The Rich Get Poorer… and Go Online
By Anna Johnson on May 27th, 2009Research by comScore, the Spectrem Group and Bain & Company indicates that while the recession is affecting affluent consumers, they are using the Internet in greater numbers, which should give hope to online stores.
Affluent consumers are likely to reduce their luxury spending in the next year. In January 2009, a survey by the Spectrem Group found that 20 percent of millionaire households had lost an average of 40 percent of their asset base. Further, survey participants expected a sustained economic downturn, with 55 percent fearing they would not have enough assets to maintain their current lifestyles.
Meanwhile, Bain & Company has translated similar research into a predication that global sales of luxury goods would decline by 10 percent this year.
Based on comScore data, the number of U.S. Internet users with household incomes of $100,000 or more increased by 3.4 percent between March 2008 and March 2009. This number now exceeds 50 million people and represents over 25 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience.
So while the rich may not be so rich anymore, they are increasingly spending time on the Internet. Presumably they are engaged in a variety of activities online… including shopping.
Source: eMarketer, ”When the Going Gets Tough, the Rich Get Online,” eMarketer, May 20, 2009
