Shopping for kids’ luxury brands: young mothers’ identity quest in retail spaces

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on mothers as key influencers in luxury retailing contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a semiotic interpretation of mothers’ discourses, the authors underline the identity motivations for purchasing luxury apparel for their pre-adolescent children.

Findings

The paper shows that when shopping for luxury brands for their pre-adolescent children, mothers manage discrepancies between their “real” and “idealised” selves as well as the pushes and pulls of being a mother and a woman.

Research limitations/implications

The findings point to possible future research on this topic, particularly with regard to investigating how luxury stores and retailers can adapt so as to satisfy mothers’ identity quest.

Practical implications

Managers of luxury brand retail spaces looking at the future of retailing could analyse their store environment in the light of these mothers’ identity-related motivations. As well as focussing on how children look, store layout and merchandising should provide different spaces for mothers’ identity expression, using new in-store digital technologies.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first to analyse luxury shopping for children taking the point of view of mothers. The paper underlines how young mothers build their new maternal identity and their projected relationship with their child through purchases of children’s luxury goods in specific retail environments.

Citation

Silhouette-Dercourt, V. and de Lassus, C. (2016), "Shopping for kids’ luxury brands: young mothers’ identity quest in retail spaces", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 44 No. 11, pp. 1084-1099. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-08-2015-0133