Retail giants like Walmart, Target, and T.J. Maxx reported higher earnings this week. This indicated that customers prefer trade-down purchases in retail chains, as compared to department stores. Various business analysts commented on the new revolution of retail in the new era. A financial analyst from Bernstein, Aneesha Sherman, explains the biggest takeaways from retail earnings in the last few weeks.
According to Sherman,
“Last year, the lower-income consumer was more pressured, but this year we've seen cumulative effects of inflation and high rates impact not just low-income, but middle-income and slightly more premium consumers as well.”
Sharman also detailed the ways in which consumers were forced to make changes in their spending habits.
When it came to luxury retail brands, consumers started to spend more on stores by going out and experiencing products and services.
Furthermore, according to sources, Tapestry is in the process of spending $8.5 billion to acquire Capri Holdings. Sherman comments here that Tapestry’s quality will deteriorate as the company they are buying is a lower-margin company with a slower growth trajectory.
However, this move might make sense in the long run, as Tapestry is looking to gain scale in the luxury market. This is because they want to run a direct-to-consumer luxury brand. They are probably doing this since they want to invest in building their brand and focus more on aspects like marketing, brand building, real estate, events, and flagship stores.
According to Sherman, after a strong consumer demand in 2022, consumers are spending more cautiously this year. They are looking for trade-down spending as they are buying lower-priced items within the same category and having smaller baskets.
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