China's luxury binge
LiveMint.com 10/28/2009
Shoppers in Asia, especially China, have kept the global luxury brands market alive, according to a study by Bain and Company. The luxury sector will not fully recover before 2011, when it is expected to grow by 4.2%, said Bain's Claudia D'Arpizio. "Growth will be timid in 2010 but it's showing movement in the right direction," she said.
Go to LiveMint.com 

Retailers provide remedies to assuage shoppers' guilt -- stores rethink tactics, seeing shame over splurging as a barrier to recovery
The Wall Street Journal Europe 10/23/2009
by Christina Passariello
Guilt has always been part of the shopping experience. But retail executives say it has become such an overriding emotion among shoppers since the economic crisis set in last year that it is delaying the recovery of the luxury-goods industry. Shoppers are suffering from "luxury shame," consulting group Bain & Company said in a research report this week.
Go to The Wall Street Journal Europe 

Fighting back against shoppers' guilt; retailers rethink tactics, seeing shame over splurging as a barrier to recovery
The Wall Street Journal 10/22/2009
by Christina Passariello
Guilt has always been part of the shopping experience. But retail executives say it has become such an overriding emotion among shoppers since the economic crisis set in last year that it is delaying the recovery of the luxury-goods industry. Shoppers are suffering from "luxury shame," consulting group Bain & Company said in a research report earlier this week, forcing some luxury brands to design new marketing strategies that they hope will push away the guilt and reboot consumers' desire to spend.
Go to The Wall Street Journal 

Business browser
Edmonton Journal 10/22/2009
American Express Co., the biggest U.S. credit-card issuer by purchases, may post its highest profit in a year amid declining defaults and signs that wealthy consumers boosted spending in the third quarter. Affluent U.S. customers, a market AmEx dominates, drove a 29-per-cent surge in purchases of luxury goods and services in the third quarter. A Bain & Company study presented Monday at a conference in Milan showed sales of luxury products may climb next year for the first time since 2007.
Go to Edmonton Journal 

US: Luxury shoppers in Asia and online set to lift sector
Just-Style 10/21/2009
The eighth edition of the annual 'Luxury Goods Worldwide Market' study from consultancy Bain & Company notes that the decline for the worldwide luxury goods industry is set to be less than expected this year, with an 8% drop to EUR153bn now forecast worldwide. Strong demand for luxury goods from shoppers in China and online will help return the sector to growth next year although it cautions that a full recovery is not likely for another two years. "Luxury goods markets are stabilising," said Claudia D'Arpizio, a Milan-based Bain & Company partner and global luxury goods industry expert.
Go to Just-Style