Simple people are fond of luxury in Russia

Over 20 years of existence, the Russian luxury market has occupied a confident position among analogues in other countries with a developing economy and gained its unique features. It all started with raspberry jackets, gold chains and six hundredth Mercedes. The modern Russian consumer managed to take a sink in the knowledge of world brands and is now understanding them no worse than immigrants from Western countries. The characteristics of the domestic luxury market, its differences from the European is the study of the consulting company McKinsey . Slon chose the most interesting of it and asked to comment on the conclusions of the practitioner of retail trade and consumer goods McKinsey & Company in Russia and the CIS countries Alexander Sukharevsky.

- 16% of the global volume of the luxury market falls on developing markets. Of these, China - $ 16 billion, Brazil - $ 9 billion, Russia - $ 5 billion, the remaining countries of this category - $ 4 billion (schedule). When evaluating McKinsey, she was guided by the Euromonitor methodology, that is, she considered alcohol as a luxury of more than $ 70 per bottle, jewelry - more than $ 700 for the product, men's suit - more than $ 910 and so on.

The share of developing countries in the global luxury market in 2011, $ billion

- Developing luxury markets will increase three times faster than global: they will add 14% by 2015 against 4% on average in the world. In 2005–2011 Russian, Brazilian and Chinese markets on average grew by 13-14% annually.-The market for luxurious goods in each country is unique. The Russian feature is a high proportion of elite alcohol (occupies 45%), together with clothing - 80% (schedule). Even in a loving holidays and festivals of Brazil, only 28%of the market accounts for alcohol, in more “disciplined” China - about 5%, and in India - an insignificant 1%. But in the Russian Federation, segments such as gadgets, tobacco, clock, crystal, jewelry, which in the same India account for 76%, China - 51%are represented little (only 3%).
Alexander Sukharevsky: “Why do we see such indicators [in Russia] - 80% goes to alcohol and clothes? On the one hand, this is Affordable Luxury: when the well -being of people grows, they buy primarily the most affordable suite products. It is much more difficult to go through yachts, art objects and other more expensive categories. On the other hand, this may be associated with cultural features and how the market has developed. Even in much more developed Europe, for example, France is a “country of perfumes”, where people from luxury items mainly buy perfumes, Italy is a “country of clothing” .

Sales of various categories of luxurious goods in BRIK countries in 2010

- Russia is characterized by the effect of “pseudo -elites”: 20-30% of luxurious sales are provided by people from the mass segment, whose income does not exceed $ 50,000 - 60,000 per year (if we count by the standards of developed EU countries).
- 36% of the domestic luxury market falls on clothes and shoes. In this segment, the share of counterfeit is great-about 37% of the total turnover of premium brands. In his calculations, McKinsey did not take it into account.

Alexander Sukharevsky: “What happened as a result of a crisis? If you schematically break the luxury segment into two parts: those who earn more than $ 60,000 per year and those who earn less are the lower and border parts of the segment much more Value Conscious, that is, they look at the ratio of “price-quality”. They want to get the same brand [clothes or shoes] cheaper and are ready to consider alternative channels, for example, the Internet, or even buy cheaper, but still luxury brands. When they are represented by a product that looks in principle, it seems to bring similar positive emotions and can satisfy their needs, but at a lower price, there is a temptation to make a purchase. ”

-Our luxury market is distinguished by a high degree of concentration in the regional context-85% of sales falls on Moscow and St. Petersburg. The dominance of the "two capitals" will continue to be preserved. -In Russia, online trade is actively developing-the upper segment of the mass audience is increasingly using the Internet, although most luxurious purchases are still offline. Which, however, does not prevent wealthy people from using the network as an important source of product information.