Despite France’s venerable position in the global luxury scene, the French luxury market has not escaped the country’s poor macroeconomic environment
CONSUMERS
5 Must-Know Insights Into The French Luxury Market
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Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
Despite France’s venerable position in the global luxury scene, the French luxury market has not escaped the country’s poor macroeconomic environment
According to Euromonitor International’s latest research, luxury sales in France reached just under €18 billion in 2014, making it the third biggest market in the world, behind the US and Japan, but, with a regional value share of 21%, France comes out top, ahead of neighbouring Italy and the UK.
Much in line with comparable global figures, designer clothing and footwear accounts for the lion’s share of luxury value sales in France, at 46% in 2014.
However, its growth is dwarfed by that of the second largest category, luxury accessories, which grew by 43% in value in the five years to 2014, making it the most dynamic category overall.
Here we share five key insights into the current state of the French luxury goods market…
“ Domestic consumers are driving growth at the more accessible end of the market ”
Economic Stagnation Creates Headwinds for the Luxury Market
Economic stagnation in France is acting as a drag on luxury industry growth, with domestic demand remaining weak. Against this challenging backdrop, price polarisation has become salient. While high tourist inflows have kept the luxury market afloat, domestic consumers are driving growth at the more accessible end of the market, with affordable luxury brands gaining ground.
Older age dominate domestic luxury spending
Home to an established consumer market that is synonymous with luxury spending, France has an extensive high-income population. However, luxury brands need to be mindful of the fact that, of France’s total population in receipt of an annual gross income of US$150,000+, the over 65-year-old cohort accounted for a 21% share in 2013, with the 50-54-year-old and 55-59-year-old age bands accounting for 17% and 18%, respectively
Tourist inflows also heavily support luxury sales
France’s rich fashion heritage and the “Made in France” label has enabled it to maintain its position as a prime tourist magnet. The influx of tourists has become a boon for the French luxury market. It is no surprise that Paris, as one of the leading tourist destinations in the world, is where tourists are drawn to: In 2013, the city received 33 million tourists, including 18.6 million international tourists.
France is the favoured European destination for Chinese Tourists
France is by far the most popular European destination for Chinese tourists, with departures to France from China totalling 433,000 in 2013. Additionally, expenditure by Chinese tourists in France is set to reach US$1.0 billion by 2018, up from US$838 million in 2013.
French Appetite for Luxury is on a Crescendo
France’s appetite for luxury will continue to rise, buoyed mainly by wealthy tourism inflows. According to our latest research, we expect luxury sales in France to reach €19.0 billion by 2019, adding an additional real €1.2 billion to the market in the next five years.
To learn more about the French Luxury market, join Luxury Society & Euromonitor International on Thursday 6th November in Paris to at Le Pre Catalan. Full details here.
Fflur Roberts, Head of Luxury Goods Research at Euromonitor International, will deliver the opening keynote: The Business of Luxury in France.
Head of Global Luxury Goods Research, Euromonitor
Fflur Roberts manages the research programme for the global luxury goods industry at Euromonitor International, which she joined in June 2000. In her current post, Fflur Roberts has direct responsibility for the content and quality of Euromonitor’s luxury goods research, which provides strategic analysis of the global market and in-depth coverage of the industry in 32 countries worldwide. With Fflur at the helm of Euromonitor’s luxury goods research the company was awarded Luxury Researcher of the Year 2016 by global media company Luxury Daily and in 2017 was on the Luxury Women to Watch list. Fflur has written extensively in the field of business and luxury and in her time at Euromonitor has authored numerous global strategic reports and is often referenced in the international press on the luxury business and has addressed luxury leaders at many leading global luxury conferences around the world. Presently Fflur is co-editing a chapter on the USA and European luxury market for The Oxford Handbook of Luxury Business (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
