How the Top 20% of Consumers Create a New Market Order

Consumer economics

The plutocratic consumer

How the Top 20% Are Reshaping Markets, Redefining Quality, and Rewriting the Rules of Commerce Across Europe, America, and Beyond

by Thomas R. Henriksen
February 26, 2026 · 30-minute read

Summary. The wealthiest fifth of the world’s consumer population has become the decisive force in global commerce. From grocery aisles in Munich to automobile dealerships in Connecticut, from insurance offices in Zürich to telecom stores in Seoul, the top income quintile now accounts for a disproportionate and growing share of industry revenue and profit. This analysis examines how these consumers think, what triggers their purchasing decisions, how their behavior diverges across the European Union, the United States, and other developed economies, and what their ascendancy means for every company that serves them.

The age of the concentrated consumer

Something fundamental has changed in the architecture of consumer capitalism. For much of the twentieth century, the commercial engine of Western economies was powered by a broad middle class whose consumption patterns were relatively uniform and whose brand loyalties were forged by television advertising, neighborhood retail, and generational habit. That world no longer exists. In its place, a narrower band of consumers, the top 20 percent by income, has assumed a role of outsized commercial importance that would have been inconceivable to the marketers and merchandisers of even two decades ago.

The numbers tell a stark story. According to analysis published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in late 2025, the top quintile of American earners is responsible for approximately 57 percent of all consumption expenditure in the United States, up from roughly 53 percent three decades earlier. An even more provocative estimate from Moody’s Analytics, widely cited after Bloomberg’s September 2025 reporting, places the top 10 percent alone at 49.2 percent of total consumer spending, the highest share in data going back to 1989. As Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi wrote, the economy is now “narrowly perched on the backs of the well-to-do.” An Axios report from January 2026 went further, placing the top 20 percent at 59 percent of all U.S. consumer spending, a near-record.

Europe presents a less extreme but directionally identical pattern. Euromonitor’s 2025 analysis of affluent consumers within the European Union noted that Social Class A, the highest-income segment, is both growing and aging, with affluent consumers aged 65 and above expanding by 3.4 percent annually and representing nearly 20 percent of Europe’s wealthiest cohort. McKinsey’s December 2025 update on European consumer sentiment found that only 37 percent of European consumers intended to splurge in the near term, but those who did were overwhelmingly concentrated in the upper income brackets, favoring travel and dining out above all other categories. In France, Kantar Worldpanel’s 2025 Perspectives report documented a widening divide: wealthier French households increased their grocery spending by 0.6 percent while blue-collar workers, farmers, and middle-income families cut theirs by 3.2 percent.

The economy is narrowly perched on the backs of the well-to-do. Their financial situation is about as good as it’s ever been, their spending never stronger, and the economy never more dependent on that group.

The global picture is equally striking. The Bain & Company–Altagamma Luxury Goods Worldwide Market Study, published in November 2025, estimated total global luxury spending at €1.44 trillion, broadly flat year-on-year but sustained almost entirely by ultra-wealthy and high-net-worth buyers while aspirational consumers pulled back. The luxury consumer base itself contracted by roughly 20 million people between 2024 and 2025, yet aggregate spending held. The math is clear: fewer people, spending more per capita, holding the entire edifice aloft.

Inside the European wallet: How the EU’s wealthiest quintile spends

The European Union’s top 20 percent is a more heterogeneous group than its American counterpart, distributed across 27 member states with distinct tax regimes, social contracts, and cultural relationships to consumption. A German high earner in Düsseldorf does not shop the same way as a Portuguese professional in Lisbon or an Italian industrialist in Milan. Yet across this diversity, certain patterns are remarkably consistent.

In grocery and FMCG, the top quintile’s influence is less about volume and more about margin. McKinsey’s State of Grocery Retail Europe 2025 report found that European grocery sales grew by just 2.4 percent in 2024, barely above food price inflation of 2.3 percent. Volume growth was essentially flat. The growth that existed was driven primarily by premiumization, consumers trading up to more expensive products in categories such as fresh food, functional health foods, protein-rich options, and convenience meals. These are disproportionately the choices of higher-income households. McKinsey’s own consumer survey confirmed that approximately 25 percent of European consumers traded up in 2024, and these up-traders were overwhelmingly drawn from the upper income segments.

The profit dynamics are even more revealing. Grocery retail is a notoriously thin-margin business, typically operating at net margins of 2 to 4 percent. Within that narrow band, premium product lines, organic produce, specialty cheeses, high-end ready meals, craft beverages, and wellness-oriented FMCG, carry margins that can be two to three times the category average. When a Waitrose customer in London selects a Heston Blumenthal collaboration range or when a Monoprix shopper in Paris reaches for a premium Gourmet line, the retailer earns margin that subsidizes the rest of the store. Industry analysts at Circana Europe estimated in 2025 that premium and super-premium tiers, though representing a smaller fraction of unit volume, contribute between 30 and 40 percent of grocery category profit in Western European markets. The top quintile, which gravitates toward these tiers, thus punches well above its demographic weight in retailer profitability.

The FMCG landscape: Profit concentration in everyday goods

In the broader FMCG sector, the picture is structurally similar. NielsenIQ’s Consumer Outlook: Guide to 2026, published in late 2025, reported that the global FMCG market was projected to reach USD 6.6 trillion in value, with growth predominantly price-led. Across 25 countries surveyed, 69 percent of consumers viewed private-label products as good value for money, and 68 percent saw them as viable alternatives to name brands. But here is where the segmentation matters: the top quintile does not behave like the average consumer. While it participates in private label, a point we will return to, it does so selectively, often choosing premium private-label tiers while simultaneously maintaining loyalty to branded products in categories where brand signals quality, provenance, or status.

The FMCG profit picture mirrors grocery: the wealthiest 20 percent of consumers are estimated to generate between 35 and 45 percent of FMCG net profit across European markets, according to converging analyses from NielsenIQ and Europanel. This is not because they buy dramatically more toothpaste or laundry detergent, but because they buy differently: premium formulations, larger pack sizes in some categories, organic and sustainability-certified options, and innovation-led products that carry higher margins. They are the first adopters of functional foods, plant-based protein at premium price points, and high-end personal care, the categories that FMCG companies count on for margin expansion.

Travel, leisure, and the experience economy

If grocery is where the top quintile’s influence is subtle, travel and leisure is where it becomes unmistakable. According to the Affluential TrendLens 2025, 88 percent of high-net-worth individuals planned international travel in the following twelve months, and luxury travel spending was projected to grow by 15 percent, even as spending on most luxury product categories remained flat or contracted. Bank of America’s January 2025 Consumer Morsel report found that high-income American households drove a 6 percent overall spending increase on American Express cards, including a 7 percent rise in restaurant spending and an 11 percent surge in premium airfare. The top 5 percent of households by income saw luxury spending growth of 10.5 percent year-on-year, with abroad spending particularly strong in Europe.

Within the European Union, the travel and leisure industry’s dependency on the top quintile is structural. Southern European economies, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, derive a significant share of their GDP from tourism, and the premium segment of that tourism is overwhelmingly driven by affluent European, American, and Gulf State travelers. The Bain-Altagamma study noted that Chinese tourist spending fell about 15 percent in 2025, but spending from Gulf visitors rose 5 to 10 percent and U.S. tourist spending increased roughly 5 percent, with Paris and Milan remaining the undisputed leaders. For Europe’s hospitality industry, the top quintile is not merely important, it is existentially so.

Automobiles, insurance, banking, telecom, and beyond

The automotive industry tells a story of deepening bifurcation. WARC’s analysis in early 2025 noted that the average cost of a new American car approached $50,000, a figure that effectively prices out much of the middle class and reflects how the industry has restructured itself around the affluent buyer. In Europe, premium and luxury marques, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo’s upper range, together command roughly 35 to 40 percent of the passenger vehicle market by revenue, though they represent a smaller share of units sold. The top quintile is the natural buyer of these vehicles, and their purchase decisions ripple through dealer networks, financing arms, and aftermarket services. The Bain-Altagamma report found that high-end was gaining share specifically in the automotive segment, even as the overall luxury goods market contracted slightly.

In financial services, the concentration is even more pronounced. The top 20 percent of households hold approximately 87 percent of all directly and indirectly held corporate equities in the United States, according to RBC Economics’ November 2025 analysis. They are correspondingly the heaviest users of wealth management, private banking, investment advisory, and premium insurance products. In European banking, the affluent quintile generates an estimated 60 to 70 percent of retail banking profit, driven by higher balances, more complex product usage, and lower relative servicing costs. In insurance, the pattern repeats: the top quintile is more likely to carry comprehensive coverage across health, life, property, and liability, often with premium add-ons and riders that carry higher margins. Swiss Re’s annual sigma report has consistently shown that insurance penetration and premium spending correlate strongly with income, and that the wealthiest segments cross-purchase across more product lines.

Telecommunications offers a slightly different dynamic but an identical conclusion. The top quintile does not necessarily make more phone calls, but it subscribes to premium plans, upgrades devices more frequently, bundles services, and is less price-sensitive about data overages or roaming charges. Simon-Kucher’s research in 2025 found that telecom operators worldwide are leaving roughly 40 percent of customer value untapped, with the greatest opportunity residing in the willingness of affluent subscribers to pay for enhanced reliability, priority service, and bundled content.

In apparel and footwear, the top quintile’s role is less about volume and more about value. Bain’s data shows that personal luxury goods, a €358 billion market in 2025, are overwhelmingly purchased by the top 20 percent. Even in non-luxury segments, higher-income consumers drive the premium and bridge categories that sit between mass market and true luxury, purchasing brands like Cos, Arket, Massimo Dutti, J.Crew, and Club Monaco that operate at higher price points and margins than fast fashion.

KEY FINDING: Across industries from grocery to banking, the top 20% of consumers are estimated to generate between 40% and 70% of sector profits, with the concentration highest in financial services, luxury travel, and premium automotive, and lowest, though still disproportionate, in basic grocery retail.

What the wealthiest consumers actually care about

Understanding what triggers a purchase decision among the top quintile is the central question for any brand or retailer targeting this segment. The answer is more nuanced than conventional wisdom suggests, and it varies meaningfully between Europe and the United States.

Quality as the supreme filter

Across every major consumer survey conducted in 2024 and 2025, one finding is remarkably consistent: perception of quality is the single most important factor in the purchasing decisions of affluent consumers, in Europe even more than in the United States. McKinsey’s July 2025 study on European consumer values in packaging and products found that quality and price remain the top two factors influencing purchasing decisions across the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Sweden, but that quality outranks price among higher-income segments. The importance of brand in purchasing decisions grew modestly in the 2023 to 2025 period, and McKinsey interpreted this as consumers increasingly viewing brand reputation as a proxy for quality assurance.

But what do affluent consumers mean by quality? Across recent datasets and surveys from firms such as NielsenIQ, PwC, Euromonitor, and Thales, the signal is strikingly consistent. In 2026, ‘quality’ is increasingly interpreted as repeatability of experience: the product’s ability to deliver the same satisfactory outcome every time, rather than relying on luxury cues, premium packaging, or celebrity endorsement.

PwC’s 2025 Voice of the Consumer research reinforced this finding: 57 percent of consumers expressed concern about the health risks of ultra-processed foods, while 64 percent cited price as a key consideration in food choices. For the top quintile, these concerns converge into a demand for products that are simultaneously safe, transparent in their ingredient sourcing, consistent in taste and performance, and fairly priced relative to the quality delivered.

The implication for food brands is straightforward. Branded products increasingly have to justify their premium through consistent taste and credible quality signals, while private label gains fastest where it can match safety, freshness, and ingredient transparency.

The price-quality nexus: Not cheap, but fair

A persistent misconception holds that affluent consumers are indifferent to price. They are not. What distinguishes them is not a disregard for price but a distinctive relationship with it. For the top quintile, price is evaluated through the lens of value delivered, what they receive relative to what they pay.

Deloitte’s Global Outlook 2026 found that nearly half of consumers are actively seeking value, a stance that extends well into higher-income households. What began as a response to post-pandemic inflation has matured into a permanent orientation: affluent consumers are not willing to pay for features or branding unless the quality outcome is guaranteed.

This helps explain a phenomenon that confounds many brand managers: the top quintile’s willingness to shop in hard discount stores. In Germany, where Aldi and Lidl together command a massive share of the grocery market, Stiftung Warentest, the country’s most trusted independent product testing organization, has repeatedly found that discount private-label products perform as well as or better than leading national brands. A 2025 SWR study found that 60 percent of German shoppers are buying more private-label products due to the lasting effects of inflation, and this trend extends well into the upper income brackets. The affluent German consumer who drives a BMW and holidays in Tuscany may well do their weekly grocery shopping at Aldi SÜd, not because they must, but because they have concluded, on the evidence, that the quality-to-price ratio is superior.

Brand power: Respected, but no longer unquestioned

Brand strength still matters to the top quintile, but its role has shifted from automatic loyalty to earned trust. McKinsey’s State of the Consumer 2025 found that brand exploration continues across all income cohorts, with consumers far more willing than in the past to switch brands and try new products. Among affluent consumers specifically, brand functions as a quality signal and a risk-reduction mechanism rather than as an identity marker. They purchase Apple for its ecosystem reliability, LVMH brands for their craftsmanship assurance, and Miele for its engineering reputation, but they will abandon any of these without hesitation if the product fails to deliver consistent quality.

The Bain-Altagamma study offers a cautionary illustration: the luxury consumer base contracted from roughly 400 million in 2022 to 340 million in 2025, with active shoppers falling from 60 percent of the addressable base to 40 to 45 percent. This is not a story of affluent consumers becoming less wealthy; it is a story of brand disillusionment. When products are perceived as overpriced relative to the experience they deliver, a criticism increasingly leveled at several large luxury houses, even wealthy buyers walk away.

Customer service as a purchasing trigger

One of the more striking findings in recent research is the growing importance of customer care as a determinant of purchase and loyalty among affluent consumers. PwC’s September 2025 Customer Experience survey found that 52 percent of consumers stopped buying from a brand after a bad product or service experience, and 29 percent stopped due to poor customer experience specifically.

In 2026, customer service is no longer merely operational. It has become part of the product. Warmth, empathy, and effective problem resolution increasingly function as purchase triggers in their own right, shaping both perceived quality and value.

For the top quintile, which has both the means and the willingness to take its business elsewhere, the cost of poor service is immediate and permanent.

Sustainability: Valued, but subordinate to performance

The relationship between affluent consumers and sustainability is more complex than the marketing narratives suggest. McKinsey’s 2024 and 2025 consumer surveys documented a notable decline in the importance of sustainability claims as a purchasing factor among younger consumers in Europe and the United States, with willingness to pay a premium for sustainable products falling by up to four percentage points across product categories. Euromonitor’s 2025 global consumer trends report found that only 18 percent of consumers made impulse purchases, suggesting deliberate, value-oriented decision-making in which sustainability competes with, and often loses to, price and performance.

For the top quintile specifically, sustainability matters, but it operates as a tiebreaker rather than a primary driver. McKinsey’s State of Grocery Retail Europe 2025 found that the share of consumers wanting to buy more sustainable products actually decreased, though Gen Z and millennials showed 1.8 times greater intent to purchase sustainably than older generations. The affluent consumer will choose the sustainably sourced olive oil, but only if it tastes as good and costs within a reasonable premium of the conventional alternative. PwC found that while 44 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for environmentally sustainable food production, 82 percent do not routinely seek information on brands’ climate initiatives. Sustainability is a threshold criterion, not a decisive one.

The private label revolution and the affluent shopper

Perhaps the most significant commercial development of the past three years is the structural transformation of private label from a budget substitute into a mainstream, and in some cases premium, consumer choice. Private label sales across Europe reached €352 billion in 2024, capturing 38.5 percent of total grocery market value, according to PLMA International data compiled by NielsenIQ and released in March 2025. This represented a €20 billion increase over the prior period, with private label growing at 6 percent versus 4 percent for manufacturer brands. Six European markets now report private-label shares exceeding 40 percent of grocery value, with Czechia leading at 52 percent.

The critical insight for understanding the top quintile is that this is not merely a trade-down story. McKinsey’s 2025 grocery report found that 84 percent of European consumers intend to continue buying private-label products even if their purchasing power grows. NielsenIQ’s Western Europe analysis found that 55 percent of consumers are purchasing more private-label items than ever before, and that the stigma surrounding store brands has substantially faded, with 68 percent viewing them as viable alternatives. Innovation in private label now accounts for 44 percent of all new product introductions in Western European food, with almost 70 percent in the food category specifically.

Affluent consumers are participating in this shift, but on their own terms. They gravitate toward premium private-label tiers, Tesco Finest, Albert Heijn’s Excellent, Carrefour’s Sélection, Rewe’s Feine Welt, or Coop’s premium range in Italy, where the product quality is designed to match or exceed branded equivalents at a lower price. They also adopt private label readily in categories they consider low-involvement, paper products, basic cleaning supplies, staple pantry items, while maintaining branded loyalty in high-involvement categories such as skincare, premium wine, coffee, and baby products where they perceive real differentiation.

The hard discount question: Who actually shops at Aldi and Lidl?

The stereotype of the discount shopper as exclusively budget-conscious is empirically wrong. In Germany, Aldi and Lidl are not stores for the poor; they are stores for the pragmatic. The top quintile shops there, not exclusively, but regularly. The same German executive who subscribes to a premium newspaper and drives a leased Audi Q5 will purchase Aldi’s award-winning olive oil, Lidl’s well-regarded Deluxe range, and Aldi’s Moser Roth chocolate. The reason is not frugality in any defensive sense but rational optimization: these products consistently score well in blind tastings and independent tests, and the price savings compound meaningfully over a year of weekly shopping.

This behavioral pattern is replicated, albeit less intensely, across Europe. In the United Kingdom, Aldi and Lidl have together captured roughly 20 percent of the grocery market, and industry surveys consistently show that their customer base spans the income spectrum. In Spain, hard discount penetration is lower but growing. In France, Lidl’s strong end-of-year recovery in 2024 signals a promising trajectory, as noted in Kantar’s data. The affluent consumer’s relationship with hard discount is functional: they use discounters for staples and selected premium private-label items while shopping at Waitrose, Monoprix, or Rewe for specialist products, fresh produce, and categories where they want curation and service.

In the United States, the dynamic is somewhat different. Hard discount in the European sense is less established, though Aldi’s rapid expansion has brought the model to more American consumers. The American affluent shopper’s equivalent behavior is the blend of Costco, for bulk, premium staples, and the treasure-hunt experience, Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe’s, for curated quality and health-oriented products, and conventional supermarkets or online grocery for everything else. Walmart’s Great Value and Kirkland Signature from Costco function as the private-label equivalents that upper-income Americans have quietly embraced.

Brand allegiances: Favorites across categories and channels

The premium brand pantheon

The most-favored premium brands among the top quintile form a remarkably consistent list across Europe and North America. In personal luxury, Hermès stands apart, its double-digit growth across all regions in 2025, achieving a €300 billion valuation as documented by the Financial Times, reflects a client base of ultra-wealthy consumers drawn to its restrained production model and heritage craftsmanship. LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Celine), Chanel, and Brunello Cucinelli round out the European luxury hierarchy. In consumer electronics, Apple dominates. In automotive, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Audi in Europe; Lexus, Tesla, and the German marques in the United States. In home appliances and engineering, Miele, Bosch, and Dyson command loyalty. In premium grocery, affluent Europeans favor Waitrose, Marks & Spencer Food, and Albert Heijn in their respective markets; Americans favor Whole Foods Market and specialty independents.

The FMCG brand landscape

In FMCG specifically, the top quintile’s brand preferences reflect their emphasis on quality, performance, and trust. In personal care, brands like La Roche-Posay, CeraVe (both L’Oréal), Weleda, and Dr. Hauschka perform strongly among European affluent consumers seeking science-backed or natural formulations. In food, the picture is more fragmented by market: Italian affluent consumers are deeply attached to regional producers and PDO-certified products; German consumers to quality-tested brands; French consumers to artisanal traditions. Across all markets, Nestlé, Unilever’s premium portfolio (Knorr, Hellmann’s, Dove at the upper end), Danone, and Ferrero maintain strong positions. P&G’s premium lines, particularly in home care and personal care, resonate with the quality-seeking affluent buyer.

What is notable about the affluent consumer’s FMCG brand preferences is their increasing willingness to combine branded and private-label products in the same shopping basket. By early 2026, private label in much of Europe no longer looks like a fallback. For many households, including affluent ones, it has become a considered preference that can shape retailer choice. ICERTIAS concluded, drawing on NielsenIQ’s 2025 data across 25 countries, that 69 percent of online consumers view private label as good value for money. For the top quintile, the calculus is rational: use private label where the quality matches (and save the difference), invest in brands where the differentiation is real (and pay the premium willingly).

Hard discount favorites: When affluent consumers go to Aldi

Among those in the top quintile who shop at hard discount chains, specific product ranges have earned genuine loyalty. Aldi’s Specially Selected range in the UK (and its equivalents across European markets), Lidl’s Deluxe range, and Aldi’s Moser Roth chocolate are frequently cited in consumer satisfaction research. Aldi’s wine selections have won numerous international awards and attract dedicated affluent shoppers. Lidl’s bakery operations, particularly in Germany and France, are considered among the best value propositions in European grocery. PLMA’s 2025 Amsterdam exhibition, which attracted over 32,000 professionals from 125 countries, documented the increasingly blurred line between private label and national brands, with many store-brand products now positioned as premium offerings carrying certification-backed claims, origin labeling, and sustainability credentials.

The American top quintile: A different kind of affluent consumer

The American top 20 percent differs from its European counterpart in several meaningful ways. First, the concentration of spending power is more extreme. The RBC Economics analysis of November 2025 found that the top 10 percent of American households poured roughly $30 trillion into liquid financial assets since 2020, six times more than any other group. They hold 87 percent of all corporate equities. This asset base generates wealth effects that directly fuel consumption: for every $1 increase in net worth, Moody’s estimates that consumer spending ultimately increases by two cents, and this “seemingly insignificant” ratio added a full percentage point to consumer spending growth and over 0.7 percent to GDP growth in the most recent fiscal year.

Second, the American affluent consumer is more overtly experiential in their spending orientation. Bank of America’s payment data shows that high-income households drove an 11 percent surge in premium airfare spending and a 7 percent increase in restaurant spending in 2024. The gap between spending on summer and winter travel versus the rest of the year is driven almost entirely by the wealthiest cohort. This experiential orientation is consistent with broader findings from McKinsey: affluent American baby boomers, a cohort with household incomes exceeding $100,000 that represents roughly 30 percent of U.S. purchasing power, are particularly focused on experiential spending, with travel as their dominant discretionary category.

Third, the American top quintile is more brand-pluralistic than its European equivalent. They are simultaneously customers of Whole Foods and Costco, of Tiffany and Target, of premium direct-to-consumer brands and Amazon Basics. This reflects a consumer culture that is less class-coded in its retail choices than in Europe, where the association between store choice and social identity remains stronger in countries like France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Asia-Pacific, the Gulf, and emerging wealth

Outside Europe and North America, the top quintile’s behavior carries additional dimensions. In Japan, the affluent consumer is exceptionally quality-conscious and service-oriented, with expectations for customer care that exceed any other market. The Bain report noted that Japan’s luxury market decelerated in 2025 after a strong 2024, due in part to cooling tourism, but domestic demand from the top quintile remained steady. In South Korea, Australia, and Singapore, the affluent consumer blends Western luxury preferences with strong local brand loyalties.

In the Gulf states, affluent consumers have increased their luxury spending in Europe by 5 to 10 percent, making them an increasingly important cross-border force. In China, the story is one of reorientation: affluent consumers are shifting toward local brands and experience-driven categories, with mainland luxury spending contracting 3 to 5 percent in 2025. In India and Brazil, the emerging affluent class represents what McKinsey described as the next frontier, consumers who are more optimistic than their Western counterparts, with over 40 percent of wealthy aging consumers in emerging markets expecting to spend much more on entertainment, compared with only 7 percent in Europe and 11 percent in the United States.

The Affluential TrendLens 2025 found that luxury travel spending among high-net-worth individuals is projected to grow 15 percent globally, with the sharpest increase among Indian HNWIs. For companies operating across these markets, the message is clear: the top quintile is global in its aspirations, but local in its execution. Brands that can calibrate their offer to this dual reality, consistent global quality standards with market-specific cultural resonance, will capture the growth that remains available.

The architecture of the decision: A synthesis

Drawing together the evidence from across industries and geographies, the purchasing decision architecture of the top 20 percent can be distilled into a hierarchy of priorities, operating differently than the conventional wisdom would predict.

First comes quality, defined as consistency and reliability of experience. This is the non-negotiable filter. No amount of branding, marketing, or price advantage can overcome a product that fails to deliver the same good outcome every time. The ICERTIAS Business Intelligence Unit’s 2026 analysis places this finding at the center of the contemporary consumer landscape: shoppers have learned that a low price can come with hidden costs, and that a well-known brand does not always guarantee consistent quality.

Second comes value-for-money, not lowest price, but fairest price relative to quality delivered. This is why the top quintile shops at Aldi and Costco alongside Waitrose and Whole Foods: not to save money per se, but to optimize the quality-to-price ratio across their entire consumption basket. The NielsenIQ finding that 69 percent of consumers globally view private label as good value for money captures this mindset precisely.

Third comes trust, expressed through brand reputation, customer service quality, and transparency. Trust is both a quality shortcut (the brand signals that the product will be consistent) and an emotional bond (the company treats me with respect when things go wrong). PwC’s finding that 52 percent of consumers stopped buying from a brand after a bad experience quantifies the cost of betraying this trust. Thales’s 2025 data showed that privacy concerns drove 82 percent of consumers to abandon a brand, with particular impact in e-commerce, banking, and telecom.

Fourth comes convenience and experience, the ease of purchasing, the quality of the shopping environment, and the service wrapper. Euromonitor’s 2025 survey found that 54 percent of connected consumers prefer physical stores that deliver engaging, immersive experiences, and this preference is particularly pronounced among affluent shoppers who can afford to be selective about where they spend their time.

Fifth, and last among the primary drivers, comes sustainability and social responsibility, valued but subordinated to the first four criteria. Only when quality, value, trust, and convenience are satisfied does the affluent consumer give meaningful weight to environmental and social considerations, and even then, primarily in categories like food, personal care, and fashion where the sustainability proposition has tangible, visible dimensions.

The top quintile has learned that a low price can come with hidden costs, and that a well-known brand does not always guarantee consistent quality. In 2026, the winning formula is clear: dependable performance, fair pricing, and a strong, repeatable balance between cost and quality.

The strategic imperative

For companies operating across the consumer economy, the implications of this analysis are both uncomfortable and clarifying. The top 20 percent of consumers are not merely a high-value segment, they are, in many industries, the segment. Their spending sustains grocery profitability, underwrites travel and hospitality revenue, bankrolls luxury brands, subsidizes financial services, and props up the macroeconomic consumer spending figures that policymakers treat as indicators of broad-based health.

The discomfort lies in the fragility this creates. As the RBC Economics analysis warned, this concentration of spending power means that aggregate demand is far more vulnerable than headline figures suggest. The top 20 percent holds 87 percent of corporate equities; a significant market correction would strike precisely where spending power is concentrated. The Moody’s estimate that the wealth effect added a full percentage point to consumer spending growth means that the same effect could subtract a full point in a downturn.

The clarification lies in what these consumers actually reward. They are not the caricature of the indifferent plutocrat spraying money at luxury goods. They are demanding, evidence-driven, increasingly brand-agnostic shoppers who will pay a fair price for consistent quality, abandon any brand that disappoints them, shop at both premium and discount channels within the same week, embrace private label enthusiastically where the quality justifies it, and give sustainability credit only where it is backed by transparent, verifiable claims. They want to be treated well when things go wrong. They want pricing that is honest and transparent. They want products that work the same way every time.

Companies that understand this, that quality consistency, not just quality aspiration, is the primary competitive advantage in 2026, will win and hold the most valuable consumer cohort in the global economy. Those that continue to rely on brand heritage, price escalation, or marketing narratives disconnected from product performance will find that even the wealthiest consumers are perfectly willing to look elsewhere.