Luxury consumption moves East

Purpose – The literature contains relatively little prescriptive guidance for establishing supply chain strategies in the luxury fashion marketplace. The focus has been on fashion rather than luxury fashion and the purpose of this paper is to identify and explore the critical supply chain success factors to consider when entering the Chinese luxury fashion marketplace. Design/methodology/approach – Given the lack of research in this area an exploratory and in-depth case study was conducted with a niche UK textile manufacturer. Findings – Findings from the case study suggest there are four critical success factors to consider when developing a business strategy to enter the Chinese luxury fashion marketplace. Practical implications – The findings could guide managers that are developing a business case for entering the Chinese luxury fashion marketplace. Originality/value – This case study provides novel insights to transformations in global supply chain strategy as luxury consumption is moving towards the east, which creates new challenges and demands for European manufacturers to respond, to sustaining a competitive advantage.