Our favorite bits from WSJ. magazine's look at the state of luxury retail (featuring our favorite sample sale site, Gilt.com, which is apparently about to launch a new site "focusing on shoppers who spend $75 to $300 per item.") :• "The flight to quality that so many luxury-goods experts confidently predicted at the start of the global meltdown has not materialized."
• "Shoppers now view 70 percent off as a great sale, versus the 40-to-50-percent discounts of the past."
• "Despite the fact that traditional brick-and-mortar retailing is taking a beating, the concept might not be dead--although the idea of paying full price could well be."
• What next for retail? "Designer shopping online, discounted online luxury sample sales and discount designer malls."
• "The (fashion) industry could be forced to become much less trend-driven."
• "Analysts see one irrefutable trend emerging: The notion of luxury has been eroded."
• The story even predicts the emergence of an "Amazon.com of fashion."
Meh, i don't know that I buy these doomsday scenarios. The price/discounting continuum got way out of whack over the last few years. Customers definitely sought and appreciated higher quality at the upper end, but they also had and have a much more sophisticated understanding of the relationship price and quality. In short, it's not enough to charge outrageous sums to connote quality and people asserted this with their spending. This "retraining of the customer idiom" get recycled every year following the big spring/summmer and fall/winter sales. Some folks only buy on discount, but a lot of folks prefer a better and more complete selection and will buy on full retail. That customer is more finicky and clearly has more options, but they will continue to exist. Another category are folks swayed buy a good story like myself. They could both be full of it, but i've really been drawn into the story of Benjamin Bixby and Billy Reid as brands. So much so that i've been willing to pay full price for their stuff. That said i was glad to see them both appear on Gilt. A word as well on online as the future. In a word, no. Had i not already owned these brands, i wouldn't have taken the gamble on fit given Gilt and many similar site onerous return policies. Fundamentally, folks like to feel fabrics and see color with their own eyes which means there is no legitimate replacement for B&M stores. You will see some contraction at every end of the market as much of the US is simply overretailed. You'll also see more of the J. Crew approach of simply making less product, which will piss some off as they're now selling through a lot of stuff before it hits markdown, but i'm sure they're willing to forsake of few discount only customers for the ole' bottom line.
ReplyDeleteDiscount designer malls? Those are called outlets. There are already so many of them that they are loaded up with fake garbage, since, believe it or not, designers make stuff which they sell at somewhere around the price point they want. They aren't actually interested in manufacturing vast amounts to be sold at 80% off.
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