Luxury brand (thematic reading) recently invariably have some new moves: Chanel opened a shoe store in Hawaii; the Milan GUCCI store shoes to the entrance of the most prominent position display; Bottega Veneta put 250 of the world's footwear stores placed in the number increased by 1/5, and in many stores opened for the first time the shoe.
Everyone seems to be bullish on footwear business. For example, the CEO Michele Norsa in Ferragamo before accepting the "Wall Street journal" interview, said, the market difficult time can bring strong sales of footwear, even in times of economic crisis, shoes also tend to sell better.
For the luxury market, this moment seems to have arrived.
After years of growth, the market has entered a downturn. In 2015, luxury sales growth rate is 12%, but this year in multiple factors (market slowdown, China under European terrorist attack led to decline in the number of visitors, etc.) according to Bain, the market will be the first recession since 2009 (1%).
However, the industry has not found a light point; — — footwear has been good for the past few years; growth is faster than any product. During the 2013-2015 year period, the growth rate of the whole market was 15%, among which footwear sales increased by 23%, while other leather goods grew by 19%.
For some brands, footwear sales is one of the few can let them relax: the bag as a sales engine before Prada, until last year sales of leather goods decreased by 2.3%, but the footwear sales increased 20%; Bottega Veneta overall sales in the first half of this year fell 9%, footwear continued two digit growth.
But what we're trying to say is, if you look at these figures alone, it's a bit too naive to see footwear as a powerful arm to pull the luxury industry out of the mire.
First, in the luxury industry, footwear is a very small market; — — only 6% of the luxury market. This means that it can sell well may also lift up too much water, it is difficult to reverse the trend of the industry; and according to the forecast of investment consultancy Bernstein, within the next five years the annual growth rate of footwear will decline to 5%— — if it is past growth of 23% to go away, the number 5% means that its potential is not enough, not to mention to lead the industry forward.
According to "the Wall Street journal" reported that the price of the footwear sales as one of the causes of — — over the past ten years the price of shoes in the luxury category belongs to the lowest one, probably just over 5%, which makes it in the eyes of consumers into the price higher than the entry of — — this means and when people say “ because of price factors to choose a shoe ” when they are essentially in that other luxury goods are too expensive, so the shoes look can afford.
This is related to changes in global luxury consumers. The middle class is becoming the mainstay of luxury spending, a price sensitive group that will consider cost effective when luxury goods market rises. As a result, entry-level luxury goods are the fastest growing category, accounting for 40% of all luxury purchases.
In addition to admit that, in 2016, such as Gucci and Celine have good style, but the sound of the entire market still belongs to a large number of niche designer brands, such as Maryam Nassir. Luxury footwear business will face increasing competition in the future.
In fact, for luxury brands, the most profitable is still handbags, including accessories, especially handbags, it has a decisive position in the luxury goods market. Accessories sales accounted for 30% of the total this year, which means that the brand's income is still largely dependent on it.
Almost predictably, footwear will not be the future of the luxury market. It looks as if everyone is so enthusiastic that they still carry “ in short, do something about &rdquo first.
