Chanel sells fragrances, cosmetics, and eyewear online, and the Paris-based brand is holding its ground there. While its competitors are rushing to bank on the fact that online sales of luxury goods are expected to triple in the next 10 years, Chanel will not be making a splash into the e-commerce game in a meaningful way any time soon, “making it one of the fashion world’s last hold-outs as rivals experiment with websites to win over new clients,” per Reuters.
LVMH recently rolled out an entirely new digital platform, a multi-brand e-commerce site called 24 Sèvres, in an attempt to meet the online luxury needs of consumers in more than 75 countries. Even 180-year old Hermès – with its unwaveringly in-demand Birkin and Kelly bags and notorious aversion for a full-scale digital adoption – is investing online.
Yet, according to Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel, the brand will not begin selling ready-to-wear or larger accessories online anytime soon. “If you give everything to everyone straight away, I think you lose that exclusivity,” Pavlovsky told a Vogue conference in Paris. “I‘m not saying we won’t try it one day, but if we do it will be because we’ll really think there’s some added value.”
According to Reuters, “Luxury goods brands were slow to develop e-commerce sites as they worried that making products too widely available would erode their cachet. But most have now taken the plunge.”
But despite Chanel’s title of the last-standing outliers, the brand is not losing out when it comes to its bottom line, Pavlovsky said, adding that the label, founded by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in 1910, is reaching an increasingly young audience and boasts waiting lists for best-selling bags.
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