Online luxury

Global online sales of luxury goods increased by 65% in 2007 to reach €1.5bn (£1.28bn), according to consultants Bain & Company. Yet, despite the massive growth in the online channel, still only a third of the luxury sector currently sell online – although nearly all brands have a website. This is despite the fact that eight out of 10 global affluent and high net worth consumers use the internet daily, and research and buy luxury goods and services online on a regular basis, Forrester Research has discovered. In developed countries, some 95% of the affluent use the internet, according to Ledbury Research figures published in June 2009.

By Anne-Fay Townsend, Jacob Strand and Joanna Boxall