Chinese consumers are spending more on premium skincare while cutting back on luxury handbags, signalling a major shift in buying habits as economic uncertainty reshapes the country's luxury market.

#China and the #UnitedStates lead the global #ecommerce landscape by a massive margin, with both nations generating well over $1.3 #trillion in annual online sales.

The largest e-commerce markets in the world are ranked below by total market size and digital revenue:
1. #China
Market Size: Over $1.38 #trillion
Dominant Players: Alibaba Group (Taobao Marketplace & Tmall), JD.COM, Pinduoduo
Key Characteristic: China features a deeply integrated digital culture with a staggering 47% e-commerce penetration rate, leading the world in live-stream shopping and mobile payment adoption.

2. #UnitedStates
Market Size: Over $1.34 #trillion
Dominant Players: Amazon, Walmart, eBay
Key Characteristic: Despite a lower overall digital penetration rate of 15.8% relative to total retail, the US boasts massive purchasing power and highly mature logistics frameworks.

3. #UnitedKingdom
Market Size: $141 billion-$195 #billion (depending on year-over-year reporting metrics)
Dominant Players: Amazon UK, Sainsbury's, Tesco, ASOS.com
Key Characteristic: The UK is the largest e-commerce market in Europe, sustained by an exceptionally high digital payment acceptance culture where mobile shopping accounts for over half of all online checkouts.

4. #Japan
Market Size: Approximately $169 #billion
Dominant Players: Rakuten, Amazon Japan, Yahoo! Japan Shopping Cart
Key Characteristic: A mature market where 76% of the population shops actively online, with strong historical consumer preferences toward top-tier customer service, grocery, and electronics.

5. #SouthKorea
Market Size: Approximately $147 #billion
Dominant Players: Coupang, naver shopping, Gmarket
Key Characteristic: Known for world-class, hyper-efficient delivery times and advanced infrastructure, South Korea stands out as a highly innovative market where online grocery shopping dominates over fashion.

6. #Germany
Market Size: Approximately $110 billion-$141 #billion
Dominant Players: Amazon Germany, OTTO, Zalando
Key Characteristic: Boasting a 79% online shopping penetration rate, German consumers prioritize highly secure digital transactions, robust logistics, and detailed product specifications.

Summary Comparison Table
Rank | Country | Primary Market Driver | Digital Landscape Profile
1. #China Alibaba, JD.com High mobile wallet use & live commerce
2. #UnitedStates Amazon, WalmartHigh per-capita digital spending
3. #UnitedKingdom Amazon UK, Grocery Chains Leading European market size
4. #Japan Rakuten, Amazon JP High focus on service & localization
5. #SouthKorea Coupang, Naver Hyper-fast logistics & digital grocery
6. #Germany Amazon DE, Otto High security & cross-border trade.

The sunscreen market in China was valued at RMB 27.5 billion in 2025, down 7.8% year-over-year. This decline is less driven b

✈️ 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞. 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐩.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰?

China Eastern will start 3x weekly Airbus A350-900 service between Shanghai Pudong and Dublin on July 20, its first route into Ireland and its 14th European destination. It's part of a wider July push: Air China opened Beijing to Venice on July 2, becoming the second Chinese carrier on that route after China Eastern. Together they're adding capacity on city pairs European carriers have historically owned alone.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫

Chinese carriers now control about 𝟖𝟑% 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲, excluding Russia, up from roughly two thirds in 2019. That's not organic market share growth. It's structural.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐩 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠?

Since 2022, Western airlines have been barred from Russian airspace & forced into longer, costlier routings to Asia. Chinese carriers kept direct access. A Paris to Beijing flight that took 10 hours 15 minutes in 2019 now takes over 11 hours for Air France. The Chinese equivalent barely moved. That's not a pricing strategy or a better product. It's a block time advantage that compounds on every single rotation, every single day, for 3 years running.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮

The real signal isn't Shanghai to London or Paris. It's Shanghai to Dublin, Beijing to Venice, Shanghai to Zurich. Chinese carriers are no longer just defending flagship routes, they're colonizing the secondary city pairs European airlines never prioritized. That's what market share consolidation looks like before anyone calls it that.

Airspace access isn't a footnote in this industry. 3 years in, it's become one of the clearest competitive moats in commercial aviation & it's not one European carriers can close on their own.

#Aviation #China #AirlineStrategy #Airbus #Geopolitics

📸 Myself | 26 comments on LinkedIn

Chinese outbound luxury spending is being redistributed toward destinations offering the strongest combination of price arbitrage, proximity, and VIC clienteling. Growth now depends less on visitor volumes than on capturing high-value transactions from an increasingly polarized and selective consume

🍷 Thanks to a run of wine activation and tasting events, I've spent the last four weeks on the frontline in China talking to wine lovers. There is one question I can't stop thinking about.

Is China's wine market quietly splitting along geographic lines?

Not in a dramatic way. Not in the import data. But in conversations, real ones, at trade events, at bistros over bottles - something is crystallising that the industry isn't talking about loudly enough.

Here's what I heard:

1. The South is quietly leaving red wine behind.

In Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the shift to white is not a trend. It's a transition. Consumer after consumer told me the same thing: we don’t drink red wine anymore.

Cantonese cuisine is delicate. Dim sum, seafood, lighter broths - they're not asking for Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz. They never were. The market just took 20 years to admit it. White, aromatic, lower alcohol styles are being reached for deliberately, preferentially.

2. The North is still loyal to red - but it's more selective.

In the north, red wine holds stronger thanks to milder summers and colder winters. But the conversation has changed. Consumers want to know the story behind the glass - the region, the vintage, the winemaker.

The red wine drinker in Shanghai in 2026 is considerably more informed, and harder to impress, than five years ago.

3. Cuisine is the driver. Always was.

This is the part that should have always been obvious. Chinese regional cuisine is extraordinarily diverse. What pairs with a spiced lamb dish Hohhot is not what you want beside a plate of steamed fish in Ningbo.

The wine market in China was built on gifting, banqueting, and prestige – on obligation - all of which flattened regional differences and defaulted to red.

As consumption shifts toward genuine pleasure drinking (悦己), those regional food cultures are asserting themselves.

Consumers have grabbed the steering wheel.

4. White wine isn't a category. It's a positioning opportunity.

Wine brands gaining traction in southern China have started showing up where the consumer actually is: with food pairing content on social media, blending lifestyle moments with lighter, fresher styles at realistic price points.

5. I believe this divide will widen, not narrow.

As Chinese wine consumers mature, regional palate differences will become more pronounced, not less. One size fits all national distribution strategies are already struggling. In five years, the gap between what sells in Guangzhou and what sells in Suzhou or Dalian will be as significant as the gap between London and Naples.

International wine brands that understand that, and build channel architecture, content, and range selection accordingly, will outperform the ones still looking for a single national play.

Thoughts?

I’m Iain Langridge 毅安, co-founder of In2Asia Export & In2Asia Wine. I launch, manage, and grow premium international brands in China.

#china #chinamarket #chinabusiness #wine #chinawine

Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee has passed a major expansion milestone, with its global store network now exceeding 35,000 locations.

A record-breaking Hermès auction, a changing ice cream market, Xiaohongshu’s push for male users, and a viral knockoff reveal where Chinese consumer culture is heading next.

TD Cowen report suggests Chinese consumers may distrust property, but demand for Chanel, Hermès, Cartier, skincare, and fragrance remains remarkably resilient.

As consumer growth slows, luxury houses are abandoning geographic coverage in favor of destination stores designed for experience, culture, and clienteling.

From students to working professionals, young Chinese are heading to 24-hour bathhouses for everything from relaxing escapes from reality to thesis writing sessions and corporate retreats.

Yet interviews with listed companies, traditional distributors, liquor retailers and regional industry associations tell a strikingly different story.

Louis Vuitton parked a ship in Shanghai.
Louis Vuitton has opened a 30-meter-tall, 114.5-meter-long metallic ship in the heart of Shanghai. It is called "The Louis" and it is anchored at HKRI Taikoo Hui, designed by the renowned architecture firm OMA.

The building is one of the brand's most ambitious architectural projects to date and a clear signal of where luxury retail is heading.

What is inside? The ship contains five distinct layers:

➡️ The exterior is a massive metallic hull wrapped in the LV Monogram, designed to evoke the 19th-century ocean liners that first carried Louis Vuitton trunks around the world.

➡️ Inside, a 1,200-square-meter retail space spans two floors, designed by OMA. The boutique is not an add-on. It is integrated into the ship's structure, retail woven into architecture.

➡️ The "Visionary Journeys" brand exhibition, designed by OMA/Shohei Shigematsu, features a glowing "Trunkscape" and rooms dedicated to fashion, craftsmanship, and olfactory creation. It is a museum-grade retrospective of the brand's 170-year history.

➡️ Le Café Louis Vuitton, the third global café concept, sits on the ship's top deck. The menu blends French cuisine with Haipai culinary traditions, curated by Michelin-starred chef Leonardo Zambrino and pastry chef Zoe Zhou.

➡️ And the building itself is the exhibit. The store is part of the experience, not the other way around.

Louis Vuitton is building cultural landmarks. The Louis is designed to anchor the brand in the cultural landscape of China's most dynamic city. This is less about selling more handbags but rather about claiming cultural territory. The brand's retail strategy is shifting from "places to buy" to "places to belong.".

Sales per square meter is no longer the primary metric. Emotional equity is.
Shanghai is the perfect location. The city is not just China's commercial capital, it is its cultural capital. The Louis is a statement that Louis Vuitton understands this distinction.

For capital allocators, the message is clear. The rules of luxury retail have changed. The brands that win are the ones that build experiences, not stores. The ones that invest in architecture, not just inventory. The ones that understand that the future of luxury is not about what you buy, it is about the world you enter.

🇩🇪 Auf den Punkt gebracht:
Louis Vuitton hat ein 30 Meter hohes, 114 Meter langes Schiff in Shanghai eröffnet – "The Louis", entworfen von OMA. Das Gebäude ist ein kulturelles Wahrzeichen, kein gewöhnlicher Store. Es beherbergt eine Ausstellung, ein Café und einen Store, die in die Schiffsstruktur integriert sind. Die Botschaft: Luxus-Einzelhandel ist nicht mehr Verkaufsfläche, sondern Kulturkampf. Die Zukunft des Luxus liegt nicht im Produkt, sondern im Erlebnis.

𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐈𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚’𝐬 𝐅𝐌𝐂𝐆 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭

Foreign brands entering China often treat e-commerce as a marketplace decision: open a store, buy traffic, wait for orders. In 2026, you need more.

Instant retail (doorstep delivery of groceries, drinks, personal care, medicines, household goods within 30-60 minutes) is moving from a convenience service to a mainstream shopping channel.

By 2030, the instant retail industry is projected to exceed 2 trillion RMB, accounting for about 12% of the physical e-commerce market (up from 6% in 2024).

Delivery speed is becoming part of the product proposition, particularly for FMCG categories where demand is frequent, situational, and often unplanned.

For brands, this changes the discussion: Traditional E-commerce marketplaces remain important for search and planned purchasing, but instant retail can capture the moments: a drink for tonight, skincare before a trip, pet food that has run out, ingredients for dinner, or a last minute birthday gift.

But the operational implications are significant, with brands needing locally available inventory, accurate store data, rapid replenishment, packaging designed for short-distance delivery, and marketing connected to nearby stock.

My advice for brands is maintain their traditional e-commerce operations, while exploring the options offered by instant retail. In China’s 2026 market, availability, proximity, and speed are part of how consumers judge value.

#RedFernDigital #ChinaMarketing #InstantRetail

🍷 Penfolds just froze Bin 407 supply to China. This is exactly what I've been warning clients about for years.


Treasury Wine Estates has suspended new orders for Penfolds Bin 407 in China for three months, effective through the end of September.

Bin 407 isn't a minor label, it's long been Penfolds' flagship commercial product in the market. Distributors describe the underlying issue in very plain terms. Inventories have become excessive, wholesale prices continue to fall, and TWE is hoping tighter supply will help stabilise the market.

Read between the lines and this is a pricing and channel control crisis, not a demand crisis. Ecommerce and grey market volume have been undercutting authorised distributors for years, and the issue has now reached a point where TWE has to pull supply just to stop the bleeding.

I've written about this exact dynamic for years, and it bears repeating because so many international brands still get it wrong.

It doesn't matter whether you are selling wine, skincare, supplements, or olive oil. In the early phase of building volume in China, unauthorised channels feel harmless. Daigou, grey market resellers, opportunistic cross border ecommerce stores - they move stock, they boost the sales numbers, and it's tempting to just let it ride. "It's still sales, right?"

💣 Wrong. It's a ticking time bomb.

Every unauthorised unit sold outside your controlled channels does three things simultaneously:

1. Undercuts your authorised distributors on price, making them unwilling to reorder.

2. Erodes the premium positioning that justified the price in the first place.

3. Trains your own customer base to expect to find your product cheaper somewhere else.

And who knows how these channels are describing your products. Sure as eggs its a hot mess.

None of that shows up in the numbers immediately. It shows up two or three years later, when your flagship label has so much grey market inventory sloshing around that even one of the world's most recognised wine brands has to hit pause on supply just to reset the market.

Penfolds has the balance sheet, the brand equity, and the patience to absorb a three month freeze and rebuild. Most brands entering China do not have that luxury.

If your pricing structure and channel discipline collapse before you've built real brand equity, there's often no controlled reset available. You just lose the market.

👩‍🎓 The lesson isn't "don't sell in China." It's this: control who buys your product, at what price, and through which channel - from day one, not after the damage is done.

Volume built on unauthorised channels isn't really your volume. It's borrowed, and eventually, one way or another, the bill has to be paid. By you.

I’m Iain Langridge 毅安, co-founder of In2Asia Export and In2Asia Wine. We launch, grow, and manage international brands in China. Follow or DM me to find out more.

#china #chinamarket #brandmanagement #pricingcontrol #greychannel #ecommerce #distribution

RADII explores how Yindi Zhang, AKA the Beer Lady of Shanghai, transformed a neighborhood grocery store into one of the city's most beloved craft beer destinations.

What began as "punk wellness", Gen Z's habit of balancing indulgence with self-care, is evolving into a much larger consumer movement. From Traditional Chinese Medicine cocktail bars and herbal cafés to premium skincare and hospitality, younger consumers are embracing ancient wellness practices in modern, experience-led ways.

Luxury brands are already taking notice. LVMH launched TCM-inspired skincare brand Cha Ling, while L Catterton invested in wellness startup WTHN, signalling growing confidence in Traditional Chinese Medicine as a premium lifestyle category.

Link to our full breakdown on how China's wellness movement is opening a new frontier for luxury: https://lnkd.in/gtPJECnK

#TraditionalChineseMedicine #TCM #Wellness #PunkWellness #ChinaLuxury

Hey there! Why is Bernard Arnault buying his competitor's handbags? 😅 The New York Times caught up this week. Chinese brands are displacing European luxury across cars, handbags, and jewellery, it reported.

Chinese netizens spun a gaffe into a flurry of memes, and the German sportswear label’s China team leaned all the way in.

How premiumization, craft beer, and instant delivery are transforming the beer market in China

🍺 China’s beer market is shifting from cheap to premium
Consumers are drinking less beer overall, but choosing higher-quality, premium options. Growth is being driven more by value than volume.

🎨 Young consumers are reshaping beer preferences
Gen Z in China is choosing bold flavors, creative ingredients, and stylish packaging. Beer is becoming an experience, not just a drink.

🚀 Instant delivery is transforming how beer is bought
Platforms like Meituan and Hema bring beer to your door within hours. Convenience is redefining the entire market.

🍃 Health trends are pushing low-alcohol beer forward
More young consumers are switching to low-ABV and alcohol-free options as they seek moderation without giving up social drinking occasions.

🧪 Craft beer is blending local culture with innovation
Brewers are mixing tea, fruits, and even milk tea into beer.

Check the comments section to learn more about the beer market in China!

#BeerMarketInChina  #DrinkingMarketInChina #BeerTrendsInChina #DaxueConsulting  #DaxueStories

Guochao in China and Hallyu from South Korea impact preferences and choices, affecting how brands approach thei

High-end rates hold firm, while mid-tier prices slide.

At a panel discussion last month marking ASC Fine Wines' 30th anniversary in Shanghai, some of China's most prominent wine industry figures offered a diagnosis on why China's wine consumption plunged and offered advice forward.