As sales slow, will luxury brands keep pumping up their prices in 2024?

It’s normal, even expected, for luxury brands to increase their prices. Between 2019 and 2022, luxury prices increased by as much as 25%, according to data from Edited, far outstripping the pace of inflation. Luxury brands increasingly relied on their most affluent customers who showed no signs of slowing down their spending.

But now, the slowdown has finally come to luxury. Luxury sales were down 14% across the board in October and down another 15% in November of this year. Multiple major luxury retailers are struggling, too, including Saks Fifth Avenue, which failed to pay its vendors for months earlier this year, and online retailers like Farfetch and Matches, both of which were sold for pennies on the dollar this month after periods of declining sales. So with spending curbed among aspirational consumers, will 2024 see luxury brands finally slowing the pace of their discounts?

Sarah David, founder of the luxury resale company Fashionphile, believes it’s unlikely that luxury brands will lower their prices from the current high. Unlike companies like JCPenney, which has marketed pre-inflation prices as a selling point, luxury brands aren’t likely to take the hit to their reputation by moving to less shocking price tags.

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