Luxury Store Openings Fell 46 Percent This Year. The Industry Did Not Shrink. It Got Bigger, in Fewer Places.

New research from JLL, citing Bain figures, shows monobrand luxury store openings running 15 to 20 percent below 2022 levels this year, with total openings down 46 percent year over year. Average flagship size has grown more than 30 percent over the same period, and Deloitte's Global Powers of Luxury Goods 2026 report finds 39.3 percent of luxury executives are actively planning to optimize their store networks, favoring fewer, higher-quality locations over raw door count.

LVMH and Richemont together accounted for roughly 30 percent of the openings that did happen, but LVMH's new stores averaged nearly 9,000 square feet, almost three times the average size of Richemont's. Kering and Zegna each accounted for less than 5 percent of new openings, a sign of how selective the largest players have become about where they spend on real estate at all.

The logic is straightforward: a single large flagship can house a broader range of categories, host private client events, and function as brand marketing in a way a small standalone boutique cannot. This is a bet on where growth is actually coming from, high-value clients who expect a full-service flagship experience, at a moment when jewelry is outperforming leather goods across nearly every major house. The risk is concentration: fewer, bigger stores in fewer cities means more revenue depends on the health of a shrinking number of specific addresses. Related: The Luxury Recovery Has a Gucci-Shaped Hole in It