By HUANG Shan

When SND (Selection of Nonconformist Design) first opened in Chongqing in 2013, it was one of the few stores in town to sell independent luxury brands. Business was good, but SND remained close to its home base and opened only four more stores in the following six years.

Last year, four new SND stores opened in distant shopping destinations like Guangzhou and Sanya. The latest, in Shanghai, features a bright storefront with an original look and space for formal and informal social events. The location aspires to transform fashion retail into a “personalized and immersive shopping experience.”

Beyond the horizon

The expansion is driven as much by necessity as philosophy. Around the country, luxury boutiques are opening and upgrading at unprecedented speed, all trying to outcompete one another in goods, atmosphere, and price. The race to the bottom is now a hallmark of expanding markets in China.  

“At least three stores have opened in Chongqing that sells the same brands as we do. Everyone tries to undercut everyone. When margins are driven to zero, everyone loses,” said Will Zhang, founder of SND. 

Even in a small city like Changzhou, many boutiques have opened in the past year or so, and not all of them play by the rules.  LI Li has been running a luxury boutique there for ten years.

“A local store owner just buys whatever she sees in other stores and tries to sell it cheaper.”

Good boutiques not only follow trends but make them. Zhang believes that close relations with young designers who go on to make it will always be more valuable than distant associations with well-known names. SND is buying less from the in-crowd of successful Chinese designers and gravitating toward international brands which offer something new. There are countless possibilities.

“We had to give up on about a third of our partners and find new ones,” Zhang said. “It feels like starting a new business.”

Coffee and cake

When regional operations expand, they often put their stores in expensive areas among other high-end venues and for many, it is a quick, painful lesson that they don’t have what it takes. For others, aesthetics are critical. The lofty interiors of SND are impressively gray.

All stores of Looknow, a Shanghai-based boutique, are stylized to appear “local.” Cafes or coffee shops are basic essentials. Pop-up events are common, but tire quickly - “another” pop-up event is not really pop-up. Even Li Li, who is largely a one-woman show, hosts flower-arranging and perfume-blending.

Despite complaints about the increasing competition if not involution, the market is getting bigger and more interesting. Men’s clothing looks like the next big thing and some stores are already exclusively manly.

Zhang is cautiously optimistic. “The market used to be very small. There is room for more, but not for everyone.”