On November 20, the VI annual conference on the luxury goods market of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI France Russie) was held online, at which industry experts discussed the work of luxury brands during a pandemic, digital business transformation, and legislative news.
The Russian luxury market has been extremely stable over the past twenty years, said Anna Lebsak-Kleimans, CEO of Fashion Consulting Group. However, this year, the pandemic will cut the market for luxury goods for personal use by 23%, and the recovery will begin in only 3-5 years. Further centralization of sales in Moscow, digitalization, and multichannel trade will become drivers of the development of the Russian luxury market.

According to Oleg Kaidalov, CEO of TAG Heuer in Russia, sales of Swiss watches in Russia fell by 33%. However, the TAG Heuer brand was not affected by negative dynamics, and the Russian division of the brand is expected to see double-digit sales growth by the end of 2020.

Despite the crisis, among wealthy people, Private Banking services are still in demand. Ulan Ilishkin, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Rosbank, Head of Rosbank L’Hermitage Private Banking, noted that the concepts of high service and “beauty” are also important for the banking sector. According to the expert, a needed financial solution is consistency, functionality, elegance, and grace. The speaker also pointed out the priority values ​​of a modern wealthy person: creation, development, and inner freedom.

A typical online buyer of luxury goods is a young woman aged 25-34, according to Valeria Nemirova, a representative of Yandex. At the same time, buyers expect the same high level of service online as offline, including a personalized approach, video consultations, and virtual tours of boutiques.

Experts noted that with the growth of online sales of luxury goods, the turnover of counterfeit goods also grows, the main method of combating which is product labeling.

The speeches were closed by Thierry Sellerin, CEO of BuzzFactory, who spoke about ways to promote luxury brands on social networks. According to the speaker, 20-25% of future buyers of luxury brands use TikTok. If a brand wants to be represented on this network, it must accept the fact that it will lose control over content creation and give the initiative to the consumers.

For further information, visit the official website of the conference.

Beautiful Lifestyle magazine always follows the latest business trends. Earlier, we wrote about how Kaspi.kz became the most expensive public company in Kazakhstan.

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The success story of the Kaspi.kz finance and payment management platform began when Kaspi Bank gradually attracted more than 9 million users through the introduction of information technology into the banking system. The innovations offered by Kaspi Bank allowed the residents of Kazakhstan to reduce the use of cash and switch to non-cash payments. Kaspi Bank’s apps and services have been particularly popular with users during the pandemic – according to Forbes, the company’s revenues increased by 32% in the first half of 2020. At the same time, the number of mobile app users increased to 7.8 million monthly.

The company is known in Kazakhstan not only for its banking applications. In November 2014, the company launched the Kaspi Store, which allowed the users to compare prices and buy goods on credit online. After the launch of the aggregator, two years later, the company presented the Kaspi Red service, which provided the user with installments for purchasing goods. A little later, an application for cashless payments was launched, which made Kaspi a leader in the Kazakhstan financial market.

This fall, Kaspi had a breakthrough – on the first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange, the company’s share price rose sharply by 32%. As a result, Kaspi.kz became the most expensive public company in Kazakhstan with a market value of $6.5 billion. On the same day, the owners of the company, Vyacheslav Kim and Mikhail Lomtadze, became dollar billionaires: their fortune is now worth $1.9 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively.

There was information in various media that the company planned to hold an IPO last year but abandoned this plan. It is also reported that the funds collected as a result of the bidding were transferred directly to the accounts of businessmen, since Kaspi did not carry out additional issues, and the sold shares belonged to Vyacheslav Kim and Mikhail Lomtadze, as well as other shareholders.

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Amira Shah was born into a family of doctors, but even though medicine surrounded Amira since childhood, she decided to study finance. At the age of 21, Amira Shah worked at the famous Goldman Sachs bank in New York, but in 2001 Amira returned to India to help her father run the business.

The family business was a small private laboratory that Amira’s father opened in the 1980s after studying in the United States. By the time Amira returned to India, the lab was successful and had a reputation in South Mumbai, but still, the entrepreneur wanted to expand the business. On her trips to different Indian states, Amira offered small private laboratories to unite under the name Metropolis. Sometime later, Amira Shah became the head of the Metropolis Healthcare private laboratory network.

The company thrived until March 2020, when the world faced the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. India’s Supreme Government has set up private laboratories to test residents for coronavirus. The local authorities, on the other hand, have fiercely opposed the testing because they were scared there might be an increase in statistics. Many treatment services were also suspended, which also affected Metropolis Healthcare’s revenue in March 2020.

In April 2020, the Indian government ordered private laboratories to conduct coronavirus tests for free. With the support of many lawyers, Amira Shah directed all her efforts to annul this ruling, which she managed to implement.

The entrepreneur hopes that the acute phase of the crisis has already passed, and the company will face a recovery period, as people are more inclined to visit proven medical centers and laboratories with a reputation.

Amira Shah has been included in Forbes India’s Tycoons of Tomorrow list as well as in Business Today’s list of India’s Most Powerful Women.

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As soon as the threat of COVID-19 infection began to subside, and people around the world started to return to their usual lifestyles, the world faced the problem of a financial crisis and unemployment.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant damage to many industries: some businesses have already gone bankrupt because they could not adapt to the new conditions. The crisis also affected such large companies as Swarovski. The famous jewelry maker announced it would reduce its staff. The reason for this decision was the drop in demand for products in Asia and the United States.

According to Swarovski, the international luxury goods market has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why Swarovski decided to reorganize the company. At the moment this has led to a reduction in the number of employees by 600 people, 200 of whom worked at the headquarters in Tyrol. The representatives of Swarovski also noted that at this stage, the abolition of jobs does not end yet, and soon the company expects further reductions.

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On June 22, NASA and Virgin Galactic signed an agreement to develop a program to train private orbital astronauts. The program aims to find candidates interested in purchasing private flights to the ISS. The project also includes the training of newly minted astronauts, as well as their transportation to the ISS.

At the moment, Virgin Galactic has not yet announced further details of the project or the cost of a private space flight.

Presumably, Virgin Galactic will have to use SpaceX spaceships since, at the moment, Virgin Galactic has only one suborbital SpaceShipTwo. The ship, unfortunately, is not able to send astronauts into space since it has not yet passed the required number of tests.

After Virgin Galactic announced its cooperation with NASA, the company’s share price rose sharply by 20%. The rise in the company’s share price could be the beginning of the rehabilitation of Richard Branson’s empire, as his Virgin company suffered huge losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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2020 has already become a landmark in the life of businessman Elon Musk. His company SpaceX signed a contract with NASA and successfully launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft, and on June 10, the price of each share in the Tesla car company exceeded $ 1000. As a result, Tesla became the most expensive car company in the world.

How did Tesla achieve this success? Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. However, due to the riskiness of the idea of ​​producing electric cars, the company urgently needed an investor. Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning presented their concept to Elon Musk, and after investing $ 6.5 million in the company, the businessman became the main shareholder and president of Tesla.

Full of enthusiasm, Elon Musk hired a team of young engineers who immediately started creating the car of the future. By 2006, the company’s staff had grown up to 100 people. At that moment, the company created the first engineering prototypes, which made it possible to demonstrate the company’s success and thereby receive additional funding for further developments.

In 2006, the company released the Roadster two-seater convertible, which accelerated to 100 km/h in only 4 seconds. The presentation of the car was a huge success: many billionaires were interested in buying that electric car, so Tesla became world-famous.

Tesla faced many difficulties: high cost and low production value, problems with the supply of the details, disagreements within the company, the loss of valuable personnel. At one point, the company practically went bankrupt. But Elon Musk’s persistence and desire to create an innovative product allowed the company to rise from the ashes.

At the moment, the company is worth $190 billion, making Tesla the most expensive car manufacturer in the world. Tesla was able to overtake such companies as Toyota and Volkswagen AG. According to Reuters, the rise in the company’s share price was influenced by a letter from Elon Musk, in which he announced the possible development of the new truck.

Investors and analysts believe that the company’s shares will continue to rise in value because Elon Musk has many more innovative ideas that he aims to implement.

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Elon Musk once again made a breakthrough: on May 30, SpaceX and NASA launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Initially, the launch of the Crew Dragon was supposed to take place on May 27. But 16 minutes before the launch, the mission had been postponed until May 30 due to the weather conditions.

On May 30, the whole world was watching the broadcast, waiting for the launch of the Falcon-9 rocket. American astronauts Douglas Harley and Robert Benken were on board of the spacecraft. The final countdown and the Falcon-9 rocket went into space. After the launch, the first stage booster successfully detached from the rocket and returned to the platform in the Atlantic Ocean. After it, the second stage booster separated, and the Crew Dragon capsule entered orbit.

The spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on May 31. The spaceflight lasted 19 hours.

Station Commander Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin, and Ivan Wagner met American astronauts at the ISS.



The launch of the Crew Dragon was a landmark accomplishment in US history. Over the past 9 years, after the Space Shuttle program was shut down, the United States used the “Союз” spacecraft to send American astronauts to the ISS.

Elon Musk commented on the launch of Crew Dragon, saying that although the launch of the spacecraft was successful, it is necessary to prepare for the safe return of astronauts to Earth. At the moment, astronauts are on the ISS. Elon Musk also added that this mission is “the first step on a journey toward civilization on Mars.”

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The economy in China is starting to stabilize. More than 80% of businesses were able to recover by early April. Customers begin to return to the luxury goods market. Some representatives of companies such as Louis Vuitton and Porsche are forecasting an increase in demand for their products by the end of 2020 in China.

The Hermès store in Guangzhou is an excellent example of a stabilizing Chinese economy. Representatives of Hermès in China have not yet verified the sales figures, but many VIP customers have documented their purchases on social networks.

The revenue of Hermès brings hope for the speedy recovery of the global fashion industry after the quarantine ends.

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The COVID-19 pandemic spares no one: according to the assumptions made by the BCG Group, global sales of luxury goods in 2020 will drop by 25% -35% compared to last year. Several factors affect the drop in sales: a temporary pause in production and, as a result, the store closing, as well as people’s doubts on whether to make purchases during an unstable economic situation.

The short-term measures that many brands are currently using may not save the industry. The fashion industry works under seasonal planning: upcoming collections are determined in advance, fundamental supply-chain decisions are made.

The BCG Group prepared several scenarios for the recovery of the fashion industry in 2020, depending on the region, which may help brands in their future strategic planning.

With continuous pandemic, global sales will drop by $600 billion compared with 2019. However, the crisis will unevenly affect the economies of different states. Based on how countries and regions have responded to the pandemic today, and what measures they have taken to stabilize the economy, some regions will suffer more than others, while some countries will be damaged less.

Having examined the intensity of the crisis in each region, and analyzed several factors (the level of the economy of each region before the crisis, the market share of the fashion industry, and its dependence on the tourism industry), the BCG Group came to the following conclusions: global sales in March and April will decrease by 65% ​​- 80%, but by December they will be able to climb back by 10% -15% compared to last year.

In their research, the BCG Group made forecasts for four areas – Southern and Northern Europe, China, and North America.

The BCG Group suggests that slow recovery is expected in Southern and Northern Europe. In these countries, there is a serious outbreak of the virus, while the economies of these countries had been weak even before the crisis and mainly depended on the tourism industry.

China’s economy, on the contrary, should recover quite quickly. The country has already overcome a critical point, and also had a strong economy even before the pandemic. Therefore, in China, we can expect an early stabilization of the fashion industry at the end of the year, with sales only 5% -10% less than in 2019.

The data for the United States is still uncertain since each state has taken its measures to prevent the spreading of COVID-19. Some states have imposed mandatory quarantine, while others have not yet taken severe measures, and people can freely move around the city.

At the moment, these are only assumptions and potential strategies to help the global fashion industry to recover. However, the global situation is changing every day, and, perhaps, soon, new scenarios will be required to stabilize the global economy.

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The online services market is currently growing at a rapid rate in Russia, with new players appearing all the time. In this period of economic uncertainty, long-established companies are seeking new ways to consolidate their foothold and expand further as competition intensifies. They are also attempting to maintain customer loyalty and identify new – sometimes unconventional – ways of growing their business and opening up new markets.

“We are in need of technology-intensive solutions which can bring together partners and like-minded individuals. These are solutions which will enable companies to expand their markets and find new suppliers. They will facilitate a transformation in the way businesses operate, and help companies join existing projects. We have set ourselves the ambitious objectives of simplifying and expediting communication between businesses based in various countries to the greatest extent possible. Direct contacts, smart prompts, and the presentation capabilities offered by the platform will all help build an effective ecosystem for working with overseas partners, while reducing companies’ operating costs and improving business processes,” said Alexander Stuglev, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer of the Roscongress Foundation.

As stated by the platform’s analysts, the Roscongress Foundation’s expertise and extensive advisory resources will help attract major international players, as well as state corporations and enterprises. The service will also be open to small and medium-sized enterprises, and microenterprises.

Beautiful Lifestyle magazine supports this initiative of the Roscongress Foundation and is grateful for the opportunity to visit the Russian House in Davos during the World Economic Forum.

RCBusiness will be completely free to use. All that is required to get started is to register on forbusiness.roscongress.org.

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