World Retail Congress began

The prospects for luxury retail were never in doubt and sales have solidly bounced back, said legendary Neiman Marcus chairman Burt Tansky at the World Retail Congress in Berlin.

Tansky said that despite doomsayers predicting a permanent dip in luxury sales following the recession, he remained confident throughout the downturn that buyers would return to the market. “I knew that luxury would never be finished because the types of buyer we have will always return to luxury,” he said. “These types of customers do not trade down, what they did during the recession was they started to shop their closet.”

He admitted that this had a major impact on Neiman Marcus revenue, and the retailer responded by “liquidating inventory” by slashing prices and then reducing its buying for forthcoming seasons. Tansky reflected: “We didn’t see the recession coming when we were buying and we had far too much stock, so we made some quick decisions but we have emerged a leaner and cleaner business.”

He said that with only 42 stores across the US, the company had not yet made the decision to go international and pointed out that there was still room for growth in the US, although the possibility of going global would inevitably remain on the agenda.

He added that the Neiman Marcus website was now the luxury department store’s “biggest shop” but asserted that customers continued to value visiting stores. However, he warned: “While we have continued to invest in very high levels of customer service, I am sorry to say that I feel many retailers have allowed this to slip.”