For the first time in over a decade (pandemic aside), the personal luxury market is facing a lack of growth. For the 11th edition of True-Luxury Global Consumer Insights, BCG and Altagamma have partnered to explore what’s behind recent shifts in the sector—and what will shape the way forward.
This year’s report delivers insights from 7,000+ luxury consumers based on quantitative surveys, focus groups and in-depth interviews. To analyze consumer spending and behavior with optimal focus and accuracy, the report also leverages Altrata’s Wealth-X database of more than 150,000 high net worth individual (HNWI) profiles, plus interviews with industry CEOs, executives, client advisors, experts, and partners.
The data signals a pressing need to rethink the way luxury brands define and serve value. Aspirational consumers, who now make up 60% of the market, are reducing or pausing their spending, while the wealthiest top-tier clients have reaffirmed their position as the key engine of long-term growth—comprising less than 1% of the market while generating 23% of the value. To succeed in the years ahead, brands must refocus on top-tier clients (“Beyond Money” consumers according to the BCG consumer pyramid), and return to the fundamentals of what true luxury really means.
VOLATILE ASPIRATIONAL CONSUMERS SLIP AWAY
This year’s True-Luxury Global Consumer Insights dives deep into the history of luxury, looking back to its roots in the 1800s when it was the domain of the truly affluent. Over time, the market expanded into ready-to-wear, beauty lines, global flagships, social media, and more, helping it to scale brilliantly—until now. This democratization brought massive growth, with Aspirational consumers (those spending less than €5,000 per year on personal and experiential luxury) eventually accounting for over 70% of market volume. But in a race for scale, some of the soul of luxury was lost, as much of the industry traded exclusivity for reach, exchanging stability for volatility.
As a consequence, the segment that previously fueled growth is now revealing its fragility: Aspirational consumers have declined by 13 percentage points in market share since 2013 as affordability concerns continue to predominate. In the past year alone, around 35% of these consumers either reduced or paused their luxury spending, diverting it to savings and investment, wellness, and second-hand purchases in particular. Around 50% of these customers now feel financially vulnerable.
Today, brands with a client base comprised of more than 50% Aspirational consumers are seeing the steepest declines, underperforming sharply over the past 12 months. By contrast, brands that have stayed loyal to core top-tier clients are not just weathering the storm—they’re thriving.
THE WAY FORWARD? IT STARTS AT THE CORE, REFOCUSING ON TOP-TIER CLIENTS WHO ARE AMPLIFYING THEIR SPEND
In a market shaped by volatility and saturated with noise, growth will be increasingly fueled by deepening relationships with those who matter most: luxury top-tier clients.
Who They Are: Built on a Strong Underlying Base of HNWIs
These clients are at the very top of the spending pyramid, with average annual luxury expenditures of approximately €360,000—rising to around €500,000 when including cars and wellness/longevity—and a minimum spend exceeding €50,000.
Top-tier luxury clients build on a strong underlying base of HNWIs: in 2024 the segment comprised 940,000 individuals holding €68 trillion in financial wealth. This global population is growing fast, with wealth expanding at 8% annually and its size by 9%. By 2030, we’ll see over 1.4 million HNWIs globally with €100 trillion in investable assets. This is the base fueling luxury’s most resilient segment, but brands are not yet able to fully identify them.
Not only are they growing in numbers, but also in confidence: today 50% of this highly influential group say they expect to increase spending by between 5–25% over the next 18 months.
What They Buy: Rise of the ‘Health-as-Wealth’ Mindset
Personal luxury goods continue to be a foundational element of top-tier clients’ consumption patterns. However, growth patterns also point to structural shifts within the market. Categories associated with long-term enrichment and personal well-being value—such as wellness/longevity, beauty, and interior design—are experiencing the fastest acceleration, with a 10% increase in spending predicted over the next 18 months. This reflects an emerging 'health-as-wealth' mindset, while more mature categories like apparel and wines are stabilizing, signaling a recalibration toward deeper meaning and investment-worthiness.
What They Really Want: Not Always What They Get
What top-tier clients want should be simple: connection, intimacy, excellence and recognition. Instead they are often served with an approach to luxury that feels crowded and industrialized, with too much noise, and too little clienteling. To win with top-tier clients, brands must double down on four often-overlooked fundamentals :
1:1 Connection
According to our research, these clients typically engage with up to 57 brands across multiple categories and receive 40–60 instances of brand outreach every month, many of which lack any personal relevance. As a result, 65% feel overwhelmed by brands’ over-communication and lack of personalization, leading to growing fatigue and disengagement. What they value is not outreach, but tailored interaction—built around their personal context, taste and lifestyle.Intimacy
80% express a preference for exclusive, dedicated spaces that offer privacy, calm, and high-touch service in place of overcrowded and impersonal environments. Brands must avoid ‘too much crowd, too little intimacy.’Product Excellence
89% rate craftsmanship and product quality as top drivers of value. Brands must rebuild perceived worth that has been eroded by industrialization, and replace industrial volumes with craftsmanship value.Recognition
70% of potential top-tier clients are missed by brands because they fall outside static definitions or spending thresholds. When identified, too often they receive an experience that is not appropriate to their high-value worth. Brands will need to invest in richer data analysis and more advanced segmentation models.
THE WAY FORWARD STARTS AT THE CORE
The luxury brands that will win in the years ahead will be those that have the courage to center their strategy around the core, delivering excellence to the clients who define what true luxury means. Top-tier clients—though few in number—will play an increasingly critical role. This strategic refocus also involves a return to the heart of what has always made luxury exceptional: personal relationships, the client experience, refined quality and enduring trust.
Brands will need to harness human-led clienteling, enhanced by GenAI that can boost personalization and empower advisors with deeper insight. They’ll also need to curate the customer journey to recenter intimacy and relevance, both in-store and beyond.
Leaders in the sector will focus on fundamentals across the value chain, ensuring craftsmanship and consistency by owning the processes that define product excellence. They’ll need to boost their recognition of where the top-tier clients can be found and what they want, with richer data collection and more sophisticated segmentation.
To meet and retain top-tier clients, brands must recalibrate—not through scale, but precision; not through ubiquity, but intimacy. In doing so, they’ll take a crucial step toward building a stronger luxury industry by returning to what made it exceptional in the first place.