Global Luxury Goods: Preparing for Consumer Polarisation - Part 2

Research evidence excerpt

Global Luxury Goods: Preparing for Consumer Polarisation - Part 2

19 June 2026

Global Luxury Goods

Global Luxury Goods: Preparing for Consumer Polarisation - Part

We develop the long-term strategic implications from further consumer polarisation, Luca Solca

+41 582 723 126 following up on Global Luxury Goods: Preparing for consumer polarisation.

luca.solca@bernsteinsg.com

A K-shaped development in global society would reduce the number of potential

Maria Meita luxury consumers. At the risk of stating the obvious, it seems clear that more people are

+44 20 7170 0540 going out of the global middle-class at the moment, than the people who are climbing into

maria.meita@bernsteinsg.com

the ultra-rich cohort. The more polarised wealth distribution in the future, the more extreme

Eric Chen, CFA this will become - in the absence of corrective measures (see Global Luxury Goods: The

+852 2123 2628 Long View – Social, political and geopolitical dynamics).

eric.chen@bernsteinsg.com

It is not automatic that a growing but rarefied group of ultra-rich would spend

Yi-Peng Khoo, CFA more in aggregate than a large mass of middle-class aspirational consumers. Of

+44 20 7676 6822

yi-peng.khoo@bernsteinsg.com course, we all know about reassuring statistics that the top 3% of clients drive an order of

magnitude larger proportion of sales. But:

Specialist Sales

It depends on the ratio of consumer polarisation and ATV at the extremes. Altagamma

Alix Turner reported last year that c.70 million consumers exited the market. That corresponds to

+44 20 7762 4044

alix.turner@bernsteinsg.com middle class consumers going down the lower leg of the K. At the same time, American

multi-brand retailers are reporting today about an unprecedented tide of new consumers

spending at the very top of the range.