Why does Ralph Lauren keep opening larger and larger stores?

Interface News reporter | Zhu Yongling

Interface News editor | Lou Yuqin

Recently, Ralph Lauren’s new store at the Chengdu International Finance Square (IFS) officially opened. The store is Ralph Lauren’s first flagship store in mainland China and is also currently its highest-spec store in the region.

One of the well-regarded aspects is that on the day of the opening ceremony, multiple executives from Ralph Lauren’s global and Asia-Pacific teams attended in person, including Patrice Louvet, President and CEO of Ralph Lauren.

Over the past few years, Ralph Lauren has been one of the few brands in the Chinese market that has not been hit by the cooling demand affecting luxury goods. It has posted positive growth for 22 consecutive quarters. As of the latest three quarters through the end of 2025, its year-over-year growth rates have all exceeded 30%. This is mainly attributable to the growing popularity of the “old money” style in the Chinese market in recent years, along with Ralph Lauren’s continued expansion of its store footprint.

However, another factor that cannot be overlooked is that compared with other luxury brands, Ralph Lauren has more mid-tier product lines with lower entry barriers—for example, the Polo series, which is widely known in the Chinese market. It helps Ralph Lauren broaden its customer base among the middle class, but it also carries the risk of blurring the brand’s luxury positioning.

Therefore, while driving revenue growth in the Chinese market, Ralph Lauren also needs to ensure how to consolidate its luxury image.

On one hand, in recent years Ralph Lauren has opened more high-spec stores and increased the proportion of premium product lines within them. In addition to the aforementioned Chengdu IFS flagship store, it also includes the “Ralph Lauren’s House” locations previously opened in several key commercial landmarks in cities such as Beijing Sanlitun.

On the other hand, Ralph Lauren is also strengthening its marketing efforts in the Chinese market to solidify its positioning as a luxury brand. Introducing coffee and bar concepts—Ralph’s Coffee and Ralph’s Bar—into China is one clear example.

From the second half of 2023 to 2024, the luxury goods markets in China and globally began to cool down. In the second half of 2025 there is a trend of recovery, but a clear turning point has yet to appear.

Against this backdrop, non-top-tier luxury brands, as well as brands positioned between traditional luxury brands and “light luxury” brands, have been hit even harder. One of their strategies in recent years has been to move up their price bands to align more closely with luxury positioning, but consumers may not necessarily buy into that willingly.

As for brands like Ralph Lauren with a broad range of price tiers, because even after price increases there are still “value-for-money” products available to choose from, relatively speaking it is more likely to strike a balance between moving up its price band and maintaining its appeal.