More Chinese flights from Budapest face cancellations. Could fuel costs, weak demand or financial pressures explain why?

'Charm of Jiangsu' Global Communication CenterNANJING, China, Oct. 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 'Charm of Jiangsu' Chinese Weaving an

Chinese beverage retailer Mixue has surpassed 500 million members in China, underscoring the scale of its consumer reach.

Long-time Foreo Global Travel Retail Director Gary Leong is returning to TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes with his own company, Gulf Pacific, to meet existing and prospective brand partners. Here he shares his thoughts on the travel retail market.

Chinese Consumers Aren’t Buying Local Out of Patriotism

They’re buying because the products are better.

Most Western executives still think China’s shift toward domestic brands is about nationalism.

It’s not.

At least, that’s not what I’m seeing on the ground.

Chinese consumers are choosing local brands because the products are often better, the design is more relevant, the technology is more advanced, and the value is hard to ignore.

Need proof? Look at the streets of Shanghai.

Get into a Zeekr or Maxus and it can feel like you’ve stepped into the future. Then look at the price. You’re talking roughly $30K–$40K.

This isn’t a patriotic purchase. It’s a consumer making a rational decision.

And it’s happening across categories. Domestic brands now account for roughly three-quarters of China’s FMCG market.

The factories that once made your products don’t just know how to manufacture anymore.

They've learned branding, distribution, data, and perhaps most importantly... the consumer.

The competitive set changed underneath us.

And blaming nationalism might be the easiest way for Western brands to avoid admitting it.

Does this match what you’re seeing in your category?

We see this gap consistently across audits for prestige brands.

A brand has invested in:
✅ Tmall store, optimised product pages
✅ RED content, KOC seeding programme
✅ Zhihu presence, ingredient-focused articles

And then:
❌ WeChat official account: last post four months ago
❌ Mini-program: not built
❌ Private domain community groups: nonexistent

Here is what that means in practice:

👇 The brand acquires customers on Tmall.
👇 There is no path from first purchase to relationship.
👇 The customer forgets and leaves.
👇 Repurchase rate is low.
👇 The brand acquires another customer. The cycle repeats.

For products priced at the upper prestige tier, the consumer does not repurchase on impulse.

They repurchase because they trust the brand, and trust is built through ongoing relationship, not through a product listing.

WeChat private domain is where that relationship lives:
→ Content that feels personal and exclusive
→ Product education that builds genuine expertise
→ Community that reinforces the purchase decision over time
→ Direct promotions that do not cannibalise the Tmall price position

❗️ The Western mental model of WeChat as a messaging app dramatically underestimates its commercial role.

In ultra-prestige beauty, WeChat is the repurchase engine. Without it, the acquisition cost never pays back.

By the way, in B2B, Weixin/WeChat is also a retention channel. Even though the way it works would be entirely different.

#china #wechat #tmall #rednote #xiaohongshu #douyin #tiktok #taobao

iqi Yang (CHN) and Ocean Lancaster (AUS) have claimed impressive wins over the weekend at the MURF Electric Bikes Tweed Coast Pro Junior World Surf League (WSL) event. The pair overcame a field of nearly 100 of the Australia/Oceania region's best surfers aged 20 and under in super fun waves at...

Perfumes in China are gradually moving beyond their traditional role as a symbolic luxury item to become an integral part of daily life.

💡 What if luxury in China is no longer judged by how visible wealth looks, but by how credible INTELLIGENCE feels?
 
That is the real message behind the rise of China’s “high-intellect aesthetic.” And I think it matters far beyond fashion.
 
📊 On RedNote (Xiaohongshu), “high-intellect dressing” has already generated more than 1.05 billion views. That scale tells us this is not a niche style moment. It reflects a broader shift in how Chinese consumers define aspiration, taste, and status.
 
For years, luxury brands competed through visibility. Logos, limited editions, and recognizable codes helped consumers show access and success.
 
Now the benchmark is changing. Consumers are asking a different question: Does this brand feel thoughtful, credible, and culturally informed?
 
🔍 And what does that look like in practice?
 
Cartier’s recent moment with mathematician Wang Hong shows the same shift from another angle. The product did not change, but its meaning did. Association with intellectual achievement created a level of authority that many paid campaigns struggle to manufacture.
 
Consumers are no longer just buying what a brand makes. They are also buying what the brand seems to know, understand, and represent.
 
In other words, cultural capital is becoming commercial capital.
 
📌 Why does this MATTER for brands?
 
1️⃣ Image is no longer enough. Chinese consumers increasingly expect brands to show a real point of view, not just polished aesthetics.
 
2️⃣ Content has to work harder. Authority today is built through education, craft, scientific credibility, and consistent storytelling across touchpoints.
 
3️⃣ China localization becomes more strategic. Global brand codes need to be translated into signals that feel relevant to local conversations around competence, restraint, and discernment.
 
This is especially true in China’s digital ecosystem, where platforms like RedNote and WeChat do not simply amplify trends. They shape how consumers interpret expertise, trust, and cultural relevance.
 
🎯 At IT Consultis, this is where we can help. We work with brands to turn positioning into something Chinese consumers can actually experience - across content, social platforms like RedNote and WeChat, CRM journeys, and commerce touchpoints - so authority is not just claimed in a campaign, but felt consistently in the market.
 
For luxury brands in China, the challenge is no longer just to stay visible. It is to build a point of view that consumers see as credible, relevant, and worth following.
 
How are you seeing luxury brands in China balance visibility and authority today? Happy to exchange ideas :)
 
Thank you to Lisa N. from Jing Daily for sharing this interesting insight.
 
Image source: RedNote/Xin Zhilei and Fields Medal

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

𝐀𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐬 𝐯𝐬 𝐍𝐢𝐤𝐞: 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐲 𝐘𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐚𝐢?
 
In three days, adidas China turned a translation error into a T-shirt on sale.

Its product page had turned "errands around town" into a phrase that made shoppers picture a villager going to town to get things done, and they made it an online meme that became viral. The brand joined the joke, then printed the phrase on an existing basic tee, making it available on its site just three days after the meme had appeared.
 
Behind that speed sits a reporting line.
 
In October, adidas CEO, Bjørn Gulden, told the press in Shanghai that decisions on China rest with the China team, with no extra management layer to sign them off. "I have never stopped Adrian from doing anything he wanted to do," he said of his China head, Adrian Siu.
 
The Shanghai team now designs 65% of the China range, and a quarter of those lines sell in other markets. One of them, a track top with a high collar and knotted buttons, debuted at Shanghai Fashion Week 2025, went viral on TikTok and Instagram, and reached Europe in February 2026.
 
The numbers line up: adidas's Greater China sales rose 15% at constant exchange rates in the second quarter, a 13th straight quarter of growth, after a 36% fall in 2022 on the same basis. On the first night of this Double 11, the brand passed 200 million yuan on Tmall within an hour.
 
Nike is now taking up half of that model: it doubled its China design team and says its first China-designed line took under half the normal development time. But on October 1, it merged Greater China into a new Asia Pacific and Greater China region, while saying the change will not weaken decision-making in China. Its China sales fell 26% at constant exchange rates from June to August, a ninth straight quarterly decline.
 
China works here as a fast-forward lab, and what travels is a test that any brand can run:
 
1. Does China report straight to global headquarters?
2. What share of your China range is designed in China?
3. How many days does a local moment take to become a product on sale?
 
Part 1 of this series ended by asking which question you would add, and this is mine.
 
Who in your company can say yes in Shanghai and to what?
 
#ChinaRetail #adidas #Nike #ChinaSpeed #Localization

Anta’s namesake line is lagging and China’s yoga labels have stalled, while homegrown outdoor brands such as Kailas and Pelliot are growing fast.

Interviews with importers, distributors and wine bar operators suggest the shift is being driven by more casual drinking occasions: seafood dinners, late-night meals and gatherings among friends. Fresh, approachable wines are finding an audience beyond the formal banquets and business entertaining that have traditionally supported Chinese wine sales.

I am not sure how Chinese people would react to this 🤭

Brand is using 囍, the most auspicious Chinese character, as a fashion pattern.
Brand’s name is Anfu Lu (安福路）

My perspective is that the brand is walking on thin ice.

The target is obviously Shanghai expats.
After all, we all like Anfu Lu.

By the way, I like the designs a lot (says me sitting in a Qipao on October 1). But I would be careful buying it.

But Chinese people..will they like this..
Just some weeks after LV story

What do you think?
Tribute or appropriation

Olivier Verot
Coco L.
Ke Shi
Arnold Ma
Sean Upton-McLaughlinSean Upton-McLaughlin 马培善马培善
Yewen Zhang
Juju Meng (Global Headhunter)
Beifang Zhu
Iris Lau
Jon Wang
Jun Jiang

#xiaohongshu #rednote #wechat #douyin #tmall #taobao

This is not cynicism. It is platform behaviour.

Chinese prestige consumers do not trust brand content. They trust other consumers talking about the brand.

Brand-generated content is understood as:
🗣️ marketing intent
🗣️ official narrative
🗣️ useful, but partial

You only say what you want them to know.

What builds genuine purchase conviction at the prestige price tier:
✍️ a peer who writes an unprompted ingredient breakdown
✍️ a consumer comparison article citing three brands including yours
✍️ a KOC first-person before/after review posted without an obvious brief

For a product priced in the ultra-prestige range, the Chinese consumer does not purchase based on a brand post.

They purchase after reading two or three peer-generated sources that confirm the brand's own claims from an independent position.

The credibility hierarchy in China looks like this:

1️⃣ Organic peer review - highest conviction
2️⃣ KOC content - seeded but authentic voice
3️⃣ KOL endorsement - professional, partially trusted
4️⃣ Brand-owned content - lowest conviction driver

This changes the content investment calculation entirely.

Over-indexing on brand-owned content while underinvesting in KOC seeding and Zhihu organic development produces high output and low purchase conviction.

💡 The content that converts at the prestige tier is peer-generated. The brand's job is to make sure peers have something worth writing about - and the conditions to write it.

#china #wechat #tmall #rednote #xiaohongshu #douyin #tiktok #taobao

China Duty Free Group Co. Ltd.

Born inland, in a mountainous area of Southwest China's Sichuan province, Yang Siqi's origin couldn't be more at odds with her sporting career — catching breakers atop a surfboard.

ANTA Group released its H1 2026 results, strengthening its position as the world’s #3 sportswear group. Highlights 👇🏻

🌍 Global

Revenue: $6.5B (+12.9% YoY)
Gross margin: 63.9% (+0.5pp)
SG&A: 24.5% of revenue (-0.4pp)
EBIT margin: 27% (+0.7pp)
Online share: 35.7% (+15.7% YoY)
Inventory: 130 days DIO (-6 days YoY), above 90% sold at full price

🏷️ Brand portfolio

Anta: 40.7% of revenue | +4.8% | EBIT margin 22.5%
FILA : 34.6% | +6.1% | EBIT margin 28.7%
Other brands: 24.7% | +44.2% | EBIT margin 33.1%
(Descente Global Retail , KOLON SPORT (China) Co., Ltd. JACK WOLFSKIN )

What do the numbers tell us?

Solid, well-controlled growth with a well-balanced portfolio targeting different consumer segments — Anta sports performance at accessible prices, FILA sports lifestyle targeting a younger consumer, and the other brands positioned more premium.

Apparel remains the largest category, but footwear continues to progress strongly(+80% YoY)

Not many obvious weak spots.
One to watch: how will Anta’s first US stores perform?International expansion is clearly becoming an important part of the next growth phase.

🤖 Tech & AI is also moving up the agenda

Three interesting initiatives:

• AI design: Linglong (proprietary)can turn initial sketches into design renderings in ~15 seconds.

• AI-powered predictive analytics: identifying trends 6–12 months ahead, combined with agile test & repeat and intelligent inventory pre-positioning, potentially a powerful combination for inventory management.

• AI styling: Lingxi provides personalised styling recommendations and VTO (virtual try-on) experiences.

Can Anta become a truly global #3 behind Nike and adidas, and can it do it through DTC, or will wholesale be essential to scale internationally?

#sportswear #sportinggoods #retail #tech #omnichannel

Source: Anta interim reports H1 2026
Image: Anta first store opened in Beverly Hills (February 2026)

Using Chinese symbols is no longer enough. The harder task is making a local cultural moment feel unmistakably like the brand.

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.