Luxury brands losing out on custom from the rich

Luxury brands are failing Britain's affluent online shoppers with their poor Web presence.

A report by Ledbury Research shows that just over half of the UK's estimates 2m consumers with over £100,000 of investable assets (excluding the value of their main home) would shop online for clothes, while almost a quarter said they would shop for jewellery.

Yet Ledbury's review of 25 key luxury-good Web sites found that most luxury brands have no clear Internet strategy and fear they can't deliver luxury brand values online.

The majority of sites reviewed scored less than 50% overall when scrutinised in six areas including speed, content and e-commerce. Only two single-brand retailers scored well, as did multi-brand retailer Net-A-Porter.

'People's expectations have been set by sites like Amazon', said Elaine Pinkster, senior consultant at Ledbury. 'To be credible, luxury brand sites have to meet that level of service, if not surpass it. They're simply not serving their market and missing out on revenue.'

Almost half of the 1,000 affluent consumers questioned said they'd bought a product costing £250 or more online in the last year.

www.newmediazero.com Claire Armitt 2004-06-21