How rich Chinese women became a key market for Ferrari: female buyers account for over a quarter of the supercar-maker’s sales in China – not counting Hong Kong and Taiwan
If you spot four Ferraris on a street in China, chances are a woman is behind the wheel of at least one.
Female buyers on average accounted for 26 per cent of the company’s sales in China over the last five years, the sources said, a figure that does not include Taiwan and Hong Kong. That far exceeds the proportion of Ferraris sold to women in any other country, they said, declining to give a precise figure for comparison.
“In recent years we have seen growing enthusiasm from female clients for our products and experiences,” Ferrari chief executive officer Benedetto Vigna said in a statement to Bloomberg. An increase in women signing up for company-sponsored events like race-car training has been pointing to the trend, he said.
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Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan accounted for 12 per cent of Ferrari’s sales last year with almost 1,600 cars, more than double compared with five years ago, according to the company’s annual reports. With the country’s tariffs on luxury imports weighing on returns, Ferrari is seeking to keep deliveries in China to around 10 per cent of total shipments.
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Social media is also helping drive the trendiness of the signature Italian supercars for Chinese women. Douyin, China’s TikTok equivalent, offers a slew of videos featuring young women driving Ferraris, including one clip featuring a driver showcasing her Ferrari F8 test experience.
Eye on trend
Management at Maranello, Italy-based Ferrari has long had its eye on rising sales to female buyers in China. In 2010, then-CEO Amedeo Felisa was cited as saying that the previous year nearly a fifth of the company’s Chinese sales were to women, though shipments in the country at the time were only about one-seventh of the current level.
Consultancy Bain & Co. estimates that Chinese consumers will account for 20 per cent of the global personal luxury goods market this year, rising to 38 per cent by 2030.
Ferrari last year reported global sales of about €5.1 billion (US$5.6 billion) and total shipments of 13,221 units.
- China is now the first country where Ferrari NV sells over a quarter of its new and pre-owned cars to women, which far exceeds the proportion in other countries
- These ladies are typically described as tech industry executives, property entrepreneurs, and the like, in a region accounting for an ‘unusually high’ amount of self-made female billionaires