Wealthy Chinese cut back on luxury goods
Postcard and calendar sales also decreased sharply this year. Instead, an increasing number of people started sending their Spring Festival greetings online and through their phones.
Though China's current anti-extravagance drive is hitting luxury sales hard, the market is still huge, especially with smart and increasingly fashion-savvy consumers.
This year's Spring Festival holiday, which ended yesterday, was celebrated less luxuriously and with fewer fireworks following national calls to fight smog and extravagance.
There can be no doubt that the luxury market in China has been experiencing a tough winter, nor that the government's anti-corruption and frugality campaign has been a major factor in this, nor that it will continue to be a drag on the market's growth in 2014.
Chinese people spent $6.9 billion overseas on luxury goods during the Spring Festival holiday(Jan 31 - Feb 6), a drop of 18.8 percent from last year, according to World Luxury Association.
It's the largest consumer market in the world and potentially the largest market for luxury goods.
