What: Three luxury players gave their vision of the industry at the NRF.

Why it is important: While brands are thriving, especially LVMH ones, retailers have to team up with Big Data (Farfetch) in order to make the most of their clientele and extend their reach globally.

Anish Melwani, chief executive of LVMH North America, has said that there is no such thing as being immune from a recession, however, LVMH is well-prepared to withstand economic shocks due to its financial strength. He said that the luxury industry is “sticky” because it is connected to identity and once people adopt luxury, they don’t want to go back. Melwani also said that luxury has “genuine scarcity” and only uses the best materials and techniques. He said that LVMH’s luxury business continues to see strength and thrived during the COVID-19 period. Melwani sees 2022 as the year of travel and said that LVMH’s hotels saw a spike in business after having difficulty earlier in the pandemic. Another noteworthy point was to see how the US business pivoted to Europe due to the dollar rate. He also said that LVMH takes Web3 “very seriously” and has hired several people to work in the metaverse, in addition to joining the Aura blockchain consortium.

The CEO of Neiman Marcus Group, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, discussed the luxury retailer's approach to a challenging economy. He emphasized the need to grow customer relationships, recruit more potential customers, and increase their share of wallet. He also discussed the trend of luxury brands moving away from department stores and towards their own stores and websites, but stated that NMG has seen the opposite happening, with luxury brands increasing distribution in their stores. NMG also plans to take bergdorfgoodman.com international through its partnership with Farfetch.

Michael Ward, Managing Director of Harrods, discussed the future of online luxury commerce, which he believes is about a connected retail experience. He also talked about how Harrods has invested heavily in algorithms and data to personalize the customer experience.

What luxury players LVMH, Neiman Marcus and Harrods said at NRF