Globe shoppers are international tourists for whom shopping is a fundamental part of their travel experience. The advent of this new market segment has changed forever the face of retail and luxury, with a global business volume representing more than 48 bn Euros in 2013 just in Europe, Singapore, South Korea and Japan. Globe shoppers are a more powerful force than the Chinese market alone according to retail and luxury experts.
5. The power of
globe shopping
UNDERSTANDING
THE UHNW CONSUMER
LONDON, June 14
6. globe shop∙per
/ˈglōbˌSHäpər/
noun
1. a person who considers shopping as a
fundamental part of their travel experience.
“globe shoppers are the sixth continent for
the retail industry”
7. noun
1. a person who considers shopping as a
fundamental part of their travel experience.
“globe shoppers are the sixth continent for
the retail industry”
2. a fast-growing retail market segment,
which global worth was estimated at more
than EUR 48 billion in 2013.
“building growth from globe shoppers – the
world’s most valuable customers.”
12. 27%
17%
4%3%3%
46%
JAN-DEC 2013: top 5 globe shopper nations by share of total spent
China Russia Indonesia USA Japan Others
Source: Global Blue Analytics
13. 22%
20%
5%4%3%
47%
JAN-APR 2013: top 5 globe shopper
nations by share of total spent
China
Russia
Indonesia
Japan
Thailand
Others
27%
17%
3%3%3%
47%
JAN-APR 2014: top 5 globe shopper
nations by share of total spent
China
Russia
Indonesia
USA
Japan
Others
Source: Global Blue Analytics
14. Angela Ahrendts
“Investors should switch their focus from China to the
TLC (Travelling Luxury Consumers), a more powerful
force than the Chinese market alone.”
16. 18%
16%
15%12%
11%
27%
JAN-DEC 2013: top 5 destination
countries by share of total spent
France
Italy
UK
Germany
Singapore
Others
18%
16%
16%12%
12%
27%
JAN-APR 2014: top 5 destination
countries by share of total spent
France
UK
Italy
Singapore
Germany
Others
Source: Global Blue Analytics
18. € '815
€ '647
€ '608
€ '509 € '501
€ '356
China USA Indonesia Japan Market Russia
JAN-DEC 2013: average spend of top 5
globe shopper nations
€ '870
€ '846
€ '648
€ '514 € '502
€ '358
Thailand China Indonesia Japan Market Russia
JAN-APR 2014: average spend of top 5
globe shopper nations
Source: Global Blue Analytics
19. Source: Global Blue Dossier “The growing complexity of the Chinese globe shopper”
30. The Chinese
spending
slowdown
Not related to outbound travel
New tourism law
Anti-corruption storm
Full stop of official travel
Destination shift to USA / Australia
Change in travel purpose
Rise of FIT / decline of groups
Impacted W&J, boosted F&C
31. Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-12 Oct-12 Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan
2012-2014: year-on-year growth rate of Chinese spend on Watches & Jewellery
140%
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
-20%
-40%
Source: Global Blue Analytics
32. 12 Dec-12 Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13 Ja
2012-2014: year-on-year growth rate of Chinese spend on Watches & Jewellery
140%
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
-20%
-40%
Source: Global Blue Analytics
18th National Congress
33. 3 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13 Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14
2012-2014: year-on-year growth rate of Chinese spend on Watches & Jewellery
140%
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
-20%
-40%
Source: Global Blue Analytics
35. The Russian
spending
slowdown
Rouble has been falling for a year
Russian spending down 8.5% in 2014
Economy was hit before the Crimean crisis
Crimean crisis impacts spending, not travelling
Outbound travel still steadily increasing 5%
Frankfurt and Milan mostly hurt in March
37. In 2014 we expect stronger tourist arrivals
in APAC (and USA) than in Europe
38. Nation 2014 2015 2016
China 13% 13% 13%
Russia 9% 13% 15%
Japan 2% 3% 3%
Indonesia 8% 8% 9%
USA 2% 2% 2%
General outbound travel Europe-bound travel
Nation 2014 2015 2016
China 6% 9% 7%
Russia 5% 7% 6%
Japan 0% 0% 0%
Indonesia - NA - - NA - - NA -
USA 2% 2% 2%
Source: Global Blue based on CNTA, Xinhua, Euromonitor, TTG Asia, Jakarta News, Tourism Economics, UNWTO, PATA, TourMIS.
39. Travel growth from
core markets still
positive, with a
stress on APAC
Major globe
shopper currencies
to strengthen
against EUR and
SGD
A better economic
outlook, yet with
downside risks
Rise of middle-class
in China, but with
travel ban for
officials and new
tourism law
Good afternoon;
It’s now more than 7 years that I travel the world to talk about globe shoppers, since at Global Blue we first identified and formalized the theory of this fast-growing consumer segment.
And today globe shoppers are truly everywhere!
I was sitting next to a Russian businessman this morning on the plane from Geneva, and he told me he just attended an auction in Geneva yesterday and was now heading for a shopping spree in London.
Actually he seemed pretty unhappy about his stay in Geneva, and so I asked what was the matter:
“Can you imagine that I got cheated out of a vase? I paid 50,000 dollars at the auction for a Ming vase for the office, and it turned out, darn it, that the vase was made in China!”
In most of the recent history shopping has been viewed as a laborious or functional activity at its best, one that most often must be undertaken as a means of survival.
>> CLICK
For the vast majority of the society, ‘purchasing goods from stores and market stables’ rarely, if ever, possessed qualities that could be considered enjoyable.
But times changed and the modern phenomenon of shopping actually emerged with the consumer society in the 18th century.
The development accelerated during the past century and shopping clearly became less of a utilitarian chore and more of a free-time activity to be undertaken as a pleasant pursuit or, at least, containing some elements of pleasure.
>> CLICK
The phenomenon accelerated to such extend that by the end of the 1980’s, as rising prosperity and social mobility increased the number of people with disposable income for consumption, shopping had become the leading free time and leisure activity in Europe and the US.
At that time international tourism went through a similar evolution, also driven by the rise in prosperity and social mobility.
This increased people’s disposable income and free time, and that international travel became a popular global leisure activity on the back of cheaper air and sea mass transport.
Travel and shopping both became common leisure activities, and tourists treating themselves with luxury items overseas represented an important customer for brands, merchants, and hotels.
The 80’s and 90’s saw the domination of American and Japanese tourists here in Europe, but even if the luxury industry cherished them and considered them very important clients it was a drop in the ocean compared to the developments to come after 2005.
>> CLICK
The late 90’s actually saw a turning point with the development of the Internet. It had a considerable impact on what John Hill calls a ‘shift toward a more integrated and interdependent world economy’ in his book ‘Managing Globalization’.
The Internet supported the movement toward a global village with cheaper, faster and easier means of communication and the provision of a vast pool of information.
It is commonplace today to think that the web enabled the expansion of e-commerce, but it truly did have a massive impact on traditional commerce and stores on the high street too.
Actually the real impact of e-commerce was on international tourism, as today tourism products are one of the most traded items on the Internet.
>> CLICK
The Internet created a global audience that was all of a sudden just a few clicks away from cultures, products, prices, stores, brands, fashion, and events that until then were on the other side of the world.
All of a sudden tourists could discover, browse, compare, select and plan remotely, integrating this information into their travel project in an easier and more educated way than ever.
>> CLICK
And this is why by the late 1990’s when the East and the BRIC economies started to rise, both the super-rich and the upper middle-class from Russia, China, and more recently Indonesia or Thailand, started to creep over developed countries in a quest for luxury as a means to take the Western culture for themselves.
This phenomenon climaxed after the global financial crisis in 2008, and when China’s economy skyrocketed between 2008 and 2012.
This is how the world would witness the advent of a new market segment that would change forever the face of retail and luxury.
It was embodying our society’s irresistible globalization and bringing unprecedented opportunities for growth.
We were the first to identify and define this new, fast-growing market segment of travelling retail customers.
At Global Blue we called them the globe shoppers, international tourists for whom shopping is a fundamental part of their travel experience.
>> CLICK
They represent, at the very least and if you only take into account major luxury shopping destinations such as Europe, Singapore, Seoul and Japan, but exclude Hong Kong, Dubai and the US, a market worth more than 48 bn Euros in 2013.
>> CLICK
This is how the world would witness the advent of a new market segment that would change forever the face of retail and luxury.
It was embodying our society’s irresistible globalization and bringing unprecedented opportunities for growth.
We were the first to identify and define this new, fast-growing market segment of travelling retail customers.
At Global Blue we called them the globe shoppers, international tourists for whom shopping is a fundamental part of their travel experience.
>> CLICK
They represent, at the very least and if you only take into account major luxury shopping destinations such as Europe, Singapore, Seoul and Japan, but exclude Hong Kong, Dubai and the US, a market worth more than 48 bn Euros in 2013.
>> CLICK
This is how the world would witness the advent of a new market segment that would change forever the face of retail and luxury.
It was embodying our society’s irresistible globalization and bringing unprecedented opportunities for growth.
We were the first to identify and define this new, fast-growing market segment of travelling retail customers.
At Global Blue we called them the globe shoppers, international tourists for whom shopping is a fundamental part of their travel experience.
>> CLICK
They represent, at the very least and if you only take into account major luxury shopping destinations such as Europe, Singapore, Seoul and Japan, but exclude Hong Kong, Dubai and the US, a market worth more than 48 bn Euros in 2013.
>> CLICK
This is how the world would witness the advent of a new market segment that would change forever the face of retail and luxury.
It was embodying our society’s irresistible globalization and bringing unprecedented opportunities for growth.
We were the first to identify and define this new, fast-growing market segment of travelling retail customers.
At Global Blue we called them the globe shoppers, international tourists for whom shopping is a fundamental part of their travel experience.
>> CLICK
They represent, at the very least and if you only take into account major luxury shopping destinations such as Europe, Singapore, Seoul and Japan, but exclude Hong Kong, Dubai and the US, a market worth more than 48 bn Euros in 2013.
>> CLICK
Seeing the Chinese demand surge, brands initially started to open stores in China; but the reality is that their cash registers more often than not are in Europe and the United States.
As Philip Guarino, an expert on emerging markets, recently told the New York Times, in today’s market brands are now dealing ‘with a demographic, not a geography’ anymore.
Prominent luxury and retail industry players have understood this high-performance segment and start to reorganize and put up strategies.
Luxury industry analysts also take the globe shopper market into account when evaluating the performance of luxury brands and their development potential.
And when announcing the creation of a new travel retail division to the press last December, the CEO of L’Oréal Group said that travel retail is a key channel for winning over one billion new consumers.
The point is that now, brands have to read and manage their P&Ls by nationality of customer, not only by sales markets.
These graphs show that the word’ globe shopper’ is not only a synonymous for Chinese tourist, and brands would be well-inspired to consider the globe shopper market in its totality, or at least make educated picks of the nationalities they want to target.
Angela Ahrendts, the former CEO of Burberry, encouraged investors to switch their focus from China to the “TLC”. Shorthand for the “travelling luxury consumer”, she argued that this was a more powerful force than the Chinese market alone.
Speaking of Burberry’s 25 “flagship markets” including London, New York, Dubai and Hong Kong, she said: “At any one time, 25% of transactions in those stores could be coming from Russian, Chinese or Middle Eastern consumers. It all depends what cultural holiday is taking place – Diwali, Ramadan, Chinese New Year or Christmas – as that’s when they travel.”
Mrs Ahrendts was very clear-sighted, because today what we see in our transactions is that globe shoppers more often than not outspend domestic customers by 7 to 1 in average on the high street.
As we said, brands are now dealing with a demographic, not a geography.
It is high time for brands to look at their business in terms of nationality of consumers and not sales markets.
However, after a few years of phenomenal growth from Chinese tourists recorded a bit everywhere in the luxury world, the market seems to be coming to maturity and the growth slowing down to more reasonable levels.
If we look at the year-on-year growth pace if the Chinese globe shoppers total spend, we see a downward trend that started at the beginning of 2012.
Of course there has been the new tourism law most recently, , which mainly had an effect on group tourism to Asian destinations, and of course the recent anticorruption mood in China had an impact on official travel and spending abroad that almost disappeared, but this trend actually started well before.
However, after a few years of phenomenal growth from Chinese tourists recorded a bit everywhere in the luxury world, the market seems to be coming to maturity and the growth slowing down to more reasonable levels.
If we look at the year-on-year growth pace if the Chinese globe shoppers total spend, we see a downward trend that started at the beginning of 2012.
Of course there has been the new tourism law most recently, , which mainly had an effect on group tourism to Asian destinations, and of course the recent anticorruption mood in China had an impact on official travel and spending abroad that almost disappeared, but this trend actually started well before.
However, after a few years of phenomenal growth from Chinese tourists recorded a bit everywhere in the luxury world, the market seems to be coming to maturity and the growth slowing down to more reasonable levels.
If we look at the year-on-year growth pace if the Chinese globe shoppers total spend, we see a downward trend that started at the beginning of 2012.
Of course there has been the new tourism law most recently, , which mainly had an effect on group tourism to Asian destinations, and of course the recent anticorruption mood in China had an impact on official travel and spending abroad that almost disappeared, but this trend actually started well before.
Meanwhile, the Russian spending abroad has been more stable, although slowing down in growth along with the economy for a bit more than a year now. It only started to decelerate significantly in the past few months, just before the Crimean crisis.
Meanwhile, the Russian spending abroad has been more stable, although slowing down in growth along with the economy for a bit more than a year now. It only started to decelerate significantly in the past few months, just before the Crimean crisis.
Meanwhile, the Russian spending abroad has been more stable, although slowing down in growth along with the economy for a bit more than a year now. It only started to decelerate significantly in the past few months, just before the Crimean crisis.
Nothing to do with the travel trends
Some of you may be familiar with this not-so-old forecast by the world tourism organization, saying that by 2020 outbound tourism from China would reach 100 million travelers.
Well, we have almost reached this number in 2013, and it will certainly be reached before 2015.
So as we’ve seen on my previous slide now you can safely double this forecast, and bank on 200 million outbound travelers from China in six years from now.
New tourism law, impact on groups and travel cost (Europe, 30%, Asia. 200-300%)
This means less money for shopping
Currency fluctuations > also and especially valid for all emerging countries
Ban on Chinese official travel, represent 20 to 40% of all spending depending on destinations
Shift to the USA / Australia, with different consumption patterns and travel purpose
Shopping at home, Chinese consumption of luxury goods up 14% in December 2013 for exampl
What are the possible conclusions of the previous slide:
If we believe GDP is a good indicator for travel growth this should be around 5%.
In general terms the economic outlook is improving, but there are downside risks.
Traveller currencies should strengthen on the EUR giving us a positive push.
In summary probably not a lot of change.
“Some brands have 150 store locations in China alone, but their cash registers are in Europe and the United States.”
“Some brands have 150 store locations in China alone, but their cash registers are in Europe and the United States.”