Industries

Retail - Fashion and Beauty

Desire is becoming harder to manufacture, and loyalty harder to assume. We measure what makes an affluent client choose, buy, return and advocate - across product, experience and the relationship with the house.

Luxury retail as a category runs on instinct, instinct that has been trusted for too long and where now the cost of a wrong has become dire. Earlier the trends and wants were decided by maisons and followed by clients, however that is not the case now and the desire of a client has become the new “it” of this industry. We follow that desire, dissect the whole environment behind it, and present to you what the client felt behind that desire. Our luxury retail market research assesses the forces that govern luxury brand desirability, fielded among verified HNWI and UHNWI clients and target segments of the house itself, evaluating what deepens the desire, quietly erodes it and what the client finds worthy.

Our solutions for this industry

Custom studies, fielded once, exclusive to one client. Each carries the same four parts: the opening line, the idea, what we do, and why it matters to you.

These are custom research engagements. They are not drawn from a syndicated panel, they are not resold, and the findings belong to the sponsoring client alone.

Solution

Desirability & Scarcity Study

A waitlist either creates hype and desire or quietly dents the intention; your house should know which customer segment prefers what before the next collection decides it for you.

Custom engagement. Fielded once, exclusive to one client, never syndicated or resold.

The idea

Scarcity plays a powerful role in luxury, and most luxury market research tends to ignore it. A longer waitlist, a shorter run and a tighter distribution, acts as a crucial lever in creating desire; however, can occasionally erode it as well. Your brand can create an edge for themselves by understanding the difference of each before the next quarter reveals it for you.

What we do

We run a choice-based exercise among clients and prospects isolating how each scarcity lever moves desirability and willingness to pay, covering the waitlist, the limited run, controlled access, and price-tier design. This is where we quantify the waitlist impact on luxury brand desirability.
We deliver a desirability score for the house and its categories, set against named competitors using public market data.
We layer social listening over the survey to catch desire shifting in real time between formal waves, timed to the house’s own collection calendar.

Why it matters to you. This study tells you whether the sense of scarcity created by your house is actually appreciated by your target audience and if not, then what are the aspects that are shaping this choice and how to adapt these new aspirations of your customers.

Solution

Resale & Circular Value Study

Your products are being sold a second time, without you in the room. That market is now shaping your first one.

Custom engagement. Fielded once, exclusive to one client, never syndicated or resold.

The idea

The resale or secondary market has become a silent force on the primary front of the brands, setting perception of value, shaping what people want, which either protects pricing power or quietly undermines it. Every house should track resale activity to understand whether it is acting as an amplifier or a quiet competitor.

What we do

We combine secondary-market pricing analysis with primary research into who is actually buying and selling the pieces, and why, in priority markets.
We track the resale premium or discount on key lines over time, isolating which brand and product decisions move it. This is the core of our luxury resale and circular value study.
We separate the genuine collector from the opportunistic flipper and the first-time entrant, a distinction the house’s own transaction data cannot draw with confidence.

Why it matters to you. You get a defined solution to the biggest question of most houses, whether resale is defending our house or diluting it and also what should production and pricing so about it?

Solution

Fragrance Wardrobe & Brand Equity Study

Your youngest customer no longer owns a signature scent. They own a wardrobe, and rotate it like one.

Custom engagement. Fielded once, exclusive to one client, never syndicated or resold.

The idea

A generation has changed what fragrance is. It is no longer one bottle, chosen once, worn for years. It is a wardrobe, several scents, layered by mood and occasion, discovered through channels that did not exist a decade ago. It is the most resilient behavior in beauty, and almost no one is measuring it at the depth it now demands.

What we do

We survey younger buyers on share of fragrance wardrobe, layering, occasions, and discovery routes, establishing how younger luxury consumers build and rotate their fragrance collections.
We run digital ethnography to follow the discovery journey as it happens, capturing real behavior rather than relying on how consumers recall it later.
We track line-level brand equity through a license handover or ownership change, measuring how equity shifts continuously across the transition.
Where an AI-driven discovery tool is deployed, we measure conversion, recommendation acceptance, and repeat engagement, benchmarked against quiz-based and advisor-led discovery.
We apply MaxDiff to claims such as clean-beauty credentials, refillability, celebrity association, and artisanal cachet, identifying which claims actually influence younger, label-reading buyers.

Why it matters to you. You see the wardrobe as your own customer actually builds it, and you hold the equity read through the one window that matters most - the handover itself - as private, decision-ready evidence.

Experience Economy 2.0 - core findings for this industry

Drawn from Wave 1 of the Experience Economy 2.0 series: 500 verified HNWI and UHNWI respondents across six markets. Below, the findings specific to this industry.

Drop marketing has the wrong customer
Exclusive-network access (-0.48) and limited availability (-0.35) are the two lowest-valued attributes in the category whose marketing leans hardest on drops, collaborations, and scarcity. Quality leads at +0.49. The verified-affluent buyer is not the drop customer; they are buying make and durability, while scarcity is tuned to a more reactive audience.
What this might suggest for brands. The hype audience and the high-value buyer are essentially two different groups. Drops function more as broad-reach marketing than as the criteria the margin-driving buyer uses, which raises a real question about how much product strategy should follow that signal.
Wave 1 500 verified HNWI and UHNWI respondents across six markets
The buyer rewards make and longevity, not pure story
Quality (+0.49) leads, and the attributes around it are about substance and permanence: craftsmanship (+0.20), timeless design (+0.14), and premium materials (+0.12) all sit positive. Meanwhile “emotional meaning or personal story behind the product” (-0.22), the narrative fashion leans on hardest, is among the lowest-valued. What wins the choice is the well-made piece that lasts, moreso than the one with a story attached.
What this might suggest for brands. The product story may carry less weight than the product. Evidence of make and durability - construction, materials, how a piece holds up - looks closer to what this buyer is weighing than narrative or seasonal newness.
Wave 1 500 verified HNWI and UHNWI respondents across six markets
Brand still matters, as a guarantee of taste
Strong brand reputation and prestige holds positive at +0.18, while “product that signals taste and status” sits negative (-0.16). Read together, brand matters here as a guarantee of taste and consistency the buyer opts into, rather than as a status mark to be seen with.
What this might suggest for brands. Brand-building still appears to convert in fashion, but as earned coherence rather than a visible logo. Brands signal recognizable codes and consistency rather than overt marking.
Wave 1 500 verified HNWI and UHNWI respondents across six markets
Substance and quality lead; scarcity and status sit lowest in priority
Across luxury beauty and skincare, the attributes buyers appear to prioritize most are superior quality and performance, alongside craftsmanship and brand reputation. The attributes that sit lowest in relative priority are limited availability and exclusivity, access through exclusive networks, and a product that signals taste and status. The shape of that pattern is clear in the data, though the precise magnitudes are an early read.
What this might suggest for brands. For this audience, scarcity and limited-edition mechanics may be better understood as conditions to hold lightly than as the lead message, while demonstrated quality and substance appear to carry the most weight. Given the early nature of this read, these are best treated as questions to pressure-test for a brand rather than settled direction.
Wave 1 500 verified HNWI and UHNWI respondents across six markets

See the Full Research Series

Why you should partner with us

We Measure Desire, Not Just Sales
Transaction data tells you what sold. It cannot tell you whether luxury brand desirability rose or fell to produce that number. Our luxury retail market research separates the two, so a scarcity or pricing move can be judged on what it did to desire.
We Ask the Ones Who Walked Away
Your clients, your near misses, and the buyer who chose the house across the street. Loyalty is easy to measure. The defection is where the answer usually sits.
We See the Second Market Clearly
We combine listing and auction data with primary research among the people who actually bought and sold your pieces. Almost no house can currently say whether resale is defending its equity or diluting it. That is a measurable question.
We Arrive Before the Decision Closes
Findings land while allocation, pricing, and the collection calendar can still change. Research after the season explains the result. Research before it sets one.