The rush among luxury brands to tap into the growing Chinese market included well-known names such as Gucci, which had 39 stores up from 6 in 2005, and Louis Vuitton, with 39 stores in 29 cities.
Luxury goods were booming in China, while many markets were flat or shrinking and interest was moving beyond handbags, jewellery and fashion, with a growing number of Chinese luxury consumers spending money on spas "and other wellness activities", McKinsey said.
Asia accounts for about 32 per cent of sales at Comvita - well known for its honey-based products - which included mainland China and Hong Kong.
"They are becoming more discerning and they see past flashy brands and they're actually looking for real substance and real quality," Hewlett said.
"Of course they're still concerned by their external image to their friends and colleagues but because they've got genuine wealth now, and genuine steady income, they are looking to say, 'Well what's good for me?'," he said.
And according to McKinsey Chinese consumers increasingly want to buy the real thing, with 12 per cent saying they would buy fake jewellery, down from 31 per cent in 2008.
Rapid urbanisation and growing wealth beyond China's largest cities was creating a number of markets with sizeable pools of luxury consumers, McKinsey said.
However, big issues to tackle before making a move in China included delivering exceptional service in stores, the need for increasingly sophisticated web strategies and the allure for sharing in a brand's cultural heritage.
Comvita's Hewlett said all brands wanted to be in China.
"It's become a very crowded market, it's a consumer market, there's a lot of brands there, so it certainly isn't easy," he said.
"So you have to stand out, you've got to have a point of difference so we've strived to do that by having our own retail presence there ... stand away from others."
The company, which had $82 million revenue in the year ended March 31, owned retail outlets in Hong Kong and worked with an agent in mainland China which had Comvita-branded retail stores.
"In all of the markets that we are in we've always appointed a local person to run the show," Hewlett said. "I think we've got to be careful not to be the foreigners that think we know everything."
Charlotte Read, Villa Maria Estate Asia and Middle East market manager, said China was the fastest growing wine market in the world and the Chinese customer was rapidly learning about wine.
"Once upon a time wine was just a luxury product but now with communication really improving, especially on the internet, we're seeing the customer base is widening," Read said.
Villa Maria had rapid growth targets for the China market, she said.
They want to embody the habits of the West and wine consumption has always been, I guess, a symbol of a sophisticated lifestyle."
Chinese luxury shoppers
20 per cent
global share in 2015, up from less than 1 per cent in 1998.
180b yuan
(NZ$36b), value in 2015, up from 5b in 1998.
76m
households with income of Y100,000-200,000 by 2015.
73 per cent
of luxury consumers are less than 45 years old.
36
cities will account for 76 per cent of Chinese luxury market by 2015.
Source: McKinsey & Company
