Japanese Luxury Customers Spend Differently With Age

by Kim Walker 04 July 2010 12:17:32

Increasingly, Japanese consumers in the luxury segment are behaving differently-by age, gender, and even geography. According to a new McKinsey report just released entitled “Japan’s luxury consumer: Detecting a pulse?” showed that 22 percent of 20-year-old luxury consumers are willing to pay full price for luxury goods, compared with just 9 percent for those in their 40s. This is odd given the relative wealth of both segments.

Download a pdf of the report here.

Channel preferences are different, too, with 28 percent of 20 year olds preferring the brand store shopping experience to just 16 percent of those in their 40s. The regional differences are also intriguing: just 9 percent of Tokyobased consumers agreed that "Even after the economy recovers, I will not return to my earlier level of luxury spending." In other prefectures and rural areas, 12 percent to 17 percent agreed.

Similarly, just 20 percent of Tokyo-based consumers agreed that "luxury goods are only worth buying if you can get them on sale or at a discount," versus 30 percent to 32 percent for those in other prefectures and rural areas. Finally, some areas of luxury, including luxury for the home, are growing more rapidly than the market overall, which suggests that Japanese consumer behavior is changing in terms of "what to buy," as well as "when" and "how."

All makes sense to me.

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