How to Sell Luxury Products: 18 Unique Strategies to Boost Conversions

More and more shoppers are shopping on the go.

And that goes for luxury shopping as well.

In this article, we’ll talk about:

18 conversion rate optimizations for luxury ecommerce stores

5 reasons why luxury retailers struggle to sell online

What is a good conversion rate for luxury brands?

A “good” website conversion rate falls between 2% and 5% across all industries.

However, if you sell luxury products, the conversion rates fluctuates between 0.9%-1%.

Anything above can be considered as a good conversion rate for luxury brands.

With such low benchmarks, it's important to make changes to your luxury eCommerce store.

18 Conversion Rate Optimizations for Luxury eCommerce Stores

In 2024, aim to break the statistic with unique CRO strategies for luxury stores. Wondering how to market luxury products? Read on!

1. Tell them your story

Customers feel like they’re on top of the world if a brand’s story resonates with them, and in turn, they feel the brand can truly offer them what they want.

In fact it’s this “story’ element that makes 71% of shoppers recommend a brand.

One luxury eCommerce brand that does a phenomenal job at storytelling is Mulberry:

2. Make craftsmanship shine

This is because craftsmanship creates “value” that shoppers can first feel and would then want to pay towards.

Highlighting craftsmanship through copywriting is a strategic tactic in luxury eCommerce CRO.

See how Mejuri sells high-end products:

3. Begin product pages with your USP

In simple words, differentiation is what can justify a luxury eCommerce charging a high premium for its products.

And this is why defining your USP becomes super crucial—and bringing right up on your product page a great luxury eCommerce CRO strategy.

Rolex leads the way to show newer brands how to sell high-end products:

4. Make product descriptions inspirinG

As opposed to “feature talk” which can make shoppers overwhelmed but not necessarily more aware about the value of a luxury product.

Gucci makes their product descriptions memorable by bringing a dash of history and heritage:

5. Get your products validated by experts

It’s a great way to justify your pricing and build confidence for purchases that have to do with gifting etc.

Luxury watch brand Bremont brings expert validation at key junctures to sell high-end products:

6. Create trust through material sourcing info

To make your luxury eCommerce CRO game stronger, you’ll have to weave transparency into your entire website.

Just saying “fine metals from the African subcontinent" may not be enough especially when customers may likely want to hear “coral beads from Nigeria strung together to appeal to New York high fashion tastes.”

Jewelry brand Mejuri takes special care in selling high ticket product:

7. Offer delightful customer support

Talking about differentiation in luxury eCommerce brands, customer support needs to be top notch—not to mention across several channels and mediums.

Essentially customers need to feel it’s really easy to come to you with purchase-related challenges.

Tiffany & Co. is well-known for their customer support while selling high ticket products:

high ticket conversions. Selling luxury products online: 7 unique strategies to boost conversions

8. Take customer support beyond the sale

Post-purchase is anyway important in eCommerce, it’s even more so in luxury eCommerce.

That’s because a huge part of how you price your luxury products depends on how much real-time reassurance you can offer the customer—especially post-purchase.

Louis Vuitton aces this aspect of selling luxury goods online:

9. Invite shoppers to pre-order

It’s not only a smart luxury eCommerce CRO strategy to drive exclusivity but also a good way to engage & grow our email list.

Burberr’s luxury drops often feature “pre-order” as a CTA while dropping high ticket products:

10. Be clever about how you build FOMO

Conversion rate optimization for luxury eCommerce needs to be a step ahead of non-luxury brands—this is especially true when you’re trying to apply an oft-used tactic like FOMO.

Check out how Tiffany & Co. drives “early access” visitors by using FOMO while selling high ticket products:

11. Collaborate across genres

In the recent past, luxury brands have benefited from collaborating with brands and influencers across genres.

Case in point? Louis Vuitton collaborated with artist Yayoi Kusama to create an impactful campaign—they created an app-based game as part of the collaboration.

Similarly, Benefit Cosmetics has tried to combine beauty and gaming in order to win over new customer bases:

benefit cosmetics luxury eCommerce selling game face strategy

12. Offer a choice of CTAs

To improve conversion rate optimization for luxury eCommerce, you’ll have to put yourself in the customer’s shoes.

Because high-value spenders are trying to justify their purchase, they’re likely also looking for a “choice” of actions.

See how Boca Do Lobo, while selling high ticket products applies different CTAs on their product page:

If your online luxury brand sells ‘collectibles’ or uniquely valued products, you can try the auction route as well.

high ticket sales. Selling luxury products online: 7 unique strategies to boost conversions

13. Use “as seen in” & “featured in” nudges

We all know what they do—they spike up the social worth of a luxury eCommerce product.

See how 54kibo has added details about their product inspiration on the product page:

14. Integrate virtual try-on

For luxury eCommerce brands, AR/VR can be implemented to replicate an in-store experience.

Nars uses AR on its online store to offer a personalized try-on experience to sell high ticket products:

If you want to take it to the next stage, add tips on what could make their try-on experience better.

15. Write content that helps the journey

Product care is one of the most essential parts of selling luxury eCommerce products.

See how Harry Winston has the option to explore product care details on the product page:

When clicked, the brand takes shoppers to a landing page with all the information regarding product care and different components, and the functioning of the products.

16. Create lean and smooth UX

Smooth UX helps customers shop easily. And when it comes to selling luxury goods online, it can also be memorable.

Balenciaga uses pop-ups to show information on size guides and further steps for trying it in-store.

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17. Make gifting easy

Many luxury eCommerce customers decide on high end products as gifts rather than purchases for themselves.

And this is what you’ll need to leverage at key junctures of your brand website—be it on the product pages, the menu header or even as cart page prompts:

18. Use tiered membership to attract customers

Even luxury spenders want benefits at the end of the line.

A tiered membership program can help you influence them in a win-win—drive them towards more conversions by improving the benefits they enjoy:

5 Challenges When Selling Luxury Goods Online

Reason #1. High end brands can’t replicate the personal in-store experience

When shoppers visit a luxury store, the salespeople offer a VIP experience and are more patient than pushy.

Some stores even offer refreshments and shop models who try on the products for the customer. This makes it an ‘experience’.

Furthermore, the brands train their salespeople to cultivate long-lasting relationships with frequent customers. None of this has the opportunity to take place in the online scenario.

Reason #2. Luxury brands don’t like the usual strategies

Luxury brands attribute selling online as the opposite of what high-worth shoppers expect.

Instead, they consider eCommerce as ideal for selling mass-produced products and the usual online selling strategies as ‘tacky’.

Ask a luxury brand to run a survey or a discount banner, and they’ll react negatively. And within good reason. When selling luxury goods online, businesses discover that shoppers hardly want to fill out a form or consider a 20% discount.

Reason #3. High end brands try to be ‘too exclusive’

Luxury eCommerce is all about being exclusive. Any product that is perceived as too ‘common’ or ‘available’ risks losing its luxury aspect.

Consequently, brands try to use various strategies to keep that luxury status. A few ways include:

Not showing the price or even a price range—instead, luxury brands ask shoppers to contact an advisor or visit the physical store
Product pages show a lack of product information which is not enough to click the ‘contact the advisor’ CTA
Brands don’t show functional or contextual images. Instead many brands only show a simple product image. However, shoppers can’t understand how the product might look when used in context

Reason #4. Luxury brands struggle with effective online personalization

The majority of online luxury eCommerce brands today struggle with the ‘art’ of personalization.

They don’t have try-on options or don’t allow shoppers to switch materials and gems even if they feature basic sizing personalization.

The inability to customize something instantly often makes online luxury shoppers impatient enough to abandon their cart or journey.

Reason #5. Luxury brands can’t convey their unique brand story

Similarly, online luxury brands face the necessary challenge of coming up with a differentiated “story”, which sets them apart from more well-known brands.

The reasons behind this are far reaching, right from an inadequate actual exclusive edge to unclear USP and UVP on their websites.

How we can help:

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything. Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem ConvertCart solves. We have helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

Let us help: Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions. And we won’t charge for this one.

Get a free UX audit today.

Frequently Asked Questions About Selling Luxury Products

1. What is luxury eCommerce?

What sets luxury eCommerce brands apart from regular brands seems to be dictated by three features:

- A high price point

- A sense of exclusive/limited edition availability

- A more customized customer experience & journey

2. Which products are considered luxury items?

A luxury item is considered as not necessary to live, but as something highly desirable in society.

People shop for luxury items as they are produced from high-quality materials, have limited inventory so not everyone has it, and are considered prestigious.

3. Where to sell luxury items online?

Firstly, high-end items can be sold online on the brand’s website.

Second, if you are expanding to other countries, then it’s best to sell through established websites that cater to the clientele that suits your buyer’s persona. Also, explore social media and influencer marketing to reach a new audience.

4. What do luxury shoppers want?

Luxury shoppers want to feel the experience of purchasing that is as sophisticated as owning a luxury item.

Shoppers tend to value close relationships with select sales associates.

Shoppers don’t negotiate and believe it’s worth it to pay more for items that are the highest quality and they value exclusivity.

Luxury purchases are often impulsive or for gift-giving.

According to a study, 20.5% of Millenials bought a high-end luxury item for a particular occasion and 18.5% bought one when they wanted “to treat” themselves.

Luxury shoppers demand their brands to be ‘woke’. They are concerned with the environment, including social and political issues.

They demand that luxury brands take a stance on sustainability, race, and gender.

5. Why luxury brands don’t typically advertise?

Aspiration brands don’t require advertising. Just their name makes an impression.

Luxury brands rather invest their advertising budget in improving product and customer experience.

However, luxury brands are slowly and quietly making strides by experimenting with pop-ups, lives, influencer marketing, and most importantly, collaborations.

6. Who are the biggest consumers of luxury goods?

Ranked by yearly revenue, the American luxury goods industry leads all other nations by far, generating around 65 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.

The Chinese luxury goods industry ranked second with a revenue of around 39 billion U.S. dollars. These two were followed by Japan, France, and Germany. The Statista Consumer Market Outlook estimates that revenue in these markets will continue to increase.

In the U.S., revenue is estimated to reach around 81.5 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.

Total spending on personal luxury goods by South Koreans year-on-year grew around 24% to $16.8 billion, amounting to $325 per capita.

Moncler said its revenue in South Korea “more than doubled” in the second quarter compared with before the pandemic.

Cartier-owner Richemont Group said Korea was among the regions where sales grew by double digits in 2022, compared with both a year and two years ago.