MGR eCommerce Edge Weekly | September 16, 2020
Top News This Week

Amazon Launches into Luxury, but Who’s Buying?

Earlier this year luxury giant LVMH, owners of brands like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy, and many others, said they would never list their products on Amazon. This was accompanied by a chorus of other brands stating the same.

Despite this, Amazon is launching their luxury marketplace anyways, the question is what brands will be there and Amazon be able to draw the luxury buyer?

Initially the brands available will be Oscar de la Renta and Roland Mouret. Amazon says they will be adding more down the road. This is quite underwhelming, and certainly will not get luxury buyers overly excited.

I anticipate this endeavor to completely fail. I’ve discussed numerous times in the past why Amazon will never win in luxury with this current strategy, and that their best bet would be to buy one of the already thriving luxury marketplaces and keep it using a name that is not “Amazon”.

After all Walmart is the biggest retailer in the history of the world, but there’s a reason you’ve never seen a Walmart “luxury” section in their stores. Amazon will soon learn the same lesson.

Other Notable Links:

1. Simon Properties is buying up seemingly every failing retailer, this week’s acquisition was JC Penney – NYT
2. LVMH cancels acquisition of Tiffany & Co – CNBC
3. Analysis of why pharma giant Bayer bought Care/of – MODERN RETAIL

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