Among other measures, stores selling non-essential goods were closed when the pandemic first emerged in South Africa, negatively impacting sales of luxury timepieces in 2020. Even when these stores reopened, they tend be high contact, and many consumers avoided shopping to reduce the risk of infection whilst testing new products.
Another factor contributing to declining demand for luxury timepieces has been the closure of borders due to the pandemic, which brought a temporary end to leisure tourism in the country. With over half of sales attributable to international tourists pre-pandemic, this understandably had a strong negative impact on sales.
As noted in a number of other luxury categories, there has been a general rise in demand for and greater availability of second-hand luxury timepieces in South Africa, which are offered at more competitive prices and thereby offer greater competition to new items. This niche and lucrative category within luxury timepieces has been identified by some keen local entrepreneurs, who have set up e-commerce businesses to sell second-hand luxury items.
With offices reopening and restrictions slowly being removed in South Africa, demand for luxury timepieces is predicted to gradually improve over the forecast period. Despite a more optimistic outlook for the category, overall figures for both volume and value sales (at constant 2021 prices) will remain significantly lower compared to pre-pandemic levels, with value recording a weaker performance than volume, driven by a further decline in the average unit price in an opposite trend to some luxury categories, suggesting some discounting and promotional strategies will be introduced in an attempt to move product.
With borders reopening and affluent travellers making their way back into the country, it will likely lead to some recovery of sales for luxury timepieces. Wealthy African tourists, who are an important driver of sales of luxury timepieces, will contribute to this performance once travel is back to normal.
Affluent South Africans have been unable to travel and have been forced to either put their purchase plans on hold or purchase locally. However, with European borders reopening to African travellers, this is likely to lead to consumers choosing to shop during their next holiday or trip due to the alluring impact of destination shopping.
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Understand the latest market trends and future growth opportunities for the Luxury Timepieces industry in South Africa with research from Euromonitor International's team of in-country analysts – experts by industry and geographic specialisation.
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This is the aggregation of luxury men's and women's luxury timepieces.
See All of Our DefinitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Luxury Timepieces research and analysis database.
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