Who buys luxury in China in 2026? Age, cities, income and what changed

In 2018, BCG and Tencent drew a portrait that every luxury marketer in China learned by heart : 58% of the new luxury buyers were aged 18 to 30, 71% were women, and more than half lived outside the 15 largest cities (Winshang, citing the BCG and Tencent report). Eight years later, that portrait is not wrong, but it is no longer the one paying the bills.

Bain’s 2025 China Personal Luxury Report, released on 29 January 2026, says the mainland market shrank by 3% to 5% in 2025, and that “younger aspirational consumers” are entering luxury later and more cautiously, while very important clients (VICs) remain the engine (Beijing News). In other terms, the question “who buys luxury in China?” has a different answer in 2026 than in 2018, and the difference is not only about age.

Chinese luxury consumers in 2026 : key figures

The 2018 portrait : young, female, and from tier-2 cities

It is worth remembering where we come from. Between 2017 and 2021, the growth of luxury in China was largely a story of first-time buyers. They were young, they discovered brands on WeChat and later on Xiaohongshu, and many of them bought their first bag in a mall in Chengdu, Hangzhou or Xi’an rather than in Paris. A survey by Mazars published in May 2020 found that Gen Z (people born after 1995) ranked first among the heavy buyers who purchased every month, sometimes more than 12 items a year, and that first-tier cities still held close to 80% of luxury consumers (Mazars).

At that time, one thing was sure, Chinese consumers were different. They were younger than luxury buyers in Europe or Japan, more digital, and much faster to switch brands. We wrote about it many times, for example in our article on Chinese luxury consumers and in our broader page on the Chinese luxury market. Brands built their whole China playbook on that young buyer : Tmall flagship stores, celebrity ambassadors, limited Qixi editions.

What changed : the young buyer has stepped back

The young buyer did not disappear, she simply has less money to spare and less reason to show it. Youth unemployment, a property market that has weighed on household confidence since 2021, and a cultural shift away from conspicuous spending all point in the same direction. Bain’s own wording is careful : younger aspirational consumers come in “more cautiously and later”.

Picture a 27-year-old office worker in Shanghai who bought a Louis Vuitton bag in 2019. Today she is more likely to buy a smaller leather good, a fragrance, a second-hand piece, or nothing at all. Beauty is the one category Bain sees growing in 2025 (+4% to +7%), while leather goods fell 8% to 11% and watches 14% to 17%. Beauty is, of course, the entry ticket of luxury. When the entry ticket grows and the bag shrinks, it tells you who is still at the door.

The second-hand market tells a similar story. It grew 15% to 20% in 2025 but still weighs less than 10% of the primary market, against 20% to 30% in mature markets (Bain). We covered this in our article on the second-hand luxury market in China. For a young buyer, a pre-owned Chanel is a way to stay in the game without paying the full entry price. Increasing brands are trying to incorporate resale as a part of their client experience, often through certified pre-owned programs.

Who still buys : the VIC, the gold buyer and the traveler

1. The VIC, older and wealthier than the average buyer

If the young buyer has stepped back, who is still spending? Mostly the top of the pyramid. Hurun’s 2026 report on high-net-worth lifestyles, based on 470 respondents with assets above RMB 10 million, estimates the Chinese high-end consumption market at RMB 1.56 trillion in 2025, down 5% (Sina Finance, reporting Hurun). Put simply, that is around 1% of China’s GDP, so the figure is in a plausible range (our calculation).

These clients are not the 25-year-olds of the 2018 report. They are in their late 30s to 50s, they run companies or hold senior positions, and they buy across categories. Brands know them well because they appear in every CRM, invited to private dinners and “salon” events. We described how brands keep them in our article on VICs in the Chinese luxury market. Scarcity can cast a luxury feeling on the products, and that still works with this group.

2. The gold buyer, who thinks like an investor

The most surprising consumer of the last two years is the one who walks into Laopu Gold (老铺黄金). According to Frost & Sullivan data quoted by Xinhua, the share of Laopu clients who also buy from Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Cartier or Bulgari rose from 77.3% in July 2025 to 82.4% in March 2026 (Xinhua). Laopu’s revenue reached RMB 27.3 billion in 2025, up 221%.

This is the same client as the VIC, but with a different motive : value preservation. Hurun finds gold has been the first investment preference of wealthy Chinese for three years in a row. In 2025, jewelry was the most resilient luxury category in Bain’s report (0% to -5%), helped by the gold price. We have written about this in our pages on Laopu Gold and on investment-driven luxury.

However the story has a warning inside it. Gold fell more than 28% from its 2026 high by the second quarter, Laopu raised prices by 20% to 30% in February, and its shares lost more than 70% from their peak (Xinhua). A consumer who buys luxury as a store of value is a loyal one only as long as the value holds. One could argue that this buyer is closer to a gold investor than to a fashion client, and brands should not confuse the two.

3. The traveler, who now shops more at home

Bain estimates that 65% of Chinese luxury spending happened in mainland China in 2025 and 35% abroad. Before Covid, it was roughly the opposite. At home, products are better accessible and the shopping experience more relaxed, and Chinese consumers are definitely not willing to wait for a trip to Paris to buy a new release. Hainan has played a role here : the island’s offshore duty-free shops have sold RMB 286.4 billion of goods since 2011, and the island-wide customs regime started on 18 December 2025 (Xinhua, citing Haikou Customs). We looked at this shopper in Chinese shoppers in Hainan.

Wealthy travelers have not stopped going abroad. Hurun finds travel is the spending item with the strongest intention to grow (+58% net), but the “shopping paradise” motive fell 3.4 points. They travel for beaches, wellness and food, and shopping comes as a side activity. The daigou trade adjusted accordingly, as we wrote in Daigou in China.

Cities : the tier-2 promise needs a second look

In 2018, the big promise was the lower-tier city. More than half of new luxury buyers lived outside the top 15 cities, and brands opened stores in Wuhan, Shenyang, Kunming. Some of these bets paid off, others less. Unfortunately, a few brands neglected the perception of local consumers and opened in malls that never reached the expected traffic.

What we observe in 2026 is a split. A handful of “new tier-1” cities, such as Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan or Xi’an, behave almost like Shanghai, with an SKP or a Taikoo Li that concentrates the VICs of a whole province. Below that level (let’s say beyond tier-3 if we align on the definition of the various tiers), the luxury buyer is rarer, more price conscious and more likely to buy online, in Hainan or second-hand. We discussed the cities that rose fastest in China’s new luxury hot spots.

This suggests that a city ranking by GDP is not enough. A brand needs to know how many of its VICs live in a city, and where they actually buy, which is often not in that city at all.

Men, women and the gift economy

Women remain the majority of luxury buyers, which is not new. What has shifted is gifting. Hurun notes that wealthy men now give electronics more than watches or premium baijiu, while women’s first gift remains cosmetics. The watch, once the classic business gift, has lost ground, and Bain’s -14% to -17% for watches in 2025 confirms the trend. We came back to it in Luxury watches in China and in our 2026 update on Rolex in China.

The other change is quieter. “Quiet luxury” has become a real preference in tier-1 cities, with fewer logos and more attention to materials. Marketing strategies that use emotion still work, but the emotion is different : less “look at me”, more “this is for me” (from 悦人 to 悦己, pleasing others to pleasing yourself). Our article on quiet luxury in China goes deeper.

For brands, this means the role of the boutique changes. International brands should not only play the role of seller, but also the role of an introducer of craft and culture, the same way perfume brands had to teach Chinese consumers what a fragrance family was in the 2010s. A lot of people told us that China is like a black box. In luxury, the box is mostly about knowing why your client buys.

Daxue Overview

We see three luxury consumers in China today, not one. They overlap, but they behave differently.

• The VIC : 35 to 55, tier-1 or new tier-1, buys across categories, expects private service. She drives most of the value.
• The value buyer : often the same person, buying gold or high jewelry as a store of value. Loyal while prices hold.
• The cautious young buyer : under 30, enters through beauty, fragrance or second-hand. Small tickets, high influence on Xiaohongshu.

Daxue Take

I would tend to think the industry spent too long reading China through age. The 2018 data was right, but brands turned it into a rule. In 2026, motive matters more than birth year. A 30-year-old founder in Hangzhou and a 50-year-old factory owner in Wenzhou can buy the same Hermès bag for very different reasons.

We also think the young buyer will come back, but slowly. Bain expects modest growth in 2026. That is not a rebound. Brands that cut their entry products and their beauty lines to protect margins today may find they have no young clients left in five years.

Daxue Recommendations

• Brands first need to identify their target consumer needs and understand the competitors. Segment clients by motive and spending pattern, not only by age and city tier.
• Map where your VICs actually buy : home city, Shanghai, Hainan, Hong Kong or abroad.
• Keep entry products alive. Beauty and small leather goods recruit tomorrow’s VICs.
• Treat gold-driven demand as cyclical. Do not build a store network on it.
• Test new cities with pop-ups or department-store corners before a full boutique.

FAQ

What is the age of the typical Chinese luxury consumer in 2026?
Most of the value comes from clients aged roughly 35 to 55, the VICs. Younger buyers under 30 are still numerous but spend less and enter later, according to Bain’s 2025 report.

Do Chinese consumers still buy luxury abroad?
Less than before. Bain estimates 65% of Chinese luxury spending happened in mainland China in 2025, against 35% abroad.

Which luxury categories are growing in China?
Beauty grew 4% to 7% in 2025. Jewelry held up thanks to gold. Leather goods and watches fell the most.

Is the second-hand luxury market important in China?
It grew 15% to 20% in 2025 but remains below 10% of the primary market, against 20% to 30% in mature markets.

As a conclusion, the Chinese luxury consumer has not vanished. She has changed. She is older at the top, more careful at the bottom, and more often at home than in Paris. China is a huge market with a lot of potentials, but only for those who can sort out its complexities. How are you segmenting your Chinese clients today?

About the author

Matthieu David is the founder and CEO of Daxue Consulting. He arrived in China in 2009, founded Daxue in Beijing in 2012 and hosts the China Paradigm podcast. He has advised more than 400 companies on their China market strategy.