Fashion set for era of 'high-quality' growth

China's fashion consumption market is expected to embrace "high-quality growth "in the current decade, Boston Consulting Group said in a recent report.

According to BCG, China's shoes and apparel market totaled 2.5 trillion yuan ($307.8 billion) in 2022, and is expected to reach 3.4 trillion yuan by 2030.

"China's economy has entered a high-quality development stage, and its economic growth has been steady," said Veronique Yang, managing director and senior partner at BCG. "With the continuous emergence of digital touchpoints, the relation between brands and consumers has become more direct and close. The continuous increase in household income and the emergence of new-generation consumers have driven the rise of more segmented and diverse demand, as well as personalized expression of needs."

Yang said the improved quality of fashion information and the evolution of digital social media have together promoted a gradual deepening of fashion demand. Between 2020 and 2030, China's fashion consumption market will be growing steadily and "in a high-quality manner".

Although China's fashion consumption was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic during the past three years, consumer confidence has been steadily restored from the beginning of this year, Yang said.

"We should be confident about consumption recovery. A remarkable change from the past three years was that online touch points have been playing an increasingly important role in fashion consumption. Also, consumers have higher expectations toward customer service, including multiple-channel returns, and quality of service," she said.

According to BCG, offline passenger flow is resuming quickly after China optimized its epidemic prevention and control measures.

"The recovery of passenger flow is good news for fashion brands, as consumers are entering stores again. In addition, the government has focused on promoting consumption this year, sending a positive signal to the industry," she added.

In the first five months of this year, total retail sales of consumer goods in China surged 9.3 percent year-on-year to 18.8 trillion yuan, with the growth rate of the shoes and apparel subcategory being even higher, the Bureau of Statistics said.

Yang said preliminary data from this year's June 18 shopping festival indicate that China's fashion consumption has been recovering gradually, and certain categories, such as sportswear and womenswear, have rebounded strongly.

"Leading fashion brands have all seen double-digit growth in sales during the first quarter," she said.

"With the overall improvement in China's economy, the domestic fashion consumption market will continue to recover this year, and the consumption scale will steadily increase," said Chen Dapeng, vice-president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council.

"Standing at the starting point of a new cycle of resilient growth of the industry, the fashion industry has entered a new track of sustained acceleration in industrial recovery and upgrade," said Chen, who is also president of the China National Garment Association.

Yang said that for China's fashion consumption market to grow, luxury brands should pay attention to marketing and digital omnichannel operations. She said mid- to high-end brands should focus on image building and market education, while mass-market brands should enhance efficiency, make more distribution channels available and provide a complete set of services.

"Thanks to the rise of new-generation consumers and the promotion of e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD and Douyin, mid- to low-end clothing brands will show steady growth, and the growth rate is estimated to be higher than 3 percent to 4 percent," said Wu Daiqi, CEO of Keythink Culture Communication Co Ltd, a market research company based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

"Luxury brands will witness even higher growth owing to the rise of the middle-income group. Fashion accessories will also experience rapid growth, as consumers' pursuit of beauty grows," she said.