ng Kong and a distribution trading business called Imaginex that partners with over 30 brands and has 500 points of sale.  Woo is well-known for her leadership and vision at Lane Crawford and is one of the most powerful and youngest retailers in the Asian fashion industry. She has been a recipient of Vogue China‘s Fashion Retail Icon Award and was also inducted into the World Retail Congress’ Hall of Fame this week. Despite the closure of physical stores during Covid, Lane Crawford sales continued to increase, Woo said. “The pandemic was different in mainland China than anywhere else because in 2020 and 2021, when borders were closed, domestic consumption actually grew. The luxury market invested with new brand and pop-up concepts, driving all merchandise in China. So that customer was extremely spoiled and we saw incredible growth in those years,” she said. Here are some of the observations Woo shared with the audience: The growing middle-class in China “I think tech in the mainland has a life of its own. We were able to maximise that over the pandemic and now that the market has recovered and opened up, China is very different to pre-pandemic [times]. Back then, everyone was talking about first-, second- and third-tier cities, but a critical mass has formed and the middle class is growing. Think about the numbers coming out of university: 10 million a year, not counting the students who go abroad to study and return, or the ones who chose entrepreneurship. This market is extremely attractive to luxury brands and they’ll continue to invest in them.” Bringing joy to the customer “After the borders opened, we had a customer who hadn’t been to Hong Kong for three years and got in touch with the staff and said: “I’m landing now and I want to come by and see the staff!” So our team opened the store at 11pm and they had so much fun. They were doing fashion montages, mix-and-matches, midnight feasts and having a music party. And they closed an exceptional transaction at 2am. “It’s about the joy of bringing joy to the customer. It’s that intimate customer relationship that we care about…We’re not looking at a cookie-cutter expansion of 100 stores across China. We’re looking city-by-city, at the different communities and at how to build intimate relationships.  “Our business opportunity is to be a curator of that journey and [to help the customer] discover our portfolio and merchandise. We’re looking at what’s tailormade – that’s what the customer is looking for in China.  “In China, customers get so much information and it’s fast and so competitive, but the customers are now looking for things that are of higher quality and super sophisticated. Quiet luxury is beginning. The Chinese customer is starting to have a growing mistrust of key opinion leaders (KOLs), so brands are adjusting how to approach the market. It’s a really interesting time in our market because in China, there’s not one way to play the market anymore, there are multiple ways.” Paying people to grow, not to work “My philosophy is that we create a business where we pay people to grow, not pay people to work. I work for the talent – my job is to create a platform and business where they can grow and I’m passionate about creating an environment where they have the tools to grow.  “We have a retail academy [for our staff] with over 50 courses live right now, from basic to advanced retail management and fashion 101. We’re adding new courses like how to be a content creator, how to use AI and ChatGPT responsibly and we’re looking at other courses like how to help people style head-to-toe and day-to-night. We’re also looking at mental health and we put a wellness program in 2010 that continues to grow.” Curating the right brands “The key is that our proposition has to continue to evolve over time. Our role as a curator is more important going forward. How can we tailor a portfolio that balances designer brands and emerging brands and artisans all together, to make it a bespoke assortment that our buyers handpicked?” What next for Lane Crawford  “We’re really looking at retooling our buying process. We’re looking at who the buyers are, where they go to buy, what they buy and when those products arrive in our store. We’re in a business where we do not buy more than we sell. Selling out is not a bad thing if it’s towards the end of season. But selling out in the first two weeks? That’s not good.  “We had some product that we put in play at the beginning of the recovery. It was a capsule collection and it landed in the store. We put 2,000 in each market and we thought it would take some time to sell – it sold out in two weeks. It was exclusive product in an exclusive colour just for our customers. So now we’re testing those unique items that we curated for customers. We’re still working on that. That’s the future for us.”