The raft of headwinds – from concerns over China to a seismic shift in consumer tastes, weighing on luxury brands means the sector may be forced to embrace a new normal, suggest analysts.

“The luxury sector and the largest companies within it need to adjust to a new normal,” Luca Solca, head of luxury goods at Exane BNP Paribas, told CNBC Tuesday.

“If we had growth between 7 or 8 percent in the past five or six years, my view is that we’re going to go to 2 to 5 percent in the next three to five years, and (luxury firms) need to adjust their cost profile and adjust their (capital expenditure) to that,” Solca adds.

A shift in consumer demand, a devalued yuan and China’s anti-corruption drive push companies to rethink how they operate in the market, the once big contributor to luxury, China has now become an area of uncertainty for brands.

Growth has also been impacted by geopolitical situations such as the terror attacks in Paris and a “relatively weak” global macroeconomic picture. However a greater number of stores and higher prices may not be the best strategy for luxury firms, analysts suggest.

“Luxury isn’t really luxury when it’s sold everywhere to everyone; it loses exclusivity, and in turn its entwinement with selectiveness. When luxury is exclusive, and better yet, recognizably exclusive, it reaches its greatest desirability,” Winston Chesterfield, research director at intelligence provider Wealth-X, told CNBC by email.

By showing an understanding for different natural and social environments, brands should focus on tailoring their goods — in both design and purpose — to each region they want to attract, Chesterfield said, in order to avoid harming “the sense of exclusivity”. This will give brands “an edge” over the mass market.

On Tuesday, French luxury titan LVMH reported 2016’s first-quarter earnings where it noted that total revenue rose 4 percent to 8.62 billion euros ($9.8 billion) year-on-year as the sale in its fashion division fell flat in the first quarter. Decline in French tourism spending and varied performance in Asia were cited by the company as the reasons.

There could be a shift in consumer spending: away from clothes to experience -related expenditure, such as a travel and eating out, noted one of the UK’s most popular clothing retailers Next in March ad warned that 2016 would be a “challenging year” also because of an uncertain economic environment worldwide.

Chesterfield explained that now “experimental luxury” events have become incorporated into space and social media has become the driver of that. An example if such an event could be a unique once-in-a-lifetime holiday.

“Food and travel experiences are a part of the broadened palette of luxury consumers. Now that they have the means to broadcast and ‘own’ these experiences, it has made the world of luxury experience – which has infinitely more variety than the world of luxury products – more alluring,” he said.

“Contemporary luxury is not just about materials, provenance and process, but more about innovation, sustainability and experience,” Jonathan Openshaw, editor at The Future Laboratory, told CNBC by email.

“But it’s very much about showing that you’re as engaged with the contemporary world as your consumers are, and that your brand isn’t frozen in aspic,” Openshaw added.

(Adapted from cnbc.com)