Research desk
Market Research
Current public evidence, source-aware market comparisons and research tools designed to support—not replace—professional judgment and first-party data.
Research coverage
Current platform breadth, with evidence gaps left visible.
Coverage is not the same as assessment depth. A city remains explicitly unassessed where fashion-specific evidence is not strong enough.
Research signals
A living evidence book for luxury, fashion, retail, consumer discovery and destination demand.
Investor · Forecast
€365–373bn
Personal luxury goods — 2026
Bain base outlook: 2–4% growth. Use as a category demand frame, not as a company revenue forecast.
Brand · Reported
+10–15%
US-native luxury brand momentum — Q1 2026
Bain-reported year-on-year growth signal for US-native luxury brands; useful for market-entry and comparative momentum work.
Retailer · Reported
+25–35%
China online luxury — Q1 2026
Bain-reported online luxury growth signal; ready-to-wear reportedly grew at about twice the rate of leather goods.
Designer · Reported
~50%
Luxury discovery now includes resale
About half of luxury shoppers consult secondhand before buying new, reinforcing price architecture, scarcity and residual-value considerations.
Brand · Reported
~50%
Luxury purchase journeys using AI
About half of luxury shoppers use AI somewhere in the purchase journey, raising the importance of structured product information and machine-readable brand authority.
Retailer · Reported
34%
Gen Z: social affects purchase decisions
McKinsey reports 34% of Gen Z respondents say social media is important in purchase decisions.
Brand · Reported
60%
Gen Z: regular AI Overview use
McKinsey reports regular use of AI-generated search overviews among Gen Z at 60%, versus 29% among boomers.
Investor · Forecast
2–3×
Secondhand structural growth
McKinsey expects secondhand fashion and luxury to grow two to three times faster than firsthand through 2027.
Investor · Forecast
USD 700bn
Global luxury — 2030
McKinsey/BoF projects the global luxury market to reach about USD 700 billion by 2030, with 4–6% annual growth. Treat as a category forecast, not a company forecast.
Brand · Reported
68%
US luxury clients identifying with challenger brands
In McKinsey/BoF’s 2026 luxury study, 68% of US luxury clients said newer or disruptive brands better reflect their identity, compared with 63% for established luxury houses.
Retailer · Reported
+5.0% YoY
US clothing & accessories stores — Jul 2026
The category was also 1.9% higher month over month. Use as a national channel read before applying local store economics and client sell-through.
Retailer · Reported
+6.2%
China online clothing — H1 2026
Online clothing grew faster than total H1 retail. At the same time, brand-exclusive-store sales at large retailers fell 8.7%, showing why channel mix matters.
Retailer · Reported
+10.7%
Korea online shopping — Jun 2026
Overall digital commerce remained strong even as online clothing transactions were down 1.5% year over year; avoid treating broad e-commerce growth as automatic apparel growth.
Retailer · Reported
16.4%
Singapore online retail share — Jun 2026
Retail sales rose 4.0% year over year. The online share provides a current channel-allocation anchor for Singapore market research.
Retailer · Reported
+3.6% YoY
Saudi wholesale & retail operating revenue — May 2026
A broad sector operating-revenue indicator rather than a fashion-sales measure; useful as current commercial context for Riyadh and Jeddah alongside local luxury and tourism evidence.
Retailer · Reported
+0.8% MoM
Mexico retail-trade revenue — Apr 2026
Broad official commerce context for Mexican market screening. Do not interpret the monthly national movement as apparel demand in Mexico City or resort markets.
Designer · Reported
−0.1% MoM
Brazil fabric, apparel & footwear — Apr 2026
Near-flat monthly category volume while total retail declined 1.5%; a useful directional read for Brazil that still requires brand or retailer sell-through data for assortment decisions.
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2026
Brand · Reported
64 / 54 / 27%
Luxury AI adoption — China / US / France
Bain’s luxury survey shows materially different AI adoption by market; product data, discovery strategy and AI visibility should be localized rather than globally uniform.
Designer · Reported
−0.7% MoM
Australia clothing & footwear spend — Jun 2026
National household spending on clothing and footwear softened month over month, while Q2 volume was 0.5% higher quarter over quarter—useful evidence for distinguishing monthly noise from quarterly direction.
Investor · Reported
+2%
International arrivals — Q1 2026
Observed global international-tourist arrivals were higher year over year despite disruption, adding a current destination-demand read beside the full-year 3–4% forecast.
Investor · Forecast
€1.44–1.47tn
Worldwide luxury spending — 2026 base
Bain’s base case implies 0–2% constant-rate growth, while personal luxury goods are expected at €365–373bn and 2–4% growth.
Buying behaviour
Channel and cohort change translated into commercial implications.
Reported
70%
Fashion consumers planning to spend less
Value pressure should be assumed in pricing, promotion and assortment decisions.
Reported
80%
Fashion consumers showing value-seeking behaviour
Includes waiting for sales and shopping across retailers for the same item.
Reported
+14%
Fashion inventory days vs pre-2020 average
A signal to prioritize demand planning, allocation and inventory churn.
Reported
50%
Luxury shoppers consulting secondhand before buying new
Resale is now part of discovery and value validation, not only a post-purchase channel.
Reported
50%
Luxury shoppers using AI in the purchase journey
Product data, comparison content and brand narratives increasingly need to be machine-readable.
Reported
19%
US consumers using AI to discover or decide purchases
Among US consumers who reported using AI tools.
Reported
74%
EU-5 recent AI use — Italy
Share reporting AI use in the prior three months; UK 67%, Germany 66%, France 63%, Spain 59%.
Reported
70%+
Gen Z + Millennials share of resale growth through 2030
A strong cohort signal for circular fashion, acquisition and lifecycle strategies.
Reported
~25%
Consumers using generative AI for shopping
Across McKinsey’s 2026 five-country consumer sample, about one quarter reported using generative AI for shopping.
Reported
28%
Gen Z using generative AI for shopping
Versus 16% among boomers in the same study—an important discovery-channel difference by cohort.
Reported
34%
Gen Z citing social media in purchase decisions
Social remains a material conversion influence, not only a top-of-funnel awareness channel.
Reported
−8%
Open-web traffic since 2023
Discovery is fragmenting across AI, social, marketplaces and owned channels, increasing the value of structured product and brand data.
Reported
64%
Luxury buyers using AI — China
Share who used AI during their most recent luxury purchase in Bain’s April 2026 consumer research; US was 54% and France 27%.
Reported
82%
Top-tier luxury clients using AI
AI use rises sharply with spending level: 82% among top-tier clients versus 28% among the lowest-spending segment.
Reported
47%
In-store luxury buyers using AI before the boutique
Physical retail increasingly inherits a digital research journey; store teams, product information and inventory visibility should assume pre-visit AI discovery.
Forward book
Published forecasts retain their source and confidence state.
2026 · Reported
Global fashion
Low single-digit growth
2026 · Forecast
Personal luxury goods
€365–373bn
2026 · Forecast
Worldwide luxury spending
€1.44–1.47tn
2035 · Forecast
Personal luxury goods
€525–640bn
2030 · Forecast
Global secondhand apparel
USD 393bn
2026 · Forecast
International tourism
+3–4%
2030 · Forecast
Global luxury market
USD 700bn
Research archive
Dynamic Global Fashion Group™ research briefs.
Report
The Luxury Client, 2030
How desirability, identity and AI-mediated discovery are reshaping the next luxury growth cycle.
August 17, 2026
Research
The City Expansion Book
A transparent market-screening view for city expansion and launch decisions.
August 17, 2026
Briefing
The New Discovery Front Door
AI, social, resale and owned channels as competing inputs to fashion discovery.
August 17, 2026
Research
The Global Growth Map
Country-level economic context around the cities in the Global Atlas, kept separate from fashion-demand measures.
August 17, 2026
Research
The Forward Fashion Book
A source-aware view of fashion, luxury, resale and tourism expectations.
August 17, 2026
Briefing
AI, Resale and the New Discovery Layer
How AI tools and secondhand platforms are reshaping fashion discovery and purchase validation.
August 17, 2026
Briefing
The Value-Seeking Fashion Client
Pricing, promotion and assortment implications of a more comparative consumer.
August 17, 2026
Report
The Retail Channel Shift
How digital commerce growth and premium physical retail should be read together.
August 17, 2026
Index edition
Attendance Is Not Audience Quality
The commercial logic behind verified audience records and the Event Audience Quality Score™.
August 17, 2026
Methodology
Forecasting Without False Precision
A practical note on intervals, ranges and what the current dataset can forecast responsibly.
August 17, 2026
Briefing
Fashion Tourism
Why visitor flows matter to the economics of physical luxury.
August 17, 2026
Briefing
The Price of Presence
Prime luxury retail rent as a directly priced signal of city intensity.
August 17, 2026
Data note
Swimwear Without a Single Number
Why disagreement between market publishers belongs in the decision, not in a footnote.
August 17, 2026
Report
The Luxury Reset
A market note on reading luxury through market size, destination demand and physical presence.
August 17, 2026