Highlights

Abstract

Keywords

۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Literature review

۲٫۱٫ Shopping tourism and luxury shopping

۲٫۲٫ Shopping venues and destinations – attributes and satisfaction

۲٫۳٫ Chinese outbound tourists’ luxury shopping behavior overseas

۳٫ Methods

۳٫۱٫ Item generation and instrument design

۳٫۲٫ Exploratory factor analysis

۳٫۳٫ Scale validation – confirmatory factor analysis

۴٫ Conclusion, implications, and future studies

Authors contribution

Declaration of competing interest

References

Vitae

Considering rapid economic development, rising household income, and the emergence of middle-class consumers in mainland China, a growing number of Chinese consumers are traveling to other countries and regions for tourism and shopping. Studies have shown that Chinese customers often express intentions to engage in luxury shopping, driven by factors such as brand consciousness, social comparison, and innovative fashion (Zhang & Kim, 2013). Although the trend of Chinese outbound tourism aimed at luxury shopping continues to expand, little is known about Chinese luxury shoppers’ behavior when abroad. This study attempts to investigate Chinese luxury shoppers’ preferences in shopping destinations, relevant attributes of preferred luxury shopping destinations, and potential underlying dimensions among identified attributes. Results revealed an attribute list comprising 3 dimensions (human touch, prestige, and good value) and 17 items. These findings reflect Chinese luxury shoppers’ concerns and preferences about shopping overseas. Implications and future research directions are also discussed.

۱٫ Introduction

Mainland China’s swift economic development, ballooning household income, and emergence of middle-class consumers has led more Chinese to visit various countries and regions for tourism. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, PRC (2019), 149.7 million Chinese tourists traveled overseas in 2018, a 14.7% increase over 2017. Along with the growing popularity of outbound tourism, Chinese tourists’ spending power in overseas destinations is notably disproportionate to their income in many cases (Dai, Jiang, Yang, & Ma, 2017). According to Dai et al. (2017), Chinese tourists spend most of their money on shopping; in some destinations, such spending can constitute as much as 70.4% of tourists’ total trip expenditure. The high proportion of spending allocated to shopping overseas may be due to “daigou” (buying items for third parties), gift-giving, lower taxes, and brands’ pricing policies.