The overwhelming majority of luxury goods sales are taking place in stores. New data from Euromonitor International reveals that in 2025, physical luxury stores accounted for 81% of personal luxury goods sales, with 52% of high-income shoppers preferring to shop in-store for fashion – up from 36% in 2023. The report found the global luxury market is valued at $1.5 trillion in 2025, and that the category "remains resilient" despite continued macroeconomic challenges “Amidst market uncertainty, the industry is undergoing a profound transformation, shifting from product-centric models to experience-driven engagement,” said Fflur Roberts, global insight manager for luxury goods at Euromonitor International. “Wellness, lifestyle and emotional resonance are emerging as new markers of status, reshaping how brands connect with consumers.”

Quad/Graphics, Inc. announced a collaboration with Google Cloud to leverage its cloud services in the development of a data, creative and personalization powerhouse. Quad’s leading-edge solutions are designed to give advertisers and marketers exceptional accuracy, transparency and cost-efficiency in making direct connections – on-line and off-line – with their customers. By empowering Quad’s proprietary data stack with Google Cloud’s artificial-intelligence (AI) optimization capabilities and large language models (LLMs), Quad’s new AI-driven solutions will enable brands to create highly personalized content at scale across multiple marketing channels. In addition to providing image generation, processing, content creation, layout design, translation and more, the innovative, data-driven offering from Quad will address the complex challenges of managing large product catalogs and diverse audience segments.

Direct mail is experiencing a long overdue resurgence for retailers, hastened by the pandemic. Increasingly crowded ads on social media and Google, full email inboxes, SMS dings all day long ... while the much-maligned mailbox remained emptier as credit card offers dwindled and in-store postcard coupons were recycled. It’s not surprising that many e-commerce brands decided to communicate in a new “old” way and test direct mail. We had the pleasure of assisting several launches in 2020 — some planned before the lockdowns, others as a new COVID strategy. Two of the biggest surprises for folks new to mail are: 1. the amount of time it takes to properly put together an effective mailing; and 2. how expensive mailing can be. One of our print partners and I assisted a pure-play that mailed within three weeks of our first discussion … this is NOT typical and we don’t recommend it. Haste makes waste.