High-Income Shoppers Embrace Online Commerce, but Stores Also Benefit From Web Browsing

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - May 9, 2013) - The Luxury Institute surveyed wealthy consumers earning at least $150,000 a year about their usage of the Internet and mobile devices, and how these technologies affect their interaction with brands across platforms.

High-earners are about as likely to have bought something at a store (78%) in the past 12 months or ordered it online via computer (77%). Despite the growing popularity of mobile and tablet shopping, research done on a traditional computer still feeds foot traffic into brick-and-mortar stores, and led to in-store purchases among 45% of the consumers surveyed. Only 25% of wealthy shoppers buy online after checking out merchandise and gaining insights at a store.

Using a tablet's Web browser has officially entered the mainstream as another shopping channel. In the past year, 20% of wealthy consumers reported using these devices to make a purchase. Web-enabled tablet usage is more popular for transactions than catalog purchases (17%), telephone orders (15%), or buying via smart phone Web access (14%). Retailers still send out catalogs because they're effective drivers of sales in other channels: 20% were motivated by a catalog to make an in-store purchase; 16% of respondents say they bought something online in the past 12 months after seeing it in a catalog. Downloaded apps for phones (12%) and tablets (11%) are also gaining in popularity as distinct retail channels where wealthy consumers shop.

"Successful brands turn shopping and browsing into a seamless experience across traditional websites, apps for smart phones and tablets, and within brick-and-mortar stores," says Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza. "Wealthy consumers are eager users of the latest technologies and brands need to be, too."

About Luxury Institute (www.LuxuryInstitute.com)
The Luxury Institute is the objective and independent global voice of the high net-worth consumer. The Institute conducts extensive and actionable research with wealthy consumers about their behaviors and attitudes on customer experience best practices. In addition, we work closely with top-tier luxury brands to successfully transform their organizational cultures into more profitable customer-centric enterprises. Our Luxury CRM Culture consulting process leverages our fact-based research and enables luxury brands to dramatically Outbehave as well as Outperform their competition. The Luxury Institute also operates LuxuryBoard.com, a membership-based online research portal, and the Luxury CRM Association, a membership organization dedicated to building customer-centric luxury enterprises.