Chinese Year Of The Dog Celebrations Bring In More Than $146B

Chinese consumers increased their spending during Year of the Dog New Year celebrations this year, doling out $146 billion on shopping, entertainment and dining during the week-long holiday.

According to news from the Business of Fashion, citing the Ministry of Commerce, spending on food and shopping jumped 10.2 percent year over year. Demand for foreign products was big during the holiday, with the Business of Fashion reporting this category accounted for 63 percent of Chinese New Year purchases.

Chinese consumers also spent more time traveling during the holiday, with tourism revenue showing an increase of 12.6 percent, according to a report by the China National Tourism Administration.

“Chinese New Year is the season for people to ‘throw out the old and welcome the new,’ so there’s always demand for new products and apparel,” James Hebbert, managing director at Hylink Group, said in an interview with Business of Fashion. “This is the season where you’ll be meeting plenty of relatives and friends, so there’s a need to show your status, and having the latest collection from a luxury brand is often seen as a sign of prestige and wealth.”

According to the report, during the week-long celebration, luxury and fashion companies tend to fare well, which is why they have been rolling out promotions, such as filling red envelopes with “lucky money,” which translates into discounts on products and embracing different marketing strategies.

A big opportunity for high-end brands during the holiday — one in which they’re well aware of — was celebrities dressing for the Spring Festival Gala, which aired during the holiday season on China’s state-owned CCTV network and which gets more than 700 million viewers each year. Over the years, the Spring Festival Gala has become a huge marketing event, with viewers watching and commenting on social media about what their favorite celebrities were wearing.