Is the end nigh for China’s overseas luxury personal shoppers?
The sun may be setting on the daigou craze as a world of consumer options opens up for Chinese
Seattle-based housewife Liu Yang started buying products in the United States and selling them to buyers back in China more than a year ago.
Liu is a daigou, or personal shopper, a job that has taken off in the last few years amid strong demand for foreign goods.
Every day she drives to various stores in her area to shop for cosmetics, clothes and bags ordered by her clients via her WeChat outlet. She then packages them at home and sends them out using a delivery service. She stocks up on popular items and those on sale.
But the best days for the luxury end of the business may be over as more Chinese consumers find ways to buy the products on their own. “I don’t see it as a long-term thing. After all, people are getting more access to foreign products and more can shop for themselves,” Liu said. “There have been more and more cross-border and overseas websites, and people are travelling overseas more frequently, so they can buy things themselves.
“And the price gap for some luxury brands is narrowing, so more people might buy luxury items directly at home in future.”
Bain & Co’s 2015 “China Luxury Market Study” seems to back up Liu’s prognosis. The report said the daigou business for luxury goods was down to between 43 billion yuan (HK$51 billion) and 50 billion yuan last year, compared to between 55-75 billion yuan in 2014, the report said.