Wang Jing was all smiles as she strolled out of a Cartier boutique in Singapore after blowing close to 5,000 US dollars on a watch and a ring.

“It’s something I have always wanted, and besides, the economy isn’t looking too bad at the moment,” the Chinese tourist in her early 30s, in Singapore for a four-day spree, said.

“There’s no reason for me to hold back,” she said with a laugh that is music to the ears of the global luxury goods industry.

From diamonds to designer tea, high-end retailers battered by financial turmoil in the United States, Europe and Japan are now looking to China, India and other developing Asian nations for salvation.

China has replaced the US to become the world’s second largest luxury goods consumer, only second to Japan, according to a report by World Luxury Association.

The report also said Chinese people consume about 27.5 percent of the world’s luxury products.

Luxury goods consumers in China are mainly aged between 20 and 40 with a good education.

Despite the economic crisis, 2009 ended better than it began for the French luxury goods sector, thanks largely to China’s growing taste for high-end products, encouraging thoughts of a better 2010.

Following the trend set by other global luxury brands, Hermes and LVMH announced fourth quarter sales growth on Thursday and Friday, suggesting the worst of the crisis could be over for the sector.

After announcing that annual profits fell 13 percent to 1.7 billion euros (2.3 billion dollars), LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault said he was pleased with “record” sales figures for December, which he said would “grow in January”.

Global sales of luxury goods will likely fall again in 2010 but return to growth in 2011, an industry expert said on Monday.

“The worst thing that can happen is that we have another year of negative growth in 2010 … But I see it picking up definitely by 2011,” said Scilla Huang Sun, who runs a $30 million luxury fund for Julius Baer.

Speaking at the Reuters Global Luxury Summit, she forecast global sales of luxury goods would fall 5 percent to 10 percent this year but said suggestions the economic crisis meant the death of the luxury market were way off the mark.

Luxury brands make sure they look after their customers, at least in the high street. Online, it is another story.

A recent article in the Financial Times shows that some of the smartest names in retailing struggle to work out how to use the web to interact with their clientele.

On the whole, luxury brands have neglected the potential of the Internet.

Many luxury brands still prove poor at offering personalised custom service online, a keystone of what makes their brand high-end instores.

Are these brands underestimating how new technology and social networking tools can help build personal relationships and loyalty between visitors and the brand across global markets?

The Daily (Australia) has reported that an Australian jeweler recently unveiled what he says are the world’s most expensive champagne glasses, valued at $400,000 and blinged out with 1700 white and pink diamonds.

Designer John Calleija said five jewellers spent more than three months finishing the two glasses, which were chiselled from huit kilogram blocks of crystal.

Each glass stands 15cm tall, weighs 250g, and together encrusted with 15 carats of white diamonds and six carats of rare argyle pink diamonds. They are finished with platinum 18 carat white and rose gold.

Mr Calleija said he was experimenting with his designs when he came up with the idea, but it just as easily could have been a pair of diamond-encrusted chopsticks.