Latest news with #JacquesRoizen
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Not A Lot Of Love For 520: Brands Rethink Local Campaigns Amid China Uncertainty
With uncertainty around the Chinese appetite for luxury goods and a possible global recession, brands are cutting back on marketing spent, and 520, or the Chinese Valentine's Day that lands on Tuesday, is the first one to go. Past active participants such as Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga have slashed local campaigns this year, while other luxury players opted for a simple curated list of gifting items, some of which were heart-adorned. More from WWD A New Era at Fashion Island, the Newport Beach Shopping Destination Alibaba Shares Dip Despite E-commerce, AI growth in Q4 Brands, Retailers Navigate Changes at World Retail Congress 'Due to the dominance of e-commerce in China, this year's 520 Festival is poised to take a back seat as major platforms have chosen to launch the 618 shopping festival as early as the first half of May,' said Jacques Roizen, managing director of consulting at Digital Luxury Group. 'Very few brands can afford to not participate in 618, and therefore are losing the historical 520 full price revenue peak, which until recently was an important moment of their commercial calendar,' said Roizen. Last week, Tmall and Douyin, arguably two of the biggest 618 players, officially launched this year's 618 with a simplified playbook focused on direct discounts as opposed to a complicated coupon system. This year's 618 runs for over a month from early May to late June. However, those companies actively participating in the May gifting moment continue to experiment with new narratives with a local-friendly product mix. In late April, Dior began releasing a series of campaigns featuring global ambassador Xin Liu, China ambassadors Henry Liu and Yu Shi, and Chinese actor Ai Mi holding court at Dior's 'customer service,' as they answer hotline calls from customers looking for date night looks. The collection highlights exclusive 520 products that include womenswear, menswear, accessories, leather goods, and jewelry. For Prada, the 520 occasion was reserved for its newly opened restaurant in Shanghai, Mi Shang. The café and restaurant project, which was designed by film director Wong Kar Wai, is serving up a feast with a special tasting menu, and in the confectionery section, there will be two limited-edition cream puff desserts adorned with heart-shaped motifs, alongside boxed pralines filled with soft raspberry. Moynat, the LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned handbag-maker, is banking on China's pet-obsessed generation by casting celebrity pets — C-pop idol Tan Jianci's pet dogs Dai and Ball ball — in its 520 campaign. The collection, featuring pet collars, leashes, charms, and a monogrammed Hobo shoulder bag, is available in all Moynat boutiques worldwide. At Ferragamo, its signature Hug bag was the star of its 520 campaign. Themed 'Hug Bag, Hug Love,' the campaign featured brand ambassador Gao Yuanyuan and Chinese actor Lin Gengxin as bearers of the statement piece in various shapes and sizes. In the most recent first quarter, handbags have helped drive performance, and the family-owned business is banking on it to become its best-performing category going forward. Balenciaga's 2025 High Summer campaign was recast as this year's 520 campaign, with a new tagline that read 'love is sometimes relaxed and always enjoyable.' The lineup features over 150 products from the collection and includes 520-exclusive3XL sneakers and Le City bags — both styles come in light grey and feature a '520' tag in the style of checked baggage slips. Similarly, Gucci's 520 campaign also embodied the ease of summer vacation. Photographed against the backdrop of Italy's coastline during golden hours, the editorial features global brand ambassador Ni Ni and Chinese model Jin Dachuan dressed in heavily-monogrammed attire with matching handbags. Miu Miu's 520 was drenched in summer glow too. Featuring a set of still life photography highlighting beach-friendly attire, the collection also includes a fringed suede tote in red that's launching first in China. The collection was part of an offline activation under the Miu Miu Select banner. The event was headlined by the Chinese model Ju Xiaowen at Miu Miu's Chengdu Taikoo Li store. Valentino, celebrating self-love, set up an intimate bedroom setting where the Chinese model Hua Yilan gets dressed up for a romantic date. Pieces came from the brand's fall 2025 collection, which included dreamy 'cherrifyfic' pattern and the whimsical 'Le Chat de la Maison' motif, 1980s-inspired slingback pumps, the low-top Upvillage sneaker, and the Viva Superstar bag that took center stage. Launch Gallery: Chinese 520 Valentine's Day Campaigns: Pets, Work-Life Balance And Self-Care Best of WWD Macy's Is Closing 66 Stores in 2025 — Here's the List, Live Updates Inside the Demise of Lord & Taylor COVID-19 Spikes Elevate Retail Concerns
Fashion Network
22-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Estée Lauder, L'Oréal suffer as China's duty-free spending falls
Unable to travel overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese consumers sparked a shopping boom in the southernmost province of Hainan, lured by the tropical island's plethora of duty-free shopping malls. Fast forward to today, and the travel-retail sector in Hainan is in a 14-month slump with little sign of a turnaround. Duty-free sales dropped 10.8% over the first four months of 2025 compared with a year earlier, according to the latest data from the local customs agency. Both the number of shoppers and the number of products purchased declined by more than 25% so far this year. Global heavyweights of the beauty industry are also feeling the impact of cratering travel retail in China. Until recently, the likes of Estée Lauder Cos., Shiseido Co., and L'Oréal counted on the lavish duty-free spending of Chinese travelers to drive their earnings growth. However, all three saw their Asia or China travel-retail sales shrink last year and in the first quarter of 2025. The newfound frugality in duty-free spending follows a similar trajectory to the challenges global luxury brands face in the world's second-largest economy. Exuberant pandemic-era spending emboldened companies to make hefty investments, only to see demand rapidly shrink after consumers pulled back on spending in the aftermath of Covid. L'Oréal plans to cut as many as 50% of its employees in its travel-retail division—mainly made up of Chinese staff—due to the poor performance of the duty-free sector in the country over the past two years, local media Caixin reported in April. According to a statement from the company's travel-retail unit, the Paris-based beauty giant is undergoing a transformation to better respond to market shifts and evolving consumer needs. The Caixin report is not accurate; it was added. The belt-tightening among Chinese shoppers also contributed to a 17.5% decline in first-quarter sales for Beiersdorf AG's luxury skincare brand La Prairie. It has responded by cutting its reliance on China. 'The cosmetics industry has seen the price advantage of travel retail eroded,' said Jacques Roizen, managing director of China consulting at Digital Luxury Group. 'Discounts by global beauty brands—frequent and deep—offered across online and offline platforms have narrowed the gap between the mainland and duty-free prices, diminishing the appeal of travel retail for beauty products.' Highlighting how Hainan malls have lost their edge on pricing, Sam's Club, Walmart Inc.'s membership chain in China, sells Crème de la Mer facial cream at times for around 20% less than the duty-free outlets. Shoppers who purchase the item on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Tmall, China's dominant e-commerce platform, don't get a discount but will also receive a selection of free gifts. The post-Covid resumption of travel to the likes of Japan and Southeast Asia has also eroded duty-free spending in Hainan. According to Roizen, affluent spenders, who supercharged Hainan's duty-free sales during the pandemic, are once again shopping abroad. Adding to the challenges is the rising popularity of domestic beauty brands offering high-quality products at competitive prices, he said. Beijing's crackdown on resellers taking advantage of the island's duty-free shopping rules has also deflated the boom in Hainan. Known as 'daigou' in Chinese, some went so far as to use other people's duty-free shopping quotas to buy large quantities of goods and resell them in the rest of the Chinese mainland at a profit. A customs campaign against the practice in 2023 seized more than $83 million worth of duty-free goods bought in Hainan and resold elsewhere, according to a report by state-owned newswire China News Service. The slump has also had an impact on Hainan's economy. At the height of the duty-free shopping frenzy in 2021, it grew 11.2% yearly, well above the nationwide growth rate of 8.6%. In 2024, Hainan's gross domestic product increased by 3.7%, lagging China's overall growth rate of 5%. In 2022, the Hainan government targeted duty-free sales of 100 billion yuan. In its most recent work report for 2025, the target is just 52 billion yuan. Unfulfilled hopes After first introducing an annual duty-free shopping quota for Hainan of 5,000 yuan in 2011, the authorities drastically increased the allowance to 100,000 yuan in 2020. The government's support gave global beauty houses high hopes that Hainan would be a key growth market for years to come. Shiseido inaugurated six dazzling new stores for its premium brands in 2022. Pola Orbis Holdings Inc. opened its first duty-free store in Hainan in 2021. Property developers are interested in the prospect of tourists willing to spend. Both Swire Properties Ltd. and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE have teamed up with local partners to build luxury retail developments in Sanya, scheduled to open next year. Swire and LVMH didn't respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment. 'Hainan's travel retail hasn't shown a strong recovery yet,' said Serena Sang, a consumer analyst at SPDB International Holdings Ltd. 'Per capita spending during this year's May Day holiday continued to decline. We still need time to gauge consumer response as the island pushes for independent customs operations.' Hainan resident Chen Yushan exemplifies the changing spending habits. Four years ago, the 30-year-old would regularly make the more-than-six-hour round trip from her home in Hainan to buy bagfuls of luxury cosmetics at the duty-free malls. Even though she lives close to the outlets, she has to take the arduous round trip as shoppers need to show proof of travel from the mainland to qualify for the duty-free quota. Now, she only makes the trip once or twice a year as the economy slows and the outlook becomes more uncertain. 'With an economy like this, I'm cutting back on spending on costly skincare products,' Chen said. 'I don't even buy luxury bags anymore. They're useless. Nowadays, I'd rather spend money on a good hotpot meal to treat myself.'
Fashion Network
22-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Estée Lauder, L'Oréal suffer as China's duty-free spending falls
Unable to travel overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese consumers sparked a shopping boom in the southernmost province of Hainan, lured by the tropical island's plethora of duty-free shopping malls. Fast forward to today, and the travel-retail sector in Hainan is in a 14-month slump with little sign of a turnaround. Duty-free sales dropped 10.8% over the first four months of 2025 compared with a year earlier, according to the latest data from the local customs agency. Both the number of shoppers and the number of products purchased declined by more than 25% so far this year. Global heavyweights of the beauty industry are also feeling the impact of cratering travel retail in China. Until recently, the likes of Estée Lauder Cos., Shiseido Co., and L'Oréal counted on the lavish duty-free spending of Chinese travelers to drive their earnings growth. However, all three saw their Asia or China travel-retail sales shrink last year and in the first quarter of 2025. The newfound frugality in duty-free spending follows a similar trajectory to the challenges global luxury brands face in the world's second-largest economy. Exuberant pandemic-era spending emboldened companies to make hefty investments, only to see demand rapidly shrink after consumers pulled back on spending in the aftermath of Covid. L'Oréal plans to cut as many as 50% of its employees in its travel-retail division—mainly made up of Chinese staff—due to the poor performance of the duty-free sector in the country over the past two years, local media Caixin reported in April. According to a statement from the company's travel-retail unit, the Paris-based beauty giant is undergoing a transformation to better respond to market shifts and evolving consumer needs. The Caixin report is not accurate; it was added. The belt-tightening among Chinese shoppers also contributed to a 17.5% decline in first-quarter sales for Beiersdorf AG's luxury skincare brand La Prairie. It has responded by cutting its reliance on China. 'The cosmetics industry has seen the price advantage of travel retail eroded,' said Jacques Roizen, managing director of China consulting at Digital Luxury Group. 'Discounts by global beauty brands—frequent and deep—offered across online and offline platforms have narrowed the gap between the mainland and duty-free prices, diminishing the appeal of travel retail for beauty products.' Highlighting how Hainan malls have lost their edge on pricing, Sam's Club, Walmart Inc.'s membership chain in China, sells Crème de la Mer facial cream at times for around 20% less than the duty-free outlets. Shoppers who purchase the item on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Tmall, China's dominant e-commerce platform, don't get a discount but will also receive a selection of free gifts. The post-Covid resumption of travel to the likes of Japan and Southeast Asia has also eroded duty-free spending in Hainan. According to Roizen, affluent spenders, who supercharged Hainan's duty-free sales during the pandemic, are once again shopping abroad. Adding to the challenges is the rising popularity of domestic beauty brands offering high-quality products at competitive prices, he said. Beijing's crackdown on resellers taking advantage of the island's duty-free shopping rules has also deflated the boom in Hainan. Known as 'daigou' in Chinese, some went so far as to use other people's duty-free shopping quotas to buy large quantities of goods and resell them in the rest of the Chinese mainland at a profit. A customs campaign against the practice in 2023 seized more than $83 million worth of duty-free goods bought in Hainan and resold elsewhere, according to a report by state-owned newswire China News Service. The slump has also had an impact on Hainan's economy. At the height of the duty-free shopping frenzy in 2021, it grew 11.2% yearly, well above the nationwide growth rate of 8.6%. In 2024, Hainan's gross domestic product increased by 3.7%, lagging China's overall growth rate of 5%. In 2022, the Hainan government targeted duty-free sales of 100 billion yuan. In its most recent work report for 2025, the target is just 52 billion yuan. Unfulfilled hopes After first introducing an annual duty-free shopping quota for Hainan of 5,000 yuan in 2011, the authorities drastically increased the allowance to 100,000 yuan in 2020. The government's support gave global beauty houses high hopes that Hainan would be a key growth market for years to come. Shiseido inaugurated six dazzling new stores for its premium brands in 2022. Pola Orbis Holdings Inc. opened its first duty-free store in Hainan in 2021. Property developers are interested in the prospect of tourists willing to spend. Both Swire Properties Ltd. and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE have teamed up with local partners to build luxury retail developments in Sanya, scheduled to open next year. Swire and LVMH didn't respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment. 'Hainan's travel retail hasn't shown a strong recovery yet,' said Serena Sang, a consumer analyst at SPDB International Holdings Ltd. 'Per capita spending during this year's May Day holiday continued to decline. We still need time to gauge consumer response as the island pushes for independent customs operations.' Hainan resident Chen Yushan exemplifies the changing spending habits. Four years ago, the 30-year-old would regularly make the more-than-six-hour round trip from her home in Hainan to buy bagfuls of luxury cosmetics at the duty-free malls. Even though she lives close to the outlets, she has to take the arduous round trip as shoppers need to show proof of travel from the mainland to qualify for the duty-free quota. Now, she only makes the trip once or twice a year as the economy slows and the outlook becomes more uncertain. 'With an economy like this, I'm cutting back on spending on costly skincare products,' Chen said. 'I don't even buy luxury bags anymore. They're useless. Nowadays, I'd rather spend money on a good hotpot meal to treat myself.'
Fashion Network
22-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Estée Lauder, L'Oréal suffer as China's duty-free spending falls
Unable to travel overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese consumers sparked a shopping boom in the southernmost province of Hainan, lured by the tropical island's plethora of duty-free shopping malls. Fast forward to today, and the travel-retail sector in Hainan is in a 14-month slump with little sign of a turnaround. Duty-free sales dropped 10.8% over the first four months of 2025 compared with a year earlier, according to the latest data from the local customs agency. Both the number of shoppers and the number of products purchased declined by more than 25% so far this year. Global beauty heavyweights are also feeling the impact of cratering travel retail in China. Until recently, Estée Lauder Cos., Shiseido Co., and L'Oréal counted on the lavish duty-free spending of Chinese travellers to drive their earnings growth. However, all three saw their Asia or China travel-retail sales shrink last year and in the first quarter of 2025. The newfound frugality in duty-free spending follows a similar trajectory to the challenges global luxury brands face in the world's second-largest economy. Exuberant pandemic-era spending emboldened companies to make hefty investments, only to see demand rapidly shrink after consumers pulled back on spending in the aftermath of Covid. L'Oréal plans to cut as many as 50% of its employees in its travel-retail division—mainly made up of Chinese staff—due to the poor performance of the duty-free sector in the country over the past two years, local media Caixin reported in April. According to a statement from the company's travel-retail unit, the Paris-based beauty giant is undergoing a transformation to better respond to market shifts and evolving consumer needs. The Caixin report is not accurate; it was added. The belt-tightening among Chinese shoppers also contributed to a 17.5% decline in first-quarter sales for Beiersdorf AG's luxury skincare brand La Prairie. It has responded by cutting its reliance on China. 'The cosmetics industry has seen the price advantage of travel retail eroded,' said Jacques Roizen, managing director of China consulting at Digital Luxury Group. 'Discounts by global beauty brands—frequent and deep—offered across online and offline platforms have narrowed the gap between the mainland and duty-free prices, diminishing the appeal of travel retail for beauty products.' Highlighting how Hainan malls have lost their edge on pricing, Sam's Club, Walmart Inc.'s membership chain in China, sells Crème de la Mer facial cream at times for around 20% less than the duty-free outlets. Shoppers who purchase the item on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Tmall, China's dominant e-commerce platform, don't get a discount but will also receive a selection of free gifts. The post-Covid resumption of travel to the likes of Japan and Southeast Asia has also eroded duty-free spending in Hainan. According to Roizen, affluent spenders, who supercharged Hainan's duty-free sales during the pandemic, are once again shopping abroad. Adding to the challenges is the rising popularity of domestic beauty brands offering high-quality products at competitive prices, he said. Beijing's crackdown on resellers taking advantage of the island's duty-free shopping rules has also deflated the boom in Hainan. Known as 'daigou' in Chinese, some went so far as to use other people's duty-free shopping quotas to buy large quantities of goods and resell them in the rest of the Chinese mainland at a profit. A customs campaign against the practice in 2023 seized more than $83 million worth of duty-free goods bought in Hainan and resold elsewhere, according to a report by state-owned newswire China News Service. The slump has also had an impact on Hainan's economy. At the height of the duty-free shopping frenzy in 2021, it grew 11.2% yearly, well above the nationwide growth rate of 8.6%. In 2024, Hainan's gross domestic product increased by 3.7%, lagging China's overall growth rate of 5%. In 2022, the Hainan government targeted duty-free sales of 100 billion yuan. In its most recent work report for 2025, the target is just 52 billion yuan. Unfulfilled hopes After first introducing an annual duty-free shopping quota for Hainan of 5,000 yuan in 2011, the authorities drastically increased the allowance to 100,000 yuan in 2020. The government's support gave global beauty houses high hopes that Hainan would be a key growth market for years to come. Shiseido inaugurated six dazzling new stores for its premium brands in 2022. Pola Orbis Holdings Inc. opened its first duty-free store in Hainan in 2021. Property developers are interested in the prospect of tourists willing to spend. Both Swire Properties Ltd. and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE have teamed up with local partners to build luxury retail developments in Sanya, scheduled to open next year. Swire and LVMH didn't respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment. 'Hainan's travel retail hasn't shown a strong recovery yet,' said Serena Sang, a consumer analyst at SPDB International Holdings Ltd. 'Per capita spending during this year's May Day holiday continued to decline. We still need time to gauge consumer response as the island pushes for independent customs operations.' Hainan resident Chen Yushan exemplifies the changing spending habits. Four years ago, the 30-year-old would regularly make the more-than-six-hour round trip from her home in Hainan to buy bagfuls of luxury cosmetics at the duty-free malls. Even though she lives close to the outlets, she has to take the arduous round trip as shoppers need to show proof of travel from the mainland to qualify for the duty-free quota. Now, she only makes the trip once or twice a year as the economy slows and the outlook becomes more uncertain. 'With an economy like this, I'm cutting back on spending on costly skincare products,' Chen said. 'I don't even buy luxury bags anymore. They're useless. Nowadays, I'd rather spend money on a good hotpot meal to treat myself.'
Fashion Network
22-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Estée Lauder, L'Oréal suffer as China's duty-free spending falls
Unable to travel overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese consumers sparked a shopping boom in the southernmost province of Hainan, lured by the tropical island's plethora of duty-free shopping malls. Fast forward to today, and the travel-retail sector in Hainan is in a 14-month slump with little sign of a turnaround. Duty-free sales dropped 10.8% over the first four months of 2025 compared with a year earlier, according to the latest data from the local customs agency. Both the number of shoppers and the number of products purchased declined by more than 25% so far this year. Global heavyweights of the beauty industry are also feeling the impact of cratering travel retail in China. Until recently, the likes of Estée Lauder Cos., Shiseido Co., and L'Oréal counted on the lavish duty-free spending of Chinese travelers to drive their earnings growth. However, all three saw their Asia or China travel-retail sales shrink last year and in the first quarter of 2025. The newfound frugality in duty-free spending follows a similar trajectory to the challenges global luxury brands face in the world's second-largest economy. Exuberant pandemic-era spending emboldened companies to make hefty investments, only to see demand rapidly shrink after consumers pulled back on spending in the aftermath of Covid. L'Oréal plans to cut as many as 50% of its employees in its travel-retail division—mainly made up of Chinese staff—due to the poor performance of the duty-free sector in the country over the past two years, local media Caixin reported in April. According to a statement from the company's travel-retail unit, the Paris-based beauty giant is undergoing a transformation to better respond to market shifts and evolving consumer needs. The Caixin report is not accurate; it was added. The belt-tightening among Chinese shoppers also contributed to a 17.5% decline in first-quarter sales for Beiersdorf AG's luxury skincare brand La Prairie. It has responded by cutting its reliance on China. 'The cosmetics industry has seen the price advantage of travel retail eroded,' said Jacques Roizen, managing director of China consulting at Digital Luxury Group. 'Discounts by global beauty brands—frequent and deep—offered across online and offline platforms have narrowed the gap between the mainland and duty-free prices, diminishing the appeal of travel retail for beauty products.' Highlighting how Hainan malls have lost their edge on pricing, Sam's Club, Walmart Inc.'s membership chain in China, sells Crème de la Mer facial cream at times for around 20% less than the duty-free outlets. Shoppers who purchase the item on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Tmall, China's dominant e-commerce platform, don't get a discount but will also receive a selection of free gifts. The post-Covid resumption of travel to the likes of Japan and Southeast Asia has also eroded duty-free spending in Hainan. According to Roizen, affluent spenders, who supercharged Hainan's duty-free sales during the pandemic, are once again shopping abroad. Adding to the challenges is the rising popularity of domestic beauty brands offering high-quality products at competitive prices, he said. Beijing's crackdown on resellers taking advantage of the island's duty-free shopping rules has also deflated the boom in Hainan. Known as 'daigou' in Chinese, some went so far as to use other people's duty-free shopping quotas to buy large quantities of goods and resell them in the rest of the Chinese mainland at a profit. A customs campaign against the practice in 2023 seized more than $83 million worth of duty-free goods bought in Hainan and resold elsewhere, according to a report by state-owned newswire China News Service. The slump has also had an impact on Hainan's economy. At the height of the duty-free shopping frenzy in 2021, it grew 11.2% yearly, well above the nationwide growth rate of 8.6%. In 2024, Hainan's gross domestic product increased by 3.7%, lagging China's overall growth rate of 5%. In 2022, the Hainan government targeted duty-free sales of 100 billion yuan. In its most recent work report for 2025, the target is just 52 billion yuan. Unfulfilled hopes After first introducing an annual duty-free shopping quota for Hainan of 5,000 yuan in 2011, the authorities drastically increased the allowance to 100,000 yuan in 2020. The government's support gave global beauty houses high hopes that Hainan would be a key growth market for years to come. Shiseido inaugurated six dazzling new stores for its premium brands in 2022. Pola Orbis Holdings Inc. opened its first duty-free store in Hainan in 2021. Property developers are interested in the prospect of tourists willing to spend. Both Swire Properties Ltd. and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE have teamed up with local partners to build luxury retail developments in Sanya, scheduled to open next year. Swire and LVMH didn't respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment. 'Hainan's travel retail hasn't shown a strong recovery yet,' said Serena Sang, a consumer analyst at SPDB International Holdings Ltd. 'Per capita spending during this year's May Day holiday continued to decline. We still need time to gauge consumer response as the island pushes for independent customs operations.' Hainan resident Chen Yushan exemplifies the changing spending habits. Four years ago, the 30-year-old would regularly make the more-than-six-hour round trip from her home in Hainan to buy bagfuls of luxury cosmetics at the duty-free malls. Even though she lives close to the outlets, she has to take the arduous round trip as shoppers need to show proof of travel from the mainland to qualify for the duty-free quota. Now, she only makes the trip once or twice a year as the economy slows and the outlook becomes more uncertain. 'With an economy like this, I'm cutting back on spending on costly skincare products,' Chen said. 'I don't even buy luxury bags anymore. They're useless. Nowadays, I'd rather spend money on a good hotpot meal to treat myself.'
