In France, young people are the main consumers of luxury goods, according to a Snapchat and Ipsos study

28 Jun 2024

Attracting content creators, developing attractive future features, retaining audiences and monetising them... social networking platforms face a number of challenges in a fierce international competition.

On 30 May, at its "Crafted for Luxury" event in Paris, Snapchat unveiled a study entitled "Exploring luxury trends", subtitled "The guide to understanding Snapchat's role in luxury".

The platform, owned by the American Snap group, reaches a relatively younger audience than other players such as Facebook or Instagram. A target that could be less of a priority for luxury brands. The Snapchat study carried out by Ispos aims to shed light on the possible links between social networks and the world of luxury, particularly as regards young French consumers.

"Since opening our Paris office in 2016, we've been working closely with luxury houses and wanted to share our expert insight with the industry and brands while bringing tangible data to the table," explains Geoffrey Perez, who leads Snap Inc's global luxury business. We wanted to better understand the motivations and buying behaviours of a new generation of consumers and the role that technology, and Snapchat in particular, can play in this process. The survey, which polled over 14,000 people aged 13-44 across six countries, highlights key trends and strategies for luxury brands looking to capture this audience."

The Ipsos study for Snap emphasises this point, stating that 86% of millennials and Genz say they use digital channels to get inspired or consider a purchase, 81% to discover products and 87% to decide on a purchase. Snap claims that, according to the survey, 71% of luxury buyers regularly use its services. An estimated 54% use Snap to discover a luxury product. It is still important to note that the majority of buyers will opt for a physical experience to finalise their decision.

"Snapchat's primary use is and always has been messaging with friends, not a public news feed that you scroll through endlessly. We are convinced that the most powerful recommendations are made between friends and family, but also via the content of our influential Snap Stars (certified content creators on Snapchat). Today, a significant proportion of content on Snapchat is dedicated to luxury. This includes content from trusted publishers such as Vogue, GQ and Elle, Snap Stars such as Juliaa, Paola Locatelli and Payly, as well as public profiles from luxury houses such as Prada, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, which they use to interact with their community and highlight their news on Snapchat. Snapchatters also interact with immersive augmented reality experiences created by these brands, and can also find Bitmoji luxury fashion collections, including those from Valentino, now in its fourth collection."

The luxury fashion and luxury beauty categories are proving to be the most popular among shoppers in the year ahead. Indeed, 56% of luxury shoppers intend to buy, or ask to be bought, a luxury beauty product in the next twelve months, while this figure rises to 57% for luxury fashion items.

At a time when the mid-range fashion sector is being penalised by a slowdown in consumption of new products, can luxury attract new consumers or encourage them to take the plunge and buy? Snapchat seems to be trying to persuade luxury brands to pay particular attention to them, in particular by exploiting its augmented reality technology, which is most often used for playful filters, but which also offers marketing opportunities.

Today, more than 70% of Snapchat's daily users, i.e. more than 300 million people, use the augmented reality features on the platform every day," says Geoffrey Perez. These interactive users represent a considerable opportunity for luxury brands. For example, for the launch of its 'My Happy Hearts' collection, Chopard achieved 22 million virtual product fittings on Snapchat. Dior is another brand that has evolved particularly well on Snapchat over the last four to five years. They've taken a very different approach and tried different ways of engaging with the platform and our audience, including offering augmented reality fittings or integrating augmented reality into catwalk shows, including their show in New York last April."

The study highlights that 89% of luxury shoppers would be interested in having an augmented reality solution to discover products online during their research.

The fact remains that Snap, the listed company founded by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, is aware that brands are looking for results. At its latest financial results, the American group, which saw its sales rise by 21% in the first quarter of 2024 to 1.19 billion dollars but is still making a loss, highlighted the improvement in returns on advertising performance. It also announced a partnership with the company Integral Ad Science, designed to bring greater transparency to the results of campaigns on its platform.