Altagamma announce their luxury retail insight 2024 report with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Very Important Clients are driving the growth of luxury: impeccable quality and service, exclusivity, and personalization.
The tenth edition of the Altagamma Consumer and Retail Insight Report event took place at the Fondazione Cariplo Conference Center in Milan, where attendees were offered a qualitative analysis of luxury consumers and new trends in retail.
Growth in the high-end segment is being driven by the top bracket of consumers – Very Important Clients – who are becoming the focal point for brands, accounting for 30% of their revenue on average and acting as their Brand Ambassadors.
To win these clients over, brands need to identify them, get the fundamentals of their products and services right (exclusivity, top quality, experience), and master the essentials of the client relationship: hyper-personalization, careful management of wait times for unique products, availability of high-level Client Advisors, and a sense of community.
The top of the pyramid has an even more significant impact on consumption: Beyond Luxury consumers, with an annual personal spend of more than €50,000, represent less than 1% of the total number of luxury clients. In terms of spending, however, they account for 21% – more than 200 times the average consumer. Their importance has doubled compared with 10 years ago.
Also growing in importance are Client Advisors, who form strong bonds with Beyond Luxury consumers – sometimes closer relationships than with the brands themselves. These are increasingly central and highly professional individuals whom companies must therefore attract, train, and retain.
On the retail side, luxury is constantly escalating, with increasingly spacious, unique, and distinctive stores. Brands are rushing to purchase real estate on the key luxury shopping streets of Milan, Paris, London, and New York.
