中国人撑起英国名牌村 Luxury shoppers travel to UK for bargains

On a chilly Friday in December, one might expect that designer outlet centre Bicester Village in Oxfordshire would be full of Christmas shoppers. However, the dominant group of customers snapping up discounted Burberry, Gucci and Prada products are Chinese university students – often accompanied by their parents – splurging on gifts to take home for the lunar new year.

在12月份一个寒冷的周五，你可能会以为，名牌折扣店云集的牛津郡比斯特购物村(Bicester Village)会充斥着前来购买圣诞礼物的消费者。然而，在这里抢购博柏利(Burberry)、古驰(Gucci)和普拉达(Prada)等各色名牌折扣商品的消费者却以中国留学生为主——他们很多是在父母的陪伴下，大把地花钱，为春节回家选购礼物。

“The price is what we like,” says Zhing Xingzi, 33, from Beijing who is studying international relations at Nottingham University. Here with three female Chinese friends, who are trying on shoes in the Gucci outlet, he stands watch over their day’s haul – 20 bags bearing the brands of Burberry, Prada, Ugg and Juicy Couture. “In China, just a few people can do this, not everyone,” he says, referring to the country’s high sales taxes on luxury goods. “But the desire for brands is there, and we would buy more in China if it was at this price.”

“我们中意的是这里的价格。”今年33岁的章行自（音译）表示，他来自北京，目前在诺丁汉大学(Nottingham University)攻读国际关系。与他同行的三位女性朋友也是中国人，她们在古驰折扣店里试鞋子，他则在一边看着她们这一天的战果：20大包的博柏利、普拉达、Ugg和橘滋(Juicy Couture)。“在中国，只有少数人会这么购物，不是所有人。”他指的是中国对奢侈品征收高额消费税这件事。“但人们都渴望拥有名牌，如果在中国也是这样的价钱，我们会多买一些。”

The changing appetites of Asian shoppers have driven share prices of luxury groups up and down during the course of 2011. Concern that the devastating earthquake that hit Japan – one of the most important markets for luxury goods – in March would stall demand for top brands was cushioned by burgeoning demand from newly affluent Chinese consumers. However, over the summer, fears of a slowdown in China’s economy wiped as much as 25 per cent off the share prices of luxury groups, including Burberry, which is expanding on the mainland.

今年以来，亚洲消费者对奢侈品的兴趣变幻莫测，导致奢侈品集团的股价也忽起忽落。3月份日本发生重大地震后，业内原本担心消费者对顶极品牌的需求将陷入停滞，因为日本是全球最重要的奢侈品市场之一。然而，中国新富消费者对奢侈品的需求迅速增长，冲淡了这种担忧。然而，到了夏季，由于消费者担心中国经济将会放缓，奢侈品集团的股价一度下跌25%，其中包括正在中国内地扩张的博柏利。

Angela Ahrendts, Burberry’s chief executive, has coined the term “Travelling Luxury Consumer” or TLC to describe its key customer group, arguing this is a more powerful force than the Chinese market alone, which now accounts for over 10 per cent of Burberry’s sales.

博柏利首席执行官安吉拉?阿伦茨(Angela Ahrendts)首创“奢侈品旅游消费者”(Travelling Luxury Consumer)这个概念，用于形容该集团的关键消费者群体。她认为，这个群体的力量比中国市场更可观，后者如今在博柏利总销售额中占到10%以上。

“When Chinese consumers travel, they spend six times more than when they stay at home,” she explains. “Saying ‘I bought this in London’ adds further cachet.” For this reason, Burberry has sunk ￡20m into upgrading its London flagship stores, with Regent Street on target to complete “just in time for the Olympics” next year.

阿伦茨表示：“中国消费者在外旅游时，花的钱比在家里多6倍。说‘这件东西是在伦敦买的’，会让人平添一种优越感。”为此，博柏利已投入2000万英镑，准备将伦敦各旗舰店修葺一新，在摄政街(Regent Street)的那家店将赶在明年“奥运前及时”完工。

Other London purveyors of luxury are also feeling flush. High spending foreign tourists have powered a 32 per cent boost in post-tax annual profits at upmarket London department store Harvey Nichols, which rose to ￡7.25m in the year to April, according to documents filed in Companies House on Friday.

伦敦其他奢侈品商家也备感欢欣。根据上周五提交英国公司注册处(Companies House)的材料，拜大手大脚花钱的外国旅游者所赐，在截至4月的一年里，伦敦高档百货公司哈维?尼克斯(Harvey Nichols)的税前利润大幅增长32%，达725万英镑。

Harrods, its larger Knightsbridge neighbour, broke through the ￡1bn sales barrier in 2011, posting a 39 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to ￡108m and reporting that the Chinese were its top-spending international visitors, blowing an average of ￡3,500 a visit.

在骑士桥(Knightsbridge)与哈维?尼克斯比邻、规模比之更大的哈罗斯(Harrods)，2011年销售额突破了10亿英镑，税前利润比上年增长39%，达1.08亿英镑。该公司表示，在国际购物者中，中国人的消费能力首屈一指，他们平均一次购物的花销为3500英镑。

The Chinese connoisseur who spends ￡25,000 on vintage wine might grab the headlines, but the majority of shoppers are of much smaller means. This helps explains the draw of Bicester, which boasts the only train station in the UK to have signs translated into Mandarin and Arabic, and is now the UK’s third-biggest tourist shopping destination after Harrods and Selfridges.

中国鉴赏家以2.5万英镑购买一瓶葡萄酒的消息，或许能登上媒体的头条，但大多数购物者的身家要少得多。这有助于解释比斯特购物村的吸引力所在。在全英国所有火车站中，只有这个购物村的火车站配有以中文和阿拉伯语书写的标语牌。比斯特购物村也是英国第三大旅游购物目的地，仅次于哈罗斯和赛弗里奇(Selfridges)。

Its owner, the outlet specialist Value Retail Group, says visitor numbers will top 5.5m this year, with two-thirds of shoppers coming from outside the UK, and 40 per cent from outside of the EU.

比斯特购物村是Value Retail集团旗下的产业，这家专门从事名牌折扣店业务的集团表示，今年比斯特购物村的消费者人次将突破550万，其中三分之二来自英国以外地区，40%来自欧盟以外。

Crystal Zhang, a 23-year-old from Shanxi Province, is studying cross-cultural communication at Newcastle University, and has brought her mother and aunt on a shopping trip. “It’s their first time in the UK,” she says, as they excitedly search through rails of discounted Burberry trenchcoats, clutching flasks of tea. “We haven’t bought anything yet, we will have a good look first. We don’t have unlimited money.”

来自山西的克里斯特尔?张(Crystal Zhang)今年23岁，在纽卡斯尔大学(Newcastle University)攻读跨文化交流专业。她让她母亲和姨妈一起来英国购物旅游。“她们第一次来英国。”克里斯特尔表示，这时她们正兴奋地穿梭在博柏利折扣风衣的柜台前，手里紧抓着水壶。“我们还什么都没买呢，我们要先好好看一下，我们的钱有限。”

Korean national Yung Kyoo Kim, 34, has just graduated from London Metropolitan University. “My parents came over for my graduation, but really, I think they wanted to go shopping,” he says, nodding to his mother, who is proudly carrying two bags of Salvatore Ferragamo shoes.

韩国人金英奎（音译）今年34岁，刚从伦敦城市大学(London Metropolitan University)毕业。“我父母来参加我的毕业典礼，但我想他们其实是想来购物。”他冲他妈妈点了点头，他妈妈正得意地提着两袋菲拉格慕(Salvatore Ferragamo)的鞋子。

“Tourists want the authentic product, but importantly, the authentic luxury experience,” says Scott Malkin, chairman of Value Retail, referring to Bicester's well-ordered stores, armies of shop assistants and the “little touches”, which include cushions on outdoor seating.

“旅游者想买到正品，但更想获得真正的奢侈体验。”Value Retail董事长斯科特?马尔金(Scott Malkin)表示，他提到了购物村里秩序井然的商店、成群的店员，以及各种“细致体贴”的服务，比如店门外座椅上还铺着垫子。

Stating that levels of tourist shoppers are “consistent” across Value Retail’s nine European outlet villages, he recalls that Japanese shoppers were “pouring into” outlet villages in the US in the 1980s and 1990s, arguing a “similar logic” applies to China, where it plans to open an outlet village in Suzhou in 2013.

马尔金表示，通观Value Retail在欧洲的9个名牌折扣店购物村，所有旅游购物者的水平都是“一致的”。他回忆到，在上世纪八、九十年代，日本消费者“蜂拥进入”美国的名牌折扣店购物中心。在他看来，中国也会出现“类似情形”。Value Retail计划2013年在苏州开一家名牌折扣店购物中心。

“We see 4m Chinese visitors a year in our European centres, but estimate there are up to 200m aspirational shoppers in China, and many of those could never visit us otherwise,” he says.

“我们在欧洲的折扣店中心每年迎来400万中国消费者，而在中国，渴望拥有奢侈品的消费者估计多达2亿人，如果我们不在那里开店的话，其中许多人可能永远不会光顾我们。”

As the village will be entirely stocked by surplus luxury products from the region’s growing numbers of stores, one might question the Chinese expansion plans of luxury groups. “Our experience is that it drives more footfall into our international stores,” says Godfrey Davis, chairman of Mulberry, the luxury English retailer, which is in the process of doubling its Asian store portfolio. “The travelling luxury consumer has always existed, and is a very important part of the market. But familiarity and desire for the brand is what breeds consumption.”

由于新购物中心的商品将全部来自该地区越来越多的名牌商店，全部是积压的商品，人们可能会怀疑奢侈品集团在中国的扩张计划。“根据我们的经验，这么做会促使更多人走进我们的国际商店。”英国奢侈品零售商玛百莉(Mulberry)董事长戈弗雷?戴维斯(Godfrey Davis)表示。玛百莉正计划将亚洲门店数量增加一倍。“奢侈品旅游消费者从来都有，也是这个市场的重要组成部分。但是，对品牌的熟悉感和渴望才能促成消费。