Are luxury brands not affected by slowdown ?

there is no doubt, the saks outlet discounted at 70% last year 920080 to get rid of its piled up inventory socks , it set off a storm in the world of high end ready to wear fashion wtih many fashion designers going up in arms and vowing to boycott Saks ... it was a huge change in the way luxury brands are discounetd and sold...its here to stay for a while.

while the rich still have the money, they dont want to appear foolish or reckless by spending it like water they get more discreet and careful about when and how they spend their money...so the recesiion does effect everyone though in very different ways.

Forecast global decline of 10% this year comes as shoppers switch to lower-priced items.

Kindly see the below weblink to see further.

http://consultingnetwork.co.in/luxury-goods-sales-seen-falling/639/

No they certainly wont. End even if a minority few is brave enough to do it, they will certainly not be flaunting it. No wonder that luxury brands like, H&M, Debbenhams and Zaks Fifth avenue are on major sales in the GCC where they were doing rollicking business.

Its actually a mindset that is at work. A mindset that makes you feel guilty even if you are able to afford it that makes the recession more uglier. So it takes a lot of courage to overcome that mindset and go ahead and splurge.

Havent we seen a simple needy thing like automobiles - both luxury and basic models stagnating. Photos of miles of cars parked at the harbour in UK and EU countries have already done the rounds on the net.

No sir, in a recession its the luxury brands that will suffer first and in turn those customers will turn to cheaper brands. I work in an organisation that handles both luxury as well as value brand in the fashion sector. And today we are seeing sales on the latter pciking up due to a migration of customers who were loyal to luxury brands

I feel that(only a gut feel, I dont have document support to prove) the luxury segment buying is mainly divided into two. 1) Buying done by the wealth creators(self employed, HNI's & hugely succesful business men etc) and 2) the luxury buying done by large corporates which to be distributed as incentives, profit sharing, part of annual packages, deal opening or making goodies between their shareholders, customers/clients, employees, suppliers etc.

Out of these profit sharing/incentive/package part related buying would be hugely reduced, whereas purchases done by the former category would remain almost the same. The percentage of sales between these two categories if analysed, should lead to the accurate answer to this interesting query.