Chinese Millennials Flock to New York City, but Shop Strategically
Flying from China to America just for window shopping? Some Chinese millennials think it is worthy, and they may not be wrong.
New York City is expecting to welcome 920,000 Chinese tourists in 2016, according to an estimate by NYC & Company, the city’s official marketing office. Among them, millennials, aged between 14 and 35, are the predominant group. Unlike their parents, who could only visit the U.S. in groups with travel agencies, the Chinese millennials are better at going abroad independently and being savvy shoppers. Why? They take more overseas trips and know better deals.
“I usually travel to several countries in a year and just went to Europe months ago,” said Anne Kuo, a communications professional working in Beijing, China, who is staying in New York for a month. “It’s very common as I noticed many of my co-workers tend to use up annual leaves together with public holidays to travel to Japan, Korea, Singapore, Europe and North America.”
Planning to go somewhere else in the near future, she checked the prices in New York but did not necessarily make purchases. “No hurry. I will find a better deal,” Kuo added. New York City imposes an eight percent sales tax, offering no tax-refund for international tourists, whereas most European and Asian countries do.
Tax does make a difference when you start to purchase more. For example, the same luxury DELVAUX handbag sells at $4,500 in New York and €3,450 ($3,872) in France, according to Maggie Liu, a reseller for worldwide luxury goods targeting at Chinese millennials. Together with the eight percent tax, consumers need to pay $4,860 in New York in total, while they can get a 10 to 12 percent tax-refund in France, paying at most $3,484. The actual gap is more than $1,300.
Prices of electronic goods in the U.S. are also not appealing to Chinese tourists because of a strong dollar. The new iPhone 7 in New York is only slightly cheaper than those available in Hong Kong or Tokyo. The difference is only 500 yuan, or $75. With the tax imposed, the savings will become trivial.
E-commerce and resellers in the U.S. provide an alternative shopping strategy for Chinese millennials. They visit New York for a different culture experience and try out clothes and shoes to find out the suitable sizes. “New York City has many stores and big brands,” said Kefei Wang, a 28-year-old Chinese software engineer. It comes in handy if you know what size you should wear for different brands. “Because you need to act fast when a good deal comes up.”
Wang said he would only purchase during his time in New York if he came across a major sales. But after going back to China, he will wait for the Christmas or Black Friday and purchase through professional resellers in New York. “Traveling to the city during that time is more expensive than now,” he added.
