High-End Women'S Underwear Sales Lead China'S Generally Depressed Luxury Market.

British media said high-end female style

Sales lead China's general downturn

Market intensifies International

Fierce competition between domestic competitors who want to take the high-end route.

According to the July 25th report, the US brand Vitoria will open its first store in China. The top luxury underwear brands in Italy, La Perla and Ttiumph, Germany, will increase the number of stores and will march outside the cities of China, hoping to get a share from the Chinese women's underwear market.

According to Mintel Group, the size of the Chinese underwear market has more than doubled in the past five years to $18 billion.

The report said that Chinese consumers are becoming more sophisticated and women are more confident in shopping.

"Buying luxury is not for showing off, just to make yourself feel better," says Chiara Scaglia, Asia director at LaPerla.

According to the figures, the total retail sales of Chinese women's underwear market will reach US $25 billion next year - two times that of the United States - and will grow to 33 billion US dollars by 2020.

Chinese companies such as Beijing, Manifen, and Ordifen are also chasing the market, targeting high-end consumers and improving product quality.

"This means that foreign brands should not only surpass China's domestic brands, but also do better in terms of innovation," said Matthew Crabbe, director of Mintel.

The market is highly fragmented, and no major producer has a market share of more than 3%.

As the global outlook is rather bleak, international brands regard China as the focus of boosting overall revenue.

Lapera has opened eight stores in China and plans to open discount stores in Chengdu and Chongqing this year.

The company also plans to open a men's underwear store in Beijing.

The price of the underwear is about 2000 yuan (US $300).

"The concept of underwear industry has changed," Scaglia said. "At the beginning, many people we talked with were puzzled. Why would anyone want to spend $more than 1000 (about 6678 yuan - Ben net note) to buy underwear that nobody can see."

Enlarge territory

The secret of Vitoria is to open a 1860 square meter flagship store in Shanghai this year. It is located in the center of the city and used to be Louis Weedon's store.

"I think this is a very high-profile way of announcing our entry into China, which should become the starting point for our huge business in China," said Martin Waters, President of L Brands International, the secret parent company of Vitoria.

Ttiumph plans to open stores in five Chinese cities that do not have its stores this year, and will open stores in 11 cities next year.

Ttiumph has 1000 stores in China.

Ordifen, a Chinese underwear manufacturer who focused on the mass market, bought the company last year to increase its share in the luxury market.

The price of urban beauty bra is from 50 yuan (US $7.50).

"We hope to enter the high-end market step by step," said Peter Lam, assistant director of urban beauty.

The international brands said they did not specifically launch products for the Chinese market, but Lapera pointed out that some colors - red and light pink - sell much better in Asia than in Europe or the United States.

The Italy brand also signed a contract with China's supermodel Liu Wen in marketing.

Japanese and Korean brands are becoming more and more popular in China.

New York, USA, customers walk through the underwear brand "Vitoria's Secret" store.