China’s Gen Z spent their childhoods during the fastest sustained expansion of a major economy in history and are consequently used to rapid improvements in their standard of living. They are also China’s first generation of digital natives, who are instinctively familiar with technology as a form of communication and entertainment, and they are driving over 50% of the luxury sales growth nationwide.

It’s not surprising to see that some well-performing luxury brands have already adjusted their strategies to reflect the growing importance of youth fashion consumers. Gen Z are free spenders: optimistic, impulsive, and tends to “buy products on the go”.

Gen Z are individualistic and want to have more control: hence the growth in demand for personalization of products. To Gen Z Luxury means self-expression: forward-thinking and tend to speak for themselves. Luxury means something that enhances their quality of life.

Gen Z expect a luxury brand to be APPROACHABLE: they are more comfortable mixing and matching high and the low. Crossover Chanel with CDG Play or Casio G-Shock watches is appealing to them.

The new luxury is not defined by the brands themselves, but instead by the curated lifestyle they help to create. In fact, if the element of experience is not elevated, the store will become almost irrelevant. Future shopping malls should be designed as diversified platforms for the brands to tell their story, to connect and co-create with their customers, to foster a community that can appreciate the value of the brands. The retail environment should no longer be designed as hotel lobbies, but as an experience to make customers feel engaged. Our role is to break through the traditional framework of shopping environment and to enhance the flexibility of public spaces for any formats of transformation.