The Luxury Industry After The Pandemic: What’s Next?
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to its knees, putting uncountable industries to a complete halt and seriously crippling the market. While what we could consider as non-essential new possessions like luxury items seem to have fallen out of favor during the pandemic, the sheer size of the global luxury market means that even the slightest losses could be devastating.
Many predicted that the lockdowns and social distancing measures imposed by most of the world would cause a significant dent in the $3 trillion fashion and luxury industry, as department stores and luxury boutiques closed their doors to all foot traffic for the most part of 2020. A huge surge in unemployment, especially in the United States, brought a huge reduction in the purchasing power among Millenials.
However, as we enter the last quarter of 2021, it seems that none of the doomsday predictions regarding the luxury industry came true. According to a December report from Financial Times, the unprecedented crisis may have turned out to be a short-term blip — the fashion and luxury industry, especially the part of the market at the higher end of the price spectrum, has recovered spectacularly.
Citi and Bain estimated that most of the market recovery came from China and Japan, the second and third-largest luxury markets by sales. The two countries were quick to recover from the pandemic and they both have thriving e-commerce markets underpinned by a highly developed digital infrastructure.
Consumers in the U.S. also proved to be surprisingly resilient and have kept the luxury industry on its feet throughout 2020. Analysts believe that fewer opportunities to spend on travel and restaurants combined with rising stock indices enabled the wealthy to stock up on luxury items such as handbags, jewelry, and luxury watches.
Now that the pandemic has largely subsided in the better part of the world, the question remains — how will the luxury industry tackle the post-COVID future?
Discovering the Luxury Sector’s Future
Judging by the ease with which consumers adopted new shopping habits, it seems that e-commerce will become the norm for the retail industry in the coming years. The luxury industry is also set to follow this path but faces an entirely new problem — proving authenticity.
With no white-gloved retail assistants to guide them through the process of shopping for luxury items, consumers are forced to put their trust in third-party retailers. As more and more consumers view their luxury purchases as an investment rather than an indulgence, there will be a greater need for a reliable way to authenticate the origin of an item.
This is where blockchain technology steps in. As a natural step forward in the digitalization of the retail market, blockchain provides brands with a way to provide users with an immutable, easy-to-use, and quick-to-adapt way to track the origin of their luxury items. And while the market has seen a handful of efforts to use blockchain technology to prove authenticity, few of them have managed to offer a future-proof solution to the growing appetite of the luxury consumer.
LuxFi — Revolutionary Forces in Luxury Industry
LuxFi has come up with a unique product that not only solves an existing problem but offers consumers a new way to put their idle luxury assets to good use. The company has built the first real-world asset-backed NFT marketplace for luxury assets, allowing users to buy, sell, and invest in luxury assets through NFTs. Having NFTs backed by real-world assets such as luxury handbags, watches, and jewelry enables consumers to use their once idle items as collateral for loans.
Cryptocurrency loans collateralized by NFTs backed by a Hermés handbag or a Rolex watch have now become a reality. The growth of LuxFi will transform the luxury industry. With services like collateralized lending and fractionalized fundraising offered by LuxFi, it’s safe to say that the luxury industry is heading towards a very interesting tomorrow.
LuxFi is aiming to transforming the luxury industry after the pandemic and into the future. To know more about LuxFi and our future plans, visit our social media channels listed below!
About LuxFi
LuxFi is the world’s first asset-backed NFT marketplace for luxury assets, where people can buy, sell and invest in luxury assets using cryptocurrencies and traditional payments. We eliminate counterfeiting while minting an NFT on a multi-chain blockchain network, with a focus on luxury assets that hold value well and have a high resale value. Leveraging our big data intelligence system and unique algorithm for automated data collecting and data processing, the value of each NFT on our platform is backed by real-world data.
Stay tuned on our social media channels:
Website: https://www.luxfi.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/luxfiofficial
Telegram Announcement Channel: https://t.me/luxfinews
Telegram Official Group: https://t.me/Luxfiofficial
Medium: https://luxfiofficial.medium.com
