Today’s post is all about milestones! First, for all of you Stones fans out there —mark down December 13th and 15th in Newark NJ to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary. I know I will be there. Will you?
For a business milestone, it was great to see that the luxury sector continues to grow at 10+% per year. As a big proponent of incorporating a luxury strategy into one’s store or practice, I was pleased to see a WWD article this morning that validates a lot of what I have been speaking about in my continuing education series – The Luxury Market: How to Stand Out From the Crowd.
The study, conducted by Bain & Company in cooperation with Fondazione Altagamma, Italy’s luxury goods association, found that the global luxury market is up 10 percent compared to last year with projected future growth of 13%. It is also expected to continue to grow and is on track to easily outpace the rest of the market. Admittedly, this is related in part to China’s continuing consumption of luxury goods. [Side note: one of our newest brand partners, Ivanka Trump, recently launched a fine jewelry store in China and clearly understands the country’s importance, as she noted in her interview with the Wall Street Journal.]
However, not to be dismissed is the insatiable domestic demand for luxury accessories. According to the study, accessories, including eyewear, have become the core category in personal luxury goods.
It is important to recognize this fact when building an assortment for your store/practice. To reiterate a previous post, aside from its proven growth in the marketplace, luxury product also offers a variety of benefits including higher margins, higher price points for greater sales volume and the opportunity to stand out from the competition.
It is refreshing in today’s world to see any good economic news come out so I hope you will take a moment to be optimistic and also consider the importance of a luxury strategy and why it is an essential component of any assortment.
Do you agree? Have you recently implemented a new product assortment and seen positive results (or negative)?
