As previously announced the luxury label LVMH Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey will close their shopping portal eLuxury.com by the end of the month. In the press release:
“eLUXURY was a pioneer in luxury e-commerce and served as the “launching pad” for many of the world’s most famous luxury brands.
It is now moving to the next step of its evolution, a process which will reposition it as a premier source of editorial content, information, and inspiration for luxury customers around the world.”
As rationale, the Internetretailer wrote at the beginning of the year:
“Closing eLuxury.com’s retail operation was not based on the site’s financial performance, the company says, but because many of the brands it sells have developed their own online presence.
ELuxury.com had sales of $90 million in 2007, a 20% increase from the prior year, according to Internet Retailer estimates.”
Apparently, over the years more than $150 million had been financed by the investors to build up eluxury.com. Still, Net-a-porter and the Gilt Groupe have in the long run managed to outpace eluxury.
Fitting is the current report (PDF) from Abrams Research on the market for luxury brands.
Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.
