What to Watch: Bifurcation in Consumer Shopping Habits Will retail’s great divide continue as inflation persists? While cash-strapped consumers continue to evaluate nonessential purchases, affluent and wealthy shoppers are operating on a whole different wavelength. One has to just take a look at the luxury sector for evidence. Sales at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — parent company of the likes of Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy and Tiffany & Co., among others — soared 19 percent to 19.76 billion euros last quarter. German luxury e-commerce site Mytheresa had double-digit growth in its fourth quarter. While Farfetch lost money in its most recent quarter after pulling out of Russia and because of ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in China, the luxury e-tailer’s top-line revenues grew more than 14 percent, year-over-year. “Luxury is a very resilient industry. It will continue to be resilient, more than any other industry, certainly in fashion,” José Neves, Farfetch’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer, told WWD last year. “People are not going from Hermès to H&M. You’re not going to go to a dinner party, or a wedding, or a social event with last season’s dresses if you love fashion, if you’re into this part of culture. “And for the high-net-worth family, these are not big-ticket items,” he continued. “That’s not where they cut their spending from.” On the other side of the spectrum, budget-conscious shoppers are pulling back on discretionary items. In other cases, consumers are spending any extra money they have on experiences over tangible products. But will this trend persist into the new year as inflation shows no signs of slowing down and fears of a recession continue to loom? The effects of this split are clearly visible at a company like Urban Outfitters Inc., which counts Urban Outfitters, the Anthropologie Group, Free People, Terrain and Bhldn among its brands. While the slightly pricier Anthropologie and Free People brands continued to make gains (even as consumer prices rise), sales at the nameplate brand fell 9 percent during the pre-holiday season. (ICE NEW YORK)

Fonte notizia: wwd.com