Lucky magazine's VP & Publisher, Gina Sanders, gave a talk about the retail world's latest phenomenon in the wake of economic changes: the Alpha-Shopper. Alphas are women who are still making decent money and are still, or once again, aggressively shopping. We fit some of that criteria ourselves...
The advice: don't believe everything that you read. According to an online survey of nearly 2,000 women ages 18-39, commissioned by Conde Nast's shopping rag and the research company Latitude, despite what the media would have us believe, there is indeed a segment of the consumer market that continues to consciously budgeted for fashion investments, which may include such iconic items as a Chanel quilted bag or monogrammed Louis Vuitton. (Having been lucky enough to inherit some priceless gems from a well-heeled granny, we're not expressing these purchases as investments with any smidge of irony.) The survey results also showed 93% would spend money on accessories this fall, while 78% would splurge on an item that sufficiently inspired them to do so.
Another rather intriguing element of the survey concluded that these Alphas would consult an average of 23 sources before making a purchase. At first,= we thought, popular girls with lots of sisters, but no, apparently these sources include social media like Facebook and visits to a brick-and-mortar store (the latter being potentially interesting to those following the course of e-commerce...).
It would be helpful to know the geographic distribution of respondents, because as usual, we'd assume that New Yorkers lead the Alpha pack when it comes to shopping splurges, too.
