Luxuries Downsized

Ellen C. Wells

The folks at Unity Marketing—a group whose specialty is analyzing and reporting on the luxury market—feel there may be a downward blip coming in regard to sales of high-end products and services. Their reading of the market comes from Bloomberg reports on weak sales over the past year from luxury brands such as Tiffany and Ralph Lauren. The drop in sales is result of a 20% drop in luxury retail traffic, numbers reported by The Luxury Report. The drop is in both Americans and visitors from abroad, who’d been coming Stateside for many years to get in on the Great Recession deals.

Unity Marketing’s Pam Danziger says the Luxury Consumption Index dropped several points this past quarter, which she sees as a sign of affluent consumers’ “cautious attitude” toward the future.

While we might not sell jewelry, designer handbags and such, we do sell items most folks consider non-essential indulgences, items that can wait until the wallet is a little fatter. Big landscaping plans, large tropicals and green wall installations are all examples of projects affluent consumers might put on hold. But Unity points out that, according to a Bloomberg report, “the lipstick effect” is definitely in full force. That’s when folks put aside large expenditures—like high-end handbags—and treat themselves to a special lipstick.

Or in our industry’s case, a special plant, maybe one or two or a dozen of those fun air plants, orchids or hanging terrariums. Being affordable, fun and a living thing, I’d categorize plenty of our products as luxury indulgences. It’ll be interesting to see, if the luxury market is indeed down, what the rebounding items in tropicals and succulents might be. GP