Chinese consumers are able to and willing to
spend on clothing tends to be influenced by several factors that originate in
social, culture and economic forces. The geographic differences in clothing
expenditures are found significant. Significant demographic and socioeconomic
influential variables include age, gender, marital status, education level,
occupation and household income. Furthermore, the interactive effects of
geographic location with age, gender and occupation have significant influence
on clothing expenditures. It is believed that the era of “one style fit all" has
been history and the Chinese consumers are never largely homogeneous.For example
some young people like bape hoodies,bape shoes,lrg hoodies,10 deep hoodies,ed
hardy hoodies etc. It is important that apparel manufacturers and retailers
investigate the effects of the determining factors on clothing expenditures and
make effective segmentation marketing strategies.
About This Author
David ZHENG is the CEO of http://www.slamsneaker.com. A company specialized in selling all kinds of clothing and shoes such as Bape hoodies,Bape Shoes,LRG hoodies,10 deep hoodies,ed hardy hoodies etc. |
