They say that the customer’s always right, but for most luxury retailers today, the question is: Who is the customer? With luxury in a slump, it’s become obvious that the ultra-high-net-worth clients are not enough for a brand to continue to stay profitable. In comes the aspirational consumer, who many retailers have been trying to court for years. However, in their quest to stay both afloat and relevant, brands have forgotten that the aspirational consumer has limited resources and is “financially vulnerable” to economic uncertainties, Mrin Nayak, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group, told Retail Brew. Citing a recent internal study, she explained that brands may have “over-democratized” and expanded their scale significantly over the past few years as they try to rope in new customers. “What we’re really seeing is that the pullback in luxury is from this bottom- to middle-of-the-pyramid, aspirational luxury consumer versus the top of the pyramid…ultra-high-net-worth consumer and so brands that have a high share of aspirational luxury consumers are the brands that we’re seeing have the most underperformance,” she told Retail Brew. In other words, brands that are struggling have simply lost the heat with younger shoppers. Keep reading here.—JS | 
