Over the last two decades, online shopping has expanded into just about everything, from automobiles to mascara, renters’ insurance to peanut butter. But luxury retailers, at least initially, clung to the belief that their clients expected an exclusive experience. Jewelers in particular treated the sale of their most luxurious creations (generally anything priced at more than $50,000) as a sacrosanct ritual marked by certain traditional elements: a private salon, white gloves, velvet-lined trays, Champagne. Entrepreneurs keen to reinvent the experience of buying high jewelry for the digital age have been leading the transformation, with some of the best-known heritage houses not far behind. At the end of last year, for example, the online luxury marketplace Farfetch organized a three-way virtual jewelry appointment for a Parisian high jeweler, a client and a stylist based in California (Farfetch would not provide any details — not even the client’s gender).

Source: New York Times July 05, 2021 09:11 UTC