Deloitte India has launched its 2020 edition of the Global Powers of Luxury Goods report that features four Indian brands – Titan, Kalyan Jewellers, PC Jeweller, and Joyalukkas − ranked at 25, 43, 47, and 49, respectively. The four brands have been featured in the list consistently for the seventh time in a row.

The top 10 global luxury companies accounted for more than half of the total luxury good sales of the top 100 companies for the first time. For the third consecutive year, the same companies made it to the top 10 list.

Online retail sales increased during the first half of the year, reaching a peak in April 2019 of 209 per cent compared with the previous year. This increase prompted many brands to accelerate digitisation and provide digital e-commerce solutions.

The report also states that the pandemic has accelerated the shift to analyse consumer data through artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) applications. Both ‘showrooming’ and ‘webrooming’ are now integral parts of omnichannel shopping for luxury and fashion goods. Thus, fashion companies need to enhance their interconnectivity as much as possible with experience-based services, such as click and collect, localised inventory, click and return, click and try, seek and send, in-store Wi-Fi access, and tech-driven luxury concierge services.

Interestingly, the growth in the resale market is leading to an increase in demand in the primary market. Affluent millennial and generation Z consumers are purchasing in both the primary and resale markets. Generation Z customers use resale sites, such as Depop, which experienced triple-digit growth between April 2020 and June 2020, compared with the same period in the previous year. Another reason for the popularity of the resale market is that according to consumers, it is perceived as more sustainable.

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Millennials and generation Z, which are the current market definers, look for culturally sensitive brands. The use of non-sustainable raw materials in products has a negative influence on customers’ purchase decisions.

Porus Doctor, partner and consumer industry leader, Deloitte India, said, “The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital platforms by luxury brands to boost sales in a challenging environment. Initially, luxury brands were reluctant to embrace disruptive digital technologies. However, since the onset of the pandemic, there was a significant uptick in online channels being used by consumers for purchases and today, a number of global luxury goods companies and brands have leveraged digital technologies to augment retail store experiences for consumers.”