Despite some general hand wringing over the consumer, Saks is expecting the luxury shopper to show up this holiday season — although many plan to get a later start to their shopping.
The latest quarterly reading of the Saks Luxury Pulse, a survey of 2,231 high-end U.S. consumers fielded Oct. 12 to 16, found that 75 percent of luxe shoppers plan to spend the same more on their holiday shopping this year. That is roughly on par with shopper intent heading into the holidays last year.
But only a portion of spending by higher-income consumers is going toward luxe goods.
Saks found that 57 percent of luxury consumers “plan to spend the same or more on luxury in the next three months,” a reading that is relatively flat with the prior survey, fielded in July. And those with an income of $200,000 or more, logged a 4 percentage point decline in their plans to spend the same or more on luxury, compared with the previous survey.
Saks also found a 10 percentage point increase over last year in the portion of shoppers who are planning to wait until after Thanksgiving to start spending on the holidays. And 64 percent of shoppers plan to do most of their shopping online, an increase of 15 percentage points from a year ago.
While many will be shopping digitally, they plan on living it up IRL. Eighty-three percent of respondents are planning on attending parties this year and 84 percent planning to dress up.
“Amid a challenging economic environment, we’re pleased to see that the luxury consumer is ready to shop and celebrate this holiday season,” said Marc Metrick, chief executive officer of Saks, in a statement. “Yet, we continue to take a more measured approach to our outlook on this holiday season, and the results reinforce our view that the luxury consumer is resilient. At Saks, we benefit when luxury consumers go out to parties and events, especially as they’ve indicated that they plan to buy luxury fashion for these occasions.”
Luxury consumers plan to devote 46 percent of their luxury holiday spending to themselves, a trend that Millennials are more likely to embrace, with plans to spend equally on themselves and others.
Despite economic concerns, Saks found that 64 percent of those surveyed still feel optimistic about their own finances.
In an interview, Emily Essner, Saks’ chief marketing officer, said shoppers have also become slightly more willing to pay full price, with a 2 percentage point gain since the last survey.
This is always a welcome change for merchants.
“A general focus on value has really been there for the last probably three, four pulses,” Essner said. “And so this was a time where we saw more willingness to pay full price.
“We think this is happening because of holiday,” she said, adding that “consumers are getting the right gift for their loved ones, their friends and family and not wanting to have to necessarily make compromises there.”
Luxury consumers have also cut back on travel some, with 69 percent of respondents saying they are planning to or have already booked a trip for the near future, a 5 percentage point decline from a year ago.
Despite a variety of concerns — from the economy to the geopolitical fallout from multiple wars — the industry just might be falling back into a more familiar rhythm.
“It feels like there is a theme where this is the first truly post pandemic [holiday season],” Essner said. “We are out of both the pandemic and then the reverberations from the pandemic. We’re seeing a reversion to typical shopping patterns vis-à-vis timing around Thanksgiving. We’re seeing probably a normalization of expectations on travel. We’re seeing a high rate of events [including parties].
“We’re seeing an increase, actually a pretty marked increase in consumers who are planning to spend mostly or exclusively online for their holiday shopping,” she said. “That might be something that stays with us. Again, obviously something that was happening before the pandemic.”
