Chinese customers have a strong desire for fashion, despite their low awareness of what fashion really means, according to a survey jointly released by Vogue magazine, China National Research Association and China Indexes Data Mining & Strategy Consulting Co Ltd.
The survey, conducted in eight major cities across the country last month, found that fashion consumption is still at an early stage in China, based on the concept that in most fashion-mature countries customers first have fashion knowledge before embracing a trend.
But there's a large market potential for the fashion industry, says Xiao Mingchao, research director of China Indexes Data Mining & Strategy Consulting Co Ltd.
Studying responses based on monthly income, ranging from 3,000 yuan (US$380) to 8,000 yuan (US$1,012), Xiao says people's interest in fashion grows as their income increases.
Not surprisingly, the survey shows that women pay more attention to fashion than men do. The survey found the top five areas of female consumer interest are clothing, cosmetics, beauty salons and spas, hair styles, and leisure entertainment, while males are more interested in automobiles, IT products, clothing, leisure entertainment and gyms.
Corporate senior management officials and housewives have the highest fashion consciousness, followed by freelancers, civil servants and white-collar workers. "Housewives" are defined as women who are unemployed but with household income over 10,000 yuan (US$1,265) a month.
Women aged 20 to 24 have the highest interest in fashion, compared with many Western countries, where those in their 40s to 60s are the major consumer group for fashion products.
Television, magazines and Internet are the top three channels for the public's fashion information.
More than 70 per cent of the participants think Shanghai is the most fashionable city, followed by Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Dalian, Zhuhai and Xiamen, according to the survey.
