Richemont Urges Rival Firms LVMH and Kering to Form Digital Alliance

Speaking at the Financial Times Business of Luxury event in Monte Carlo early this week, Chairman of Swiss luxury conglomerate Richemont, Johann Rupert urged LVMH, Kering and other luxury brands to join forces on his e-commerce platform. In March, Richemont chose to merge its top end e-commerce retailer, Net-a-Porter with Italy’s Yoox in order to combat online marketplaces such as Amazon. The merger is also a strategic move in the always-increasing shopping shift from brick-and-mortar stores to the Internet.

Together, the Yoox/Net-a-Porter alliance is worth £924 million while Amazon is said to have annual revenues of £57 billion. Any business this size cannot be overlooked and Richemont is hoping to unite luxury retailers to build up the ultimate online shopping destination.

At the conference in Monaco, Rupert insisted on the importance of luxury goods investors to shore up the Yoox/Net-a-Porter platform: "I was speaking to Arnault (LVMH CEO), I was speaking to Kering...We need a platform that is big enough for the luxury goods industry. I want to create a platform that is open to everyone, it is up to them now...I think it is a too big a game for any company to dominate.”

Johann Rupert, Chairman and principal share holder of Richemont Group

Privately-owned Chanel, and Italian fashion labels such as Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, Armani, Ermenegildo Zegna and Moncler could potentially invest in the recently merged e-platform.

For Rupert, it is necessary for luxury goods producers to hold enough financial clout over the online retail business as it is clearly where the future of fashion commerce is headed; no turning back now. The luxury market must be a part of a digital selling platform large enough to fend off competition.

The South African self-made man is intent on turning the Yoox/Net-a-Porter omnichannel shopping destination into the prevailing e-commerce platform of our generation. Web-savvy consumers do not only shop in one place anymore but can physically and electronically browse hundreds of stores; merging all the high-end producers under one umbrella would round up most of the luxury shoppers' clicks. 

In April, Condé Nast (owners of Vogue) also announced its intent to rebrand Style.com, its fashion news website, into a digital selling platform set to launch in the UK in the Autumn.