• Mood: contemplative

Yen, Yuan, USD, Euro and the Impact on Purchase Trends?

Over the past 6 months or so, the US dollar to yen exchange has changed drastically, with the yen being significantly weaker than the dollar. At the same time, the US dollar to Chinese Yuan exchange rate has remained relatively constant. Even the Euro to Yen exchange has been good up until about last week. Which brings me to this: how has this impacted your buying habits? Over a year ago, I have to say I was much more likely to buy a random dress or blouse on taobao because the prices were pretty good. But with the huge fluctuation in exchange rate, and the decline in popularity of Angelic Pretty, I've found a lot of things I really wanted second hand on auction for prices that beat the taobao prices. Which has resulted in me buying a lot more from mbok and Y!J than I would have if the rates were worse (not just more items, but spending more in general). And I haven't felt a need to really buy blouses or whatever from taobao because I can get a cheap brand blouse so easily.

If the exchange rate continues to be in the favor of USD to this degree (or even goes more in the favor of USD), do you think it will impact sales of taobao items?

A lot of taobao brands have been really stepping up their game, and a few prints have been fairly popular lately, If this continues, do you think we might start to see more taobao items priced higher than the average secondhand brand item? Do you think this would cause a shift in their customer base?





(Currency trends from Yahoo Finance; I'm not in the finance field and am far from an export, so please correct me if I've made any errors here)
USD/Yen: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=USDJPY%3DX+Interactive#
USD/Yuan: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=USDCNY%3DX+Interactive#
Euro/Yen: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=EURJPY%3DX+Interactive#