On a chilly Friday in December, one might expect that designer outlet centre Bicester Village in Oxfordshire would be full of Christmas shoppers. However, the dominant group of customers snapping up discounted Burberry, Gucci and Prada products are Chinese university students – often accompanied by their parents – splurging on gifts to take home for the lunar new year.
“The price is what we like,” says Zhing Xingzi, 33, from Beijing who is studying international relations at Nottingham University. Here with three female Chinese friends, who are trying on shoes in the Gucci outlet, he stands watch over their day’s haul – 20 bags bearing the brands of Burberry, Prada, Ugg and Juicy Couture. “In China, just a few people can do this, not everyone,” he says, referring to the country’s high sales taxes on luxury goods. “But the desire for brands is there, and we would buy more in China if it was at this price.”
The changing appetites of Asian shoppers have driven share prices of luxury groups up and down during the course of 2011. Concern that the devastating earthquake that hit Japan – one of the most important markets for luxury goods – in March would stall demand for top brands was cushioned by burgeoning demand from newly affluent Chinese consumers. However, over the summer, fears of a slowdown in China’s economy wiped as much as 25 per cent off the share prices of luxury groups, including Burberry, which is expanding on the mainland.