The Chinese are no strangers to luxury shopping, and London’s most iconic department store, Harrods is giving them yet another reason to splurge! In a first-of-its-kind move, Harrods will unveil a private member’s club in Shanghai at the end of 2023 to draw in the country’s ultra-rich consumers. Called ‘The Residence’ (shoppers will shop till they drop), the club will find residence on the second floor of Cha House, a heritage building already featuring a Harrods tea room and piano bar open to the public. Another spectacular UK import is British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s first restaurant which will be housed inside the club.
Elite as can be, the annual fees will start at 150,000 Yuan or $21,000 and will accept 250 members in the beginning. In addition to luxury shopping and great food, a partnership with Scottish whisky company Edrington Group will entitle members to sample some of the rarest bottles of alcohol. Harrods’s managing director Michael Ward informed Bloomberg that these shoppers made up 16% of Harrods’ sales in 2022. “We always knew that shopping would go back to China. We want to have a base to be able to maintain that relationship as we have really great customers in China.”
Per Fortune, Chinese consumers are among the world’s most influential, accounting for about a fifth of the $325.4 billion global luxury market, according to PwC estimates. As they increasingly shop on the mainland, top global brands are expanding their domestic footprints. “Harrods services the top 1 % of the world’s wealth,” Ward said. “If I was in the mid-market at the moment, I wouldn’t be doing this. But we know that the wealth in China will grow. And we will just continue to focus on those relationships with the very top of the top.”
