luxury retailers

The Rich Will Rescue Christmas

Filed under: Apparel

It looks like luxury retail is getting ready for a comeback. Shoppers in enviable tax brackets are doing a better job of prying their wallets open, at least if you can believe their stock prices. Tiffany, Saks and Nordstrom all showed signs of progress heading into Black Friday, meaning that investors were willing to bet on the wealthy.

Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak, explained to USA Today, "We're resting our (upbeat outlook) on the upper-income consumer, who seems to be holding up pretty well." This group, he continued, "is where the vast majority of spending in this country is done."

Research firm Penn Schoen Berland weighed in with agreement: "Well-to-do Americans are feeling much less of a crunch." Households with incomes of greater than $70,000 a year, the firm found, planned to amp up their holiday spending by 27 percent this year. Those with incomes below $40,000 are cutting their holiday joy by 14 percent.

While the bargain hunters turn to the discount retailers, which are expected to do well this year, look for the higher-income consumers to spend more at places like Williams-Sonoma and other mid-range to upscale retail establishments.

So, with deeper pockets starting to open this year, it looks like the wealthy will turn last year's holiday bust around. A good holiday season for Saks shows that those with the bucks are starting to open up, and recoveries start at the top.

Source

Tags: luxury retail, luxury retailers, LuxuryRetail, LuxuryRetailers, nordstrom, Nordstroms, recession, RecessionAntidote, recovery, retail, retail sales, retailers, RetailSales, saks, Saks Fifth Avenue, SaksFifthAvenue, tiffany, TiffanyAndCo, tiffanys

Luxury Retailers Expanding Rapidly in the Middle East

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

We've done lots of talking lately about luxury brands in Russia and China but the Middle East is rapidly turning into one of the shopping capitals of the world and WWD has a comprehensive report on how the luxury market is changing in the Middle East. With oil up over $100 a barrel, money is pouring into these countries with large oil reserves. In the past, luxury retailers generally encountered Middle Eastern shoppers spending abroad in cities like Paris or London. Now, not only are the people in the Middle East more interested in spending more at home, the new cosmopolitan condo complexes and hotels are drawing tourists from around the world.

Dubai has already become one of the places that tourists flock to for the shopping. The past few years have brought incredible growth to the area with so much construction underway that it is currently as much a city of cranes as anything else. Recent data indicates that over half the tourists coming to Dubai are coming from Russia, leading Fendi to stock their store their with fur coats for Russian shoppers. Luxury retailers are finding that that they are needing to add multiple stores in places like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar to attract tourists who are drawn by new lavish hotels and need a place to stay.

For luxury retailers there are some unique challenges to having stores in the Middle East. Because many Arab women wear black abayas, jewelry, shoes and handbags are particularly important categories. Some designers also offer longer styles that are more body covering and done in lighter fabrics to be more comfortable in scorching desert heat. Jil Sander is working on a version of the abaya and Tom Ford is on the case to create local robe-like dishdasha outfits for men.

The picture above is of a Dubai mall during the Christmas season. It looks like even though Christmas is not an official holiday in the region, retailers still want to encourage holiday shopping. As stores learn to adapt to the specific needs of the Middle East, retailers also seem to be importing a few Western traditions.

Source

Tags: dubai, expire-images:2009-1-2, luxury retailers, middle east, MiddleEast, shopping