Personal Accessories in South Africa

Declining demand for personal accessories amidst economic instability

With ongoing economic instability for South Africa, consumers continued to suffer from declining disposable incomes, the rising cost of living and restricted access to credit. This scenario resulted in continual low confidence for low- to mid-income consumers who were forced to prioritise their discretionary spending on perceived non-essential items such as personal accessories.

Social media and travel influence demand

South Africa tends to follow global trends in terms of the latest fashion, including personal accessories, with younger or affluent consumers avidly watching what their favourite social media celebrities are wearing or using, then trying to emulate their looks. This places pressure on retailers and producers to offer the latest up-to-date trends in personal accessories, but at competitive prices for lower- to -mid-income consumers, while high-income South Africans continue to enjoy more lavish lifestyles including travelling by business class and staying in luxury hotels, supporting growth for accessories such as bags and luggage.

Busby Trading continues to lead fragmented competitive landscape, distributing major brands to a receptive market

Personal accessories continued to be a highly fragmented competitive landscape, led by Busby Trading SA (Pty) Ltd, which locally distributes global brands such as Nike, Guess, and Nine West. Dominant value share continued to be held by smaller players under “others”, which tend to have a limited presence in just one category.

Leisure and personal goods specialist retailers strengthens position as leading distribution channel, as internet retailing struggles to find a foothold

Leisure and personal goods specialist retailers strengthened its overall leadership of distribution for personal accessories in 2019, gaining strong value share in fine jewellery, while losing ground to other non-grocery specialists in watches. However, jewellery and watch specialist retailers unsurprisingly continued to hold dominate value share of this category, especially for mechanical watches, as consumers like to try on luxury pieces such as Rolex, Tissot and Omega, due to their high prices; not only do they place greater trust in this channel because they are aware they are going to be purchasing the genuine article in addition to being able to handle and try on the accessories, but also because they will receive attentive personal service in line with spending a lot of money.

Weak performance ahead for personal accessories as economy unlikely to stabilise

In line with the performance of personal accessories at the end of the review period, the market is predicted to record stable current value growth with marginally declining retail volume sales. Economic instability will prevail, as the country could enter into another recession at the beginning of the forecast period.

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