BASEL, Switzerland: A boom in online luxury goods sales is finally convincing high-end watchmakers, long sceptical that customers would pay thousands to buy intricate timepieces on the web, to step up their investments in e-commerce.Courting younger shoppers, brands large and small are joining an online push sweeping the luxury goods world, where web sales are already major growth drivers for fashion labels. Richemont, owner of Cartier and Baume & Mercier, is offering up to 2.8 billion euros ($3.4 billion) for full control of multi-brand site Yoox Net-a-Porter. "There are watch adjustments that require customers to pass through a store," said Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of LVMH's Italian jeweller and watchmaker Bulgari.Bulgari already sells through its sites in the United States, China, Japan and the United Kingdom, and is rolling out e-commerce to all of Europe by year-end. It aims to launch in Australia early in 2019.Bulgari sees 30,000-40,000 euros as the ceiling for the kind of watches it would sell online, Babin added.Yet even those boundaries may one day shift. Mr Porter, a men's style site run by Yoox Net-A-Porter, this week launched the sale of its most expensive item yet, a $480,000 watch made of sapphire by French label Bell & Ross.

Source: The Star March 25, 2018 08:03 UTC