Luxury brands, especially those with significant exposure to China have had a tough 2015. Swatch group annouced a 20% drop in 1H2015 profit whilst Prada saw a 25% drop in its 1st half profits, citing a slump in demand from China and Hong Kong. Jaguar Land Rover sales in China have fallen 20% in 2015 and Maserati closed its Beijing financial street showroom.

Growth in Asia was essentially driven by opening more stores, filling them with a lot of stock and mass advertising. On the whole, luxury brands ignored or at best paid lip service to digital.

This was a huge mistake as Asia’s e-commerce market is now worth US$525bn in online sales and is growing at 25% per annum. This article in CMO magazine that I contributed to, explores what went wrong and what luxury brands need to do to engage Asian consumers online.

http://www.cmo.com/articles/2015/9/14/apac-luxury-brands-navigate-new-normal.html