Luxury Portable Consumer Electronics in Italy

2020 IMPACT

Luxury wearables suffer less of a decline, with new product launches continuing in 2020

Results for luxury portable consumer electronics will be impacted by negative effects for luxury mobile phones, which are expected to decline in 2020, and for most of the forecast period. Despite recording a decline in growth, luxury wearables is set to be less impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19, as people with high incomes continued to invest in the products.

Players increase their presence on e-commerce, responding to consumers buying habits

Due to the lockdown in Italy, a significant shift in sales through e-commerce has been observed for luxury portable consumer electronics, while offline store traffic has dramatically decreased. This is due to store closures during the lockdown period, with only essential stores such as grocery retailers and pharmacies remaining open.

A lack of international travellers dampens sales in 2020

Travellers from the Asia-Pacific regions, especially mainland Chinese tourists, one of the biggest consumer groups to visit Italy, have been experiencing a sharp drop in 2020, due to COVID-19 travel bans and restrictions. As such, it is expected that the international expenditure on luxury portable consumer electronics will be reduced significantly in 2020, and sales on the landscape will need to solely rely on domestic expenditure.

RECOVERY AND OPPORTUNITIES

Luxury mobile phones continue to decline, as luxury wearables perform well

Following a double-digit decline in 2020, luxury portable consumer electronics are set to recover, aligning with the roll-out of a COVID-19 vaccine, and consumers’ confidence to visit stores once more. While luxury mobile phones will record positive growth in 2021, due to the sharp decline seen in 2020, across the rest of the forecast period growth will decline once more, bringing down the overall value growth level for luxury portable consumer electronics.

Unit prices will remain high as luxury portable consumer electronics target high- earners

Despite job losses and the potential for reduced income levels in Italy during and after the pandemic, unit prices for luxury portable consumer electronics are not set to decline significantly, as the target consumer group for the product is high-income level groups, who not expected to be as impacted by the economic downturn. In fact, the unit price of many luxury goods is likely to increase, to mitigate the contraction of in-store traffic and the increase in logistics and retail management costs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tag Heuer is set to post good results across the forecast period

After launching its connected watch in 2019, Tag Heuer announced the launch of its summer edition connected watch in 2020. There was a lack of momentum seen from other brands in 2020, with many placing new product launches and innovations on hold, due to the outbreak of COVID-19.