A Note About Luxury Goods & Fashionable Lifestyles

Illustration of a high-net-worth family vacationing on a mountain lake.

Over the years, assignments at various Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton properties, the ill-fated Isla Moda in Dubai’s World Islands, and other luxury resorts have provided unique insights into the luxury sector. These projects involved developing strategies for retail, dining, and guest experiences. To be candid, my pursuit of this business has been driven more by the quality of the work environment and access to knowledge than by immediate economic gain.

The most obvious takeaway: ultra-high net worth spenders give resorts their most precious commodity – time.

I’m creating a pre-design strategy for a new luxury resort to be developed around community, a uniquely American culture, and wellness.  The goal is to establish a portal into a world of unique experiences that money alone cannot buy and conversely establish a reverse portal into the lives of our guests that extends beyond the resort.

Over the years to understand the luxury consumer, I have encouraged clients to geofenced multiple properties, standalone luxury brands, and 5-star resorts to collect consumer location data (through mobile analytics) down to a ZIP+4 level (about 8 homes - birds of a feather flock together) and then conduct detailed demographic and consumer segmentation studies.

Broadly speaking at one end of the spectrum is an Aspirational Shopper who spends $3,000 to $10,000 per year on luxury goods, which is often a highly disproportionate share of annual income than one would anticipate. At the other end are the Ultra High Net Worth Shoppers who spend more than $70,000 a year on luxury. On the surface the findings are often predictable but a deeper dive in a search for commonalities among disconnected consumer segments can be a revelation. It is important to keep in mind that there is a stark difference between people with a high net worth and people who have a high net worth and shop luxury.

One of my three children is a director at a major brand in Paris (and she absolutely shares nothing with me on the business) pointed my inquiring mind to the Business of Fashion. Anyone working in the sectors of fashionable homes, lifestyles, resorts, and shopping centers should follow this remarkable source of research, strategy, and trend analysis.

Business of Fashion recently published a report in partnership with McKinsey & Co on Luxury Fashion.  It’s filled with direct implications for shopping centers, high streets, resorts, health & wellness, branding, and anything selling at a premium for its intrinsic value.  To this point, the report noted that Ultra-high spenders make up less than 5% of the luxury client base, account for 30 to 40% of the luxury market’s spending, and will drive 65% to 80% of luxury’s growth through 2027.

Think about that and how it impacts everything we are doing in our respective professions.

I highly recommend that you visit https://www.businessoffashion.com/