Market Research

Geographic Markets

United States

Foreign Markets

  • BRI (Brazil, Russia, India) – Projected to reach combined $205 billion – 20% of the global market, by 2025. (Europe: Branded Consumer Goods: Luxury Goods, Goldman Sachs, June 2, 2010)
  • Double digit growth in internet penetration, especially prominent amongst young & affluent.
  • Luxury import duties motivate affluent customers to shop abroad.
  • As wealth distributes throughout BRIC, it’s becoming more difficult for luxury brands to pursue a brick and mortar strategy. (Luxury brands are going to start pushing digital budgets internationally, which could pave the way for e-commerce spending in countries where online shopping is not yet a norm.)
  • Foreign brands are heavily taxed. Prices are 25 – 80% higher.
  • 35$ of Nasty Gal’s audience is international PandoDaily

Brazil

  • An estimated 8 / 10 luxury goods seen in Brazil were purchased abroad. (Miami has a Hearty Oi for Free-Spending Brazilians, New York Times, December 27, 2011).

China

China currently expected to be largest e-commerce luxury market by 2015. The insanely rich still shop primarily in brick and mortar, but everyone else is particularly focused on e-commerce.

  • China will account for about 20 percent, or $27 billion, of global luxury sales in 2015. McKinsey

Japan

Japan’s resilient luxury market McKinsey

Conclusions

A strong international strategy during the early side of this high growth period could position us for significant consumer loyalty. Since many luxury brands are slow to invest in digital overseas, we can jump ahead and give international shoppers a sense of ownership of our brand.

Early focus should include:

* Site translations based on region (we could take a crowdsourced approach here to cut down on initial cost).

* Region-specific social media (targeted Facebook, etc)

* Adoption of popular social platforms in priority countries (e.g. Sina Weibo in China).

About the author: Entrepreneur with ten years of experience running a digital marketing agency out of New York City. I work with startups and brands such as Virgin Airlines, L2 Inc (Gartner), American Express, Fabletics, LOFT, and more. When I’m not helping companies increase their audience and revenues, I love to travel, sail, and read. I also moonlight as a bartender at a classic cocktail bar.