The new generation of consumer and the rise of "dupe"
The deceleration of the Chinese economy is no longer an abstract concept for Trinh Khiet Van (23 years old), an employee of an advertising company in Guangzhou city.
As a photo model, Trinh's income has reached 30,000 yuan (more than 100 million) every month when she just started work two years ago.But since last year, when the company's business started to decline, her salary was decreased, the culmination of February, Trinh's income was only half the previous one.
"I was extremely shocked", Trinh shared with CNN.She said she immediately cut spending to suit the new salary.That means there is no more Louis Vuitton, Chanel or Prada - her previous brands.
Laurel Gu, Director of Mindel Market Research Company (Shanghai), said that the "clear" economic downturn has caused the number of "DUPE" products on social networks tripling since 2022.to 2024.
Today, Trinh and her friends are more limited in products called "pingti" - a high quality copy of brand products, known in English as "DEPE".Some "pingti" products are almost indistinguishable from real products, while others are inspired by the original design and provide more colors or structures.According to analysts, the popularity of this product portfolio is soaring when consumer confidence in China is almost recorded in a record low.
Gu said, unlike 10 years ago, when Chinese consumers - the world's leading luxury spending - competing to buy Western goods from famous brands, now, they are, they are, they are, they areIncreasing to more affordable alternatives, a trend is becoming a "new mainstream".
"Dupe" goods may be significantly cheaper than strong brand competitors.For example, a pair of Lululemon's Align yoga pants (Lulu) costs 750 yuan (2.6 million VND) on its official website in China.On the contrary, searching on popular e -commerce sites including Tmall for dozens of other options, often using the word "lulu" in the name of the store, offering similar leggings for only 35 coresYuan (120,000 VND) and confirmed the same quality.
The growing love of Chinese consumers for "dupe" is not only a problem for long -standing brands like Louis Vuitton.Sales in LVMH - the Group owns many luxury brands - has decreased by 10% in the first six months of this year in Asia (excluding Japan) compared to 2023.coordinated by China.
The trend of "pingti" is contributing to the consumption and gloomy retail sales, only increasing by 2.1% in the previous month, lower than the expectation of 2.5% growth of the economists that Reuterssurveyed.The fact that Beijing cannot promote strong and sustainable growth in household consumption in the context of the real estate crisis is also causing great impacts around the globe.
Consumers are cautious
Economists at Nomura Investment Bank wrote in a note on September 4 that, a year and a half after China reopened the border after Covid-19 epidemic, the faith of consumersUsing is still struggling to recover.
The country's consumer confidence index decreased from 86.2 in June to 86.0 in July, only a little higher than the record low 85.5 recorded in November 2022 -The time when the country was still in pandemic.(Consumer confidence measurement index on a scale of 0 to 200, with 100 for neutral viewpoint.)
Economists said shoppers are outside the game due to falling stock prices, capital flows and "gloomy" salary growth.However, according to CNN's interviews with consumers in different places of China, keeping the current salary has been considered a victory.
A primary math teacher from Chongqing, southwest of China, who claimed to be Tan Tan, told CNN that she was a loyal fan of Estée Lauder's serum Advanced Night Repair.
But after being cut "terrible" more than 20% this year, what she thought was due to "financial problems" in her industry caused by economic challenges, she turned to options instead ofThe world is more friendly.She found a serum with the same main ingredient with a large discount price, about 100 yuan (about 350,000 VND) for 20 ml, compared to 720 yuan (about 2,500,000 VND) for 30 ml ofEstée Lauder.
"Why is it" dupe "?
Tân Tân và Trịnh - cô người mẫu ảnh - cho rằng bản thân họ may mắn khi còn có việc làm.On Friday, China revealed that the unemployment rate of people aged 18 to 24 (excluding students) has increased to 18.8% in August, the highest level since this data wasReturning back in January. China stopped announcing this data in a few months after it continuously reached a record high level last summer.
Serious decline
Many economists believe that the deep cause of many economic issues of China is the field of real estate is sick, the field has occupied 30% of the country's economic activity.The industry started to cool in 2019 and fell into the abyss about two years later, after the campaign to tighten the debt of the developers led by the government.
The crisis later led to a serious decline in real estate prices and consumer confidence.Individuals and businesses have tried to preserve their assets by selling assets and cutting consumption, as well as investing.
Evergrande commercial complex is abandoned in Beijing.
Nomura said the current housing price has decreased by nearly 30% compared to 2021, researching from Beike - a background tracking housing transactions - based on the model of 25 big cities.
“Unlike the great active asset effect witnessed in the US after Covid, Chinese households have suffered a huge asset loss from the housing crisis, estimated at 18 trillion dongs.USD, ”the economists of Barclays wrote in a study note on September 12.
To make it easy to imagine, they said that it was like each of the three -person households in China lost about 60,000 USD (nearly 1.5 billion), a sum of money nearly 5 times more than GDP per capitaChina.
Nicole Hal, a 33 -year -old free businesswoman in Guangzhou, told CNN that her lack of optimism into the country's economy has caused her to cut spending, although she is expected to earn at least 4.Million Yuan this year (14 billion) with her husband.
She shared: "I stopped buying luxury goods and expensive skin care products, including expensive clothes. I also stopped eating outside, instead I cook at least four days a day and a day.week".
The "vicious cycle" of reducing consumption, which has contributed to a series of pessimistic economic data, has led some investment banks to continue cutting China's growth forecast to below target 5.% was announced in March.
In order to compensate for the shortage caused by the real estate sector, Chinese leaders mostly focus on promoting production, including electric vehicles (EV).But the "flooded" strategy of the country's foreign market has caused a backlash globally, especially among EV manufacturers in Europe.
"In China, weak domestic demand and strong production growth have pushed the commercial surplus to extremely high levels," the economists at Goldman Sachs wrote in a report on September 13, copperThe time added that Beijing may face additional tariffs from trading partners if they continue to export surplus.
According to CNN