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Apparel and Retail in China, India, and Brazil

I've never been to China, India, or Brazil, so it's really interesting to read how different retailing works there. I had a previous post on the subject about how chaos sells in India. I recently read an article in the McKinsey Quarterly on the subject.

A couple interesting highlights:


  • China: The average Chinese person doesn't really distinguish clothing for different occasions or uses. Work, weddings, special events, etc. all generally fall into the same category for them. And they don't view foreign brands as at all superior to domestic brands. That's the average Chinese person of course. The youth in China are much more similar to those in the U.S. They view foreign brands more favorably and are willing to spend more on clothing as their incomes rise. Lesson here is to focus on the youth.

  • India: For Indians, apparently shopping is a family affair. Indians (across all regions, income segments, and age ranges) believe that shopping is a family activity. In fact, 70% always go to stores with family and 74% view shopping as the best way to spend time with their family. And then in terms of clothing segments, Indians spend most of their money on clothing for special events like weddings and festivals. And then in terms of decision making, apparently Indian men generally decide which stores the family shops in but Indian women decide which clothes to buy. Lesson here is family friendly, focused on special events, stores need to appeal to men, but clothes need to appeal to women.

  • Brazil: The really notable thing about Brazil's retail market is the availability and use of credit. Brazil really doesn't have a credit-reporting system; they track defaults on debt (at the bank level) but not positive credit worthiness. Because of that lack of information, there are no general use credit cards. Instead, multinational retailers provide private-label credit cards with low initial spending limits. As consumers prove their credit-worthiness, they earn bigger spending limits. Lesson here is that if you're going to expand to Brazil, you need a team that can build out the credit side for you.
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