“These shops are going towards a model where shopping space is more and more segmented and efficient. There are the shopping tills for the first-time tourist which only has an allocated amount of time and a shopping list to go through, and the VIP lounge for the more wealthy consumer that does not want to mix with the crowd”, said Erwan Rambourg, head of consumer and retail equity research at HSBC and author of The Bling Dynasty.
The way these mega-brands show off their new products has also changed over the past five years, driven largely by Chinese buyers. These clients can now see the same items in shop windows in Paris, Beijing and Shanghai.
“Paris stores are selling very little to locals, and as travel restrictions [from China] ease, I believe this will only go one way,” Rambourg said.
He is confident the recent market volatility will have little impact on the trend. “A weaker currency obviously will have an influence on the propensity to buy from Chinese tourists, but not much at the current levels." Rambourg believes there will be a negligible impact given how much cheaper and how much more exciting Paris will still seem to the Chinese traveller.
Some stores saw the Chinese takeover coming. A controversial redevelopment of closed department store, La Samaritaine, purchased by luxury holding LVMH (which owns Louis Vuitton), proposed several years ago was mired for years in a planning dispute but has finally been given the go-ahead.
The business plans a major renovation project to create France’s first downtown, luxury, duty free store complex with Chinese tourists in mind, as well as a palatial hotel.