Luxury Shopping Index Declines

Stevens, Pa., Luxury consumers’ confidence in the economy took a hit in the third quarter.  After rising to 102.7 in the second quarter, the Luxury Consumption Index declined to 96.0, down 6.7 points, according to Unity Marketing’s latest tracking study of the luxury market.

The Luxury Consumption Index measures the luxury consumers’ feelings and attitudes about their financial well-being.  The majority of luxury consumers (53%) felt their financial position was the same and no better than during the previous three months.  Further, nearly 40% said the country as a whole was less well off in the third quarter.  

“The market for luxury goods and services is driven by consumers’ feelings, certainly not needs,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of the new book Let Them Eat Cake:  Marketing Luxury to the Masses — as well as the Classes.  “Luxury consumers (average income $136.5k) with their surfeit of material wealth have no pressing need to go shopping when things don’t look promising.  Luxury consumers are in a unique position to wait it out when times are tough and that is just what they did in the third quarter.”