The economic downturn in the US had a strong impact upon consumers and resulted in a decline in discretionary spending for nearly two years. However in March, retailers started to report increased sales, signaling that consumer confidence may be increasing and shoppers are willing to start making purchases again. One sector that was among the hardest hit during the downturn was the luxury space, but recently retailers like Nordstrom, Saks and Bergdorf Goodman are also reporting higher year-over-year sales.
Online traffic patterns are reflecting the same behavior, visits to a custom category of Designer & Luxury Retailers increased 28% for the week ending April 10, 2010 as compared to the same week in 2009. In comparison, one year ago, visits declined 18% for the week ending April 11, 2009 from the previous year. This trend emerged during the holiday season, where the market share of visits to Designer & Luxury Retailers started to reach the same levels of traffic as the 2007 season.

Among the 54 retailers in the Designer & Luxury Retailers custom category, Nordstrom experienced the highest increase in visits last week as compared to the previous year. Ralph Lauren, Neiman Marcus and the popular designer sample sale website Gilt.com followed for the highest year-over-year increases. High-end luxury brands like Gucci, Prada and Burberry were also among the top ten websites for growth last week.

Affluent households are more likely than the online population to visit the websites of Designer & Luxury Retailers. Visitors with an income over $150k over-indexed at 150 and are more likely to visit for the 4 weeks ending April 10, 2010, followed by those making between $100k and $150k with 121. Together, these two income brackets represented 28% of all visits, highlighting the significant share remaining that are aspirational shoppers with an income under $100k.