E-commerce will become the third largest luxury market?

According to the Altagamma-McKinsey Luxury Digital Marketing Watch annual report, luxury online sales reached 14 billion euros (188.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, an increase of 50% compared to the previous year. It currently accounts for 6% of the global luxury market performance, which is a 2% increase compared to 2009.

The report predicts that the market share of online sales will double to 12% in 2020 and triple to 18% in 2025, making e-commerce the world's third-largest luxury goods market after China and the United States.

To some extent, the exclusive exclusive luxury retail world has become the last barrier to shopping in the old days. But the alarm bell has already sounded and luxury brands have not escaped the excuse of the Internet. Industry analysts said that high-end categories failed to provide an experience like mass-market retailers. But luxury brands have lost their historical advantage. The question now is how they can bridge this gap. In November last year, the last bastion of luxury brands refusing to enter e-commerce was broken. Dior, a luxury brand, began launching e-commerce services.

The performance of watches and jewellery on the Internet is somewhat behind that of beautiful makeups and ready-made garments. According to research, transactions generated by the network account for only 4.1%.

However, retailer reports indicate that turnover is increasing rapidly. The British Aurum Group, which owns the watch brands Goldsmiths and Mappin & Webb, is the UK’s largest online watch retailer in addition to the Watch Shop. It stated that in 2015, the company’s overall e-commerce business grew by 25%. In 2015, the Group recorded a revenue of 414 million pounds (US$ 616 million), and currently generates 14% of its revenue through the Internet.

Brian Duffy, Aurum Group’s CEO, points out: “The importance of luxury watch sales through online channels is already very obvious. The network of transactions is unavoidable and online media is a very good watch sales channel.” He said that through the Internet, on the mobile phone screen In addition to being able to see the size of the watch, consumers can easily retrieve the favorite product, thanks to the realization of the Internet technology.

Brian Duffy emphasized: "People gradually conduct web searches and check websites, but then they will go to physical stores. Multi-channel shopping experience may become a more important development trend in the future." Even the long-term opposition to the luxury of e-commerce Giant goods are also changing their attitude.

Cartier, the core jewelry brand of the French Richemont Group, launched an online retail platform in China in November and opened the official website mall in Japan, the United States and Europe.

At the end of last year, KPMG’s survey on China’s online shopping consumption announced by KPMG benefited from the continued rapid growth in the penetration rate of smartphones. China’s online and mobile luxury goods consumption has shown explosive growth. 45% of respondents said that most of their luxury goods are purchased through online channels.

Richemont Group revealed: “The brand has opened boutiques in China for more than 20 years. The current retail network is very fixed. However, the stores do not cover every city in China. E-commerce is a faster way to consume and can quickly Recommend to all customers in China and provide services at the same level as physical stores."

Like many luxury brands, Cartier has begun to realize the importance of a multi-channel shopping experience.

The company added: “One of the most important things is to develop e-commerce so that brands realize that what we do in boutiques is right, and how brands can transform physical store services into e-commerce. In this sense, we see that e-commerce really serves as a complementary channel to help brands establish contact with customers and strengthen their determination to visit stores."

Undoubtedly, e-commerce is indeed a very important channel for luxury brand sales in the future, and now Cartier's accession will further produce follow-up effects, bringing real changes to the entire jewelry and watch industry. The new era began mercilessly. Two years ago, who would think of jewelry giant Cartier will lean down to develop e-commerce market.

In addition, Zenith recently became the first brand in the men's online store Mr Porter sold in the LVMH Group. Zenith CEO Aldo Magada said that for such a small brand like them, Mr Porter provides a great way to reach new customers.