According to Forbes, wealthy consumers will spend, but differently than before. Exclusivity will be embraced as will quality and dependability.

What’s more, luxury brands will begin offering discounts and incentives-something many have never done before.

“The days of shopping ’til you drop are over,” says David Lamb, chief strategic officer at diamond giant De Beers, which, with London-based market research firm Ledbury Research, recently examined the changing demands of the high-net-worth customer.

LuxuryMart09, an annual luxury business-to-business event will be held in Shanghai next Thursday (January 15th) and is set to welcome over 50 of the world’s top luxury brands including Bentley, Princess Yachts, Cartier, Bank of China and Relais & Chateaux.

The premier event for luxury brands targeting China’s fast-growing affluent sector, is now in its third year and is the leading annual platform for brands to exchange ideas and collaborate on marketing products and services for high-end Chinese consumers.

China is the world’s fastest-growing market for luxury brands, expected to rank second only to Japan by 2015.

Luxury brands make sure they look after their customers, at least in the high street. Online, it is another story.

A recent article in the Financial Times shows that some of the smartest names in retailing struggle to work out how to use the web to interact with their clientele.

On the whole, luxury brands have neglected the potential of the Internet.

Many luxury brands still prove poor at offering personalised custom service online, a keystone of what makes their brand high-end instores.

Are these brands underestimating how new technology and social networking tools can help build personal relationships and loyalty between visitors and the brand across global markets?

Luxuo is pleased to introduce Luxury Interactive 2009, a corporate event taking place on 16 – 18 March 2009 at Le Meridien Hotel – Piccadilly in London. On this occasion, we are glad to offer a 25% discount code to all the Luxury Retailers.

The event will bring together leading luxury brands to advance the use of interactive media and the online channels to create exceptional interactive customer experiences and drive luxury e-business through interactive learning.

Luxury Interactive helps luxury brands to attract new customers and increase profit margins by learning e-commerce strategies that have already been implemented and have succeeded.

Gucci, the flagship brand of French luxury group PPR, is the world’s most coveted luxury brand according to a global luxury brands survey by The Nielsen Company.

In the latest survey, one in five global consumers said they would choose to buy Gucci (over any other luxury brand) if money was no option, making the Italian fashion brand that was revived by Tom Ford in the 1990’s the most coveted and aspirational luxury brand in the world today.

Chanel and Calvin Klein tied for second place in Nielsen’s 48-country global online survey that was conducted in November 2007.