Tanking share prices, excess stock flooding outlets, a slowdown in once-reliable China: 2024 has been a tough year for luxury brands. Gucci has become a fixture of discount racks, while Burberry’s stock is at its lowest point in years.
But where there are losers, there are also winners, and when consumers don’t go high, they go low — or at least lower.
“Overall, especially at the aspirational level, some customers just can’t afford to spend the way they have been the last few years due to the inflationary pressures on housing and groceries,” Claire Tassin, a retail and e-commerce analyst at Morning Consult, told Business Insider.
Aspirational consumers who used their extra pandemic cash to splurge four figures on handbags or branded jewelry are now being squeezed by prices spiraling upward. It’s those middle-income shoppers whose consumer confidence has suffered the most and who are turning to more practical, cost-effective options, Tassin said.
To find relief from high luxury prices, …