Deloitte: Luxury brands must navigate technology and consumer forces to remain competitive

Global luxury brands should take advantage of evolving technological and consumer demands to help boost profits and remain competitive, according to the 2nd annual Global Powers of Luxury Goods report issued by Deloitte.

The report provides an outlook on the global economy; an analysis of merger and acquisition activity in the luxury sector; and a forward look on the changing nature of the luxury consumer – notably through the impact of technology. The world’s 100 largest luxury goods companies generated sales of $214.2 billion through the end of the last fiscal year (fiscal years ended through June 2014) despite currency headwinds and intense technological disruption. 

Herve Ballantyne, partner, and consumer business leader at Deloitte Middle East comments: “Several key aspects of the luxury sector will be unrecognizable in the next few years. The traveling luxury consumer will change the concept of national boundaries; millennial consumers will represent a significant percentage of sales volume in luxury; and the competitive forces driven by digital technology will continue to disrupt at a faster pace. In the Middle East region, as travel creates new opportunities to capture luxury spend, Dubai as a major tourist hub and passenger transit point is well placed to capture this spend.”