French luxury department store Galeries Lafayette closed its first flagship store in China on Wednesday, 27 May, thirteen years after it opened. The retailer cited falling sales in recent years as the reason for the closure.
While the luxury market experienced strong growth in the mid-2010s, notably thanks to the rise of the middle class, the Covid-19 pandemic and China’s property crisis proved to be a turning point, abruptly curbing China’s domestic consumption and forcing the sector to adapt to new economic realities.
