Decisions, decisions, decisions: The Indian consumer has so many to make. If the buying bug hits, whether for a bag, a watch, a car or to host that lavish wedding or take a bespoke vacation, the range of options available is mind-boggling. Walk around Mumbai’s Palladium or Delhi’s Emporio or Bengaluru’s UB City malls and you get the clear and unmistakable sense that India as a luxury destination has arrived.
The diffidence is reducing too. First-time shoppers who earlier restricted themselves to window-shopping now step into stores. A few have bought that first luxury item—the pair of Diesel jeans or the Louis Vuitton bag. It’s an important mindset change, one that leaves little doubt that they will keep coming back for more in the years to come. After all, the additional benefits cannot be understated: At parties and office conversations, they’ll let it slip that they bought that fancy watch.
Most significantly, these habits have begun to set in.
Now, over to the luxe retailers: The purveyors of our high-life dreams. They’ve spent the last two years consolidating and gradually expanding in India. They broadened and deepened the scope of what they sell. And as they’ve gotten to know the Indian buyer better, the marketing tactics—not the products themselves—have been tweaked. Home delivery of luxury goods anyone? Yes, that’s also begun to happen.
It’s no wonder then that India is universally acknowledged as luxury’s last remaining large frontier market. Sure the market has taken a while to take off. India is roughly where China was in 2003, after which sales in the Middle Kingdom took off. According to a report prepared by KPMG for the India Luxury Summit 2014, the Indian luxury market is expected to grow at 18 percent annually to reach $14 billion in 2016.
Changes and the Slowdown
While most luxury watchers expect India to reach an inflection point soon, some caution that the Indian market could grow a lot differently.
Radha Chadha, an independent luxury commentator and author of The Cult of the Luxury Brand, talks about how Indians are spending more on luxury weddings. And though the spend on luxury apparel is high, it is equally towards Indian wear as it is on western brands. “I see a larger propensity for spending on Indian clothing than on western clothing, especially among women,” says Chadha.
(This story appears in the 13 November, 2015 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Expensive condo and building for new generation is to show their achievement of their lifestyle to others when majority of the infrastructure development is running behind. People aren't aware of environmental impact, safety issue of transportation, medical emergency and on the top political impact that will be facing between have and haven't in the society.
on Nov 12, 2015\"India is luxury\'s next frontier\" Only due to the huge gap betwixt rich & poor. It is mass home consumers that most benefit India.
on Nov 9, 2015