I. Abstract
This qualitative exploratory study examines why the luxury online shopping industry has not been more successful in today’s highly digital age. A literature review as well as, a self-conducted study will be used to address this question. First, literature is presented on what luxury goods are and what factors motivate people to consume luxury brands. Next, research is used to describe the consumers of luxury shopping online. Following this, the literature review covers three dilemmas when using the Internet to sell luxury brands. The first describes whether or not brand integrity is diluted on the Internet because of the ability for everyone to have access to these luxury products. The second dilemma concerns whether or not the sensory nature of the luxury shopping experience can be translated onto the Internet. And the third deals with the Internet’s inherent ubiquity and whether that compromises the exclusivity of what luxury brands stand for. Finally, existing literature is used to demonstrate how to measure service quality on the Internet as well as propose web site design issues faced by online retailers. The following section, Section V, describes the research method used in this study to explore how well the design of luxury e-stores meets customer expectations, while conveying the luxury consumption factors without the sensory aspects of a traditional store. The results of this study show that luxury e-stores have a long way to go in terms of replicating the sensory luxury shopping experience onto the Internet. The research suggests that luxury retailers get a better understanding of their consumer’s expectations for an online store to better integrate their offline and online platforms.
II. Introduction
The combination of the luxury goods market forecast to grow in most of the world this year and the increasing penetration of Internet use