Purchasing Habits for Luxury Goods

Despite inflation concerns across the US, 76% of consumers with an income of $200k or more said they plan to purchase the same or even more luxury items in the next three months than they did in the past three months, according to a new Saks Luxury Pulse survey. The first options they would spend an extra $500 on would be vacation / leisure travel (38%), and shoes / accessories / handbags (29%). As for online shopping, 85% of all respondents are planning to shop the same amount or more online in the next three months compared to the last three months. 41% of respondents are prioritizing wellness more than they were prior to the pandemic, particularly rest & relaxation, nutrition, and general self-care. (View source)

Retail and AI Adoption

Brands are looking towards the cloud and edge computing to better improve revenue and reduce expenses. Recently, H&M Group announced it will be partnering with Google Cloud to leverage data analytics capabilities in hopes to enhance their customer experience and supply chain operations. In 2015, Home Depot began its integration with Google Cloud, now leveraging it across their entire enterprise, they deploy more efficient self-service experiences and AI/ML adoption to support numerous omnichannel initiatives. (View source)

Text to Buy Programs

SaaS platforms have been utilized for years but have you heard of text to buy? Estée Lauder, the cosmetic company, has been utilizing Textual’s text to buy SaaS platform for the last year, generating $1.8 million in new revenue with a 98x in ROI. To operate, a customer simply responds to an offer in text or requests to buy a product directly through text. Textual claims, clients like Estée Lauder routinely see conversion rates of 15% to 30%. According to eMarketer, nearly 50% of consumers now prefer to interact with brands through text. Vibes, a mobile brand experience company, recently announced its launch of a mobile experience platform with Salesforce integration, similar to text to buy programs. Brands utilizing Vibes platform, on average, see rapid subscriber growth with a 98% retention rate and a 40x ROI. (View source 1, source 2)

Up-Tempo Music and Green Goods

Researchers from the University of Bath wanted to find a way to reduce the attitude-behavior gap towards brand ethics and green products. Their answer, major mode music played at a fast tempo. While 30% of consumers claim to care about brand ethics and green consumption, only 3% and 5% (respectively) translate this into action. The research found that major mode music was effective in reducing this gap by 40% – 50%, attributed to the fact that this type of music is associated with positive emotions. Coupled with fast tempo music tending to generate positive feelings as well, the research suggests brands to play major mode music at a quick tempo. (View source)

Amazon Prime Day Results

Amazon’s biggest days of deals is over, and it was record breaking. Amounting to more than 300 million items being purchased worldwide, within the US, spend across retailers reached $6 billion on day one and $5.9 billion on day two. The average order size was $52.26, up 17% from $44.75 in 2021, more than six in 10 households placed two or more separate orders, bringing average household spend to roughly $144.56, and an average price per item at $33.58. According to Motley Fool, the average Prime member spends $1,400 per year, compared to $600 per year by non-Prime members. (View source 1, source 2)

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