Women Emerge as Big Luxury Spenders
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As the balance of wealth shifts, women are gaining more buying power and influence in luxury products.
It?s no secret many women like to shop, but as the balance of wealth shifts globally, women?s influence in the luxury sector is growing stronger. Their discretionary income may be less than men?s, on average and in the aggregate, but it?s rising. And though they tend not to spend as much money on luxury goods as men do, or buy as many items, women are likely determining many of the luxury purchases that men make.
Five years ago, Boston Consulting Group estimated that by this year, women worldwide would control $40 trillion in discretionary income?what?s left after you pay all the bills and taxes. In 2013, that figure was $29 trillion. And a 2009 study published in Harvard Business Review projected that by 2020, women would control 50 percent of the high-net wealth in the United States. A report issued last year by the Shullman Research Center, a consulting firm in New York that focuses on wealthy consumers, further supports that data. It estimated that of the 67 million people who made luxury purchases in 2016, 42 percent (28 million) were women and 58 percent were men (38 million). A majority of those consumers (54 percent) had annual household incomes of less than $100,000. When you look at only the wealthier households?$500,000 or more in annual income?the gap disappears, with men and women equally likely to have made luxury purchases. The medi...
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