Personal luxury market snaps back to pre-pandemic levels

MILAN — The personal luxury market of high-end accessories, leather goods and apparel has snapped back to pre-pandemic levels as U.S. shoppers outspent those in China in pursuit of the latest fashion trends, according to a study released Thursday.

Global consumer spending on personal luxury goods, including the latest sneaker trend or design collaboration, is forecast to spike by 29% this year, to $325 billion. That’s a return to 2019 levels and a turnaround from the gloom of the 2020 pandemic lockdowns that shuttered stores and halted international travel.

“We are pretty positive, even if the growth rate in particular in China has been slowing down since mid-August. But they are still very strong,” said Claudia D’Arpizio, the Bain partner who headed up the study. “There has been a sharp V-shaped recovery for personal goods.”

The larger global luxury market, which extends to high-end travel, dining, fine art and furnishings, continues to lag 2019 levels, Bain said.

Consumers have shifted spending to high-quality furnishings, as many have been spending time at home instead of globe-trotting. Travel restrictions have been especially hard on luxury hotels, fine dining and cruises, all sectors that have yet to fully recover.

Global luxury comprehensively is expected to reach $1.26 trillion this year, which is about 10% below 2019 levels. The hardest-hit sector is luxury cruises, with spending down 80% from pre-pandemic levels and reduced even from 2020.

With international tourism still hampered, consumers have started picking up their new fashion trends at home, instead of fueling duty-free sales abroad.

Bain forecasts that tourism will rebound by the end of next year to mid-2023, but D’Arpizio said she expects the pandemic will have established new habits, with luxury shoppers doing a lot of spending at home, not necessarily abroad.

“We expect tourists to come back. We don’t expect them to be as relevant as before,” she said.

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3c1MYNU