From window displays to private dining, Saks Fifth Avenue is polishing its holiday marketing playbook

Saks is also selling “holiday experiences” that customers can buy to benefit the Saks Fifth Avenue Foundation, the company’s mental health nonprofit. Offerings include a $1,500 private shopping session at Saks Fifth Avenue, a $5,000 Omakase dinner from Hoseki and a $7,000 seat to a taping of “Saturday Night Live.” Already, the company is seeing “a ton of interest” in the experiences, “more than we have in years past,” Emily Essner, chief marketing officer at Saks, told Modern Retail. One of the more popular options — to feature your dog in an online campaign for $10,000 — is close to selling out. While this is the fifth year Saks is offering “holiday experiences,” its “SNL” option is new as Saks looks to make the experiences “even more relevant,” Essner said.

The luxury retailer is especially optimistic about the holidays this year, given the results of its “Luxury Spending Pulse” conducted in October. According to the survey, which surveyed 1,196 U.S.-based luxury consumers over 18 years old, 82% of respondents celebrating the holidays plan to spend the same or more on holiday shopping compared to last year, a 7% increase from 2023’s report. Meanwhile, 70% of luxury shoppers plan to start their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving, up 14% from last year. And 65% plan to spend the same or more on luxury in the next three months compared to the prior three months, up 8% from last year.

“The big theme was really around a ton of enthusiasm for holiday — probably more than we were expecting, honestly,” Essner said of the survey. “The consumer is certainly looking to get out there and to buy gifts for others, for themselves, but also really looking to engage in the holiday season [by] getting dressed up, going to parties, decorating their house.”

Saks starts planning for the holidays as soon as the previous year’s celebrations come to an end. It usually starts teasing its holiday gifts in mid-October. But there’s also room for adjustments; Saks gets the results of its holiday “Luxury Spending Pulse” at the end of October and folds the findings into its social media and marketing strategy for the next several weeks. Saks conducted its first “Luxury Spending Pulse” in 2021.

“[The survey] does give us that ability to really fine-tune exactly what we know consumers are looking for,” Essner said. “It helps inform some of those near-term content opportunities [and] how we are programming social.”

For example, this year, respondents indicated a “lot of interest” in jewelry, Essner said. “It’s the number one category that people are looking to receive,” she explained. Because of this, Saks is looking to tease more jewelry on its social media channels in the lead-up to the holidays. The company is also stressing its same-day delivery in Manhattan and extended return policy in accordance with how people plan to shop this year.

At the same time that it readies for the holidays, Saks Fifth Avenue is grappling with financial headwinds. WWD reported that gross merchandise value for Saks.com and Saks Fifth Avenue stores fell 9% from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2023. In July, Saks Fifth Avenue’s parent company Hudson’s Bay Company agreed to buy Neiman Marcus in a deal valued at $2.65 billion. The combined company, if approved, will control Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.

However, Saks Fifth Avenue has been accused of being behind on payments to vendors since late last year. Ryan Babenzien, the entrepreneur behind the men’s sneaker brand Greats and the beauty and wellness company Jolie, told Glossy in August that the chain owed him more than $15,000. In February, Saks’ then-CEO Marc Metrick told WWD that the company understood its obligations to partners. “We don’t plan on not meeting these responsibilities to them,” said Metrick, who has since been promoted to CEO of Saks Global, which oversees Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off 5th.

Department stores as a whole have struggled to keep sales afloat as consumers cut back on spending. For instance, Kohl’s second-quarter net sales dropped 4.2% year over year, while Macy’s brand second-quarter net sales dipped 4.4% from a year prior. An exception seems to be luxury department stores, which cater to more affluent shoppers, a group that’s historically less impacted by — but not immune to — inflation. Nordstrom, for example, reported a 3.4% increase in year-over-year second-quarter net sales. Bloomingdale’s second-quarter net sales dropped just 0.2% from a year prior.

Saks’ latest Luxury Spending Pulse reflects this dynamic as well, although it should be noted that data was collected before the results of the U.S. presidential election. Nearly half (48%) of luxury consumers said they are optimistic about the economy, 12% higher than the same time last year. “In general, we see a bigger correlation between how a consumer feels about the macroeconomic environment and their spending, and so that increase is very meaningful,” Essner said.

Still, luxury chains shouldn’t take anything as a given heading into 2025, sources told Modern Retail. “Luxury is a crowded space filled with brands that are extraordinary at lifestyle messaging with very deep pockets,” Bryan Gildenberg, founder and CEO at Confluencer Commerce, said. “All department stores are challenged right now to overcome being more than just a place where these brands can be bought.”