中国两位数的增长曲线提供了巨大的机会，否则有几个地方成长的消费业务。但他们必须现在就采取行动 - 目前的增长速度将在五到十年内已经消退，加剧了进入市场的难度。

 

If you sell to consumers, you understand the problem. While those catering to the wealthiest sliver of transnational consumers have continued to prosper to varying extents, most consumer markets around the world have remained in the doldrums since the onset of the global financial crisis. 

That is, except for those in China

In fact, in many cases, Chinese shoppers traveling overseas have provided a needed boost to those same high-end retailers in the rest of the world who have fared better than most. Meanwhile, those Chinese who cannot travel abroad easily have been stepping up their purchases at home, causing a rapid expansion of retailers targeting China's growing middle class. 

Rising affluence and greater sophistication among the Chinese public are factors in this transformation. Although they have not yet developed lifelong attachments to brands, many Chinese are increasingly brand-aware. Many of the world's top brands have a presence and high visibility in cities like Shanghai, but not yet in most other Chinese cities; so there are still opportunities for new brands to enter.

The message is clear: if yours is a consumer business, you have few places to grow. Your growth market could be in China. However, to profit from the tail-end of the double-digit growth curve, companies with the ambition to enter China should do so now. Within five to ten years, the current rate of growth will have subsided, compounding the difficulty of market entry. 

Companies planning to enter China will need to ensure that they have the resources to enter and are competitive enough to do so effectively. Not all companies can meet these challenges. Companies that are able should look at the market, understand the opportunity, determine their place in the market, devise an entry strategy, and follow through.  

Reliable public information in China is scarce and the market continues to be notoriously opaque to outsiders. Therefore, effective China market entry depends on due diligence up front. For a glimpse at the kind of insight yielded by a market due diligence effort, Deloitte China presents the following summary of findings from the third in its series of Chinese consumer studies.