Luxury Ecommerce in 2025: The Definitive Guide to Strategy & Growth

Against a backdrop of slower but steady market growth, with the luxury sector expected to expand by 1%–3% annually through 2027, the channel mix continues to shift toward mono-brand and digital channels.

The line between online and in-person shopping continues to blur. In 2024, over half of all shoppers blended the two, buying online to either pick up in-store (52%) or have their order delivered from a local shop (56%). For luxury brands, this behavior shows why investing in a unified commerce experience remains critical through 2027.

So, how can you position your brand to capture luxury sales? This guide highlights ways to position your luxury brand for success.

What is luxury ecommerce?

Luxury ecommerce refers to selling high-end, often designer, goods online. Brands selling luxury products and services offer customers an exclusive shopping experience, from personalized recommendations to unique packaging that evokes the sense of opulence from website to doorstep. 

The state of luxury ecommerce heading into 2026

After a long run of fast growth, the luxury market is leveling off. Forecasts through 2027 predict slow growth, ranging from 1% to 3%. For top luxury brands, this is a chance to refocus. 

To win in the market now, it’s not enough to have a household name. The era of grabbing a Louis Vuitton bag just for the logo is giving way to a more considered consumer. Today’s shoppers are expanding their horizons, seeking out niche designers, sustainable craftsmanship, and brands that tell a story they can connect with personally. 

While growth in the US and Europe has slowed, there are still clear ways for brands to move forward if they’re ready to adapt.

1. Every sale counts. The average order value (AOV) for online luxury is about $436. With money getting tighter, losing even one sale from a slow website or a bad checkout process is a big deal.
2. Focus on top clients. Just 500,000 top-tier clients are responsible for 25% of all luxury spending. To keep them loyal, you need to provide a very personal, high-end experience, a practice known as clienteling.
3. Find new places to grow. There’s strong growth in the Middle East, India, and the Asia-Pacific regions. To capture these customers, your strategy needs to be global but feel local.
4. Embrace “recommerce”. The secondhand market, or recommerce, is huge. US secondhand clothing hit $56 billion in 2025, and brands like Balenciaga and Oscar de La Renta are popular resale items. This is a chance for brands to get into the circular economythemselves, build loyalty, and create new revenue streams.

In this environment, old platforms can hold you back. The brands that succeed will be the ones able to reach their best customers everywhere, grow into new markets seamlessly, and experiment with new ways of selling, like recommerce, while maintaining their brand presence.

Platform considerations for luxury ecommerce success

In luxury, perception is reality. A flawed digital experience can instantly devalue a beautifully crafted product. Every technical detail, from page load speed to payment security, reflects your brand’s commitment to quality.

Luxury brands like Diane von Furstenberg already got the memo. Their stylists can now access a client’s complete online and in-store purchase history on a single device, right on the sales floor. A unified view, powered by the right technology, shows how a solid technical foundation creates a premium experience for today’s luxury buyer. 

👉 Read Diane von Furstenberg’s story. 

Technology requirements for premium experiences

If you’re looking for a new commerce operating system, here are the requirements to consider:

• Fast site speed: Improving mobile site speed by just 0.1 seconds can increase luxury ecommerce conversions by 3.6%, according to a collaborative research study conducted by Google and NitroPack.
• Uptime: Every minute your site is down costs you. The average cost of unplanned downtime is over $14,000 per minute, with many large enterprises estimating losses of over $300,000 per hour. Your digital flagship must have a rock-solid foundation. Shopify ensures this with 99.9% platform uptime.
• Payment compliance: High-ticket checkouts demand the highest level of security. PCI DSS v4.0 is now the standard, and as of March 31, 2025, over 51 new requirements became mandatory.
• Digital accessibility: The latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2) introduce new criteria for things like button sizes and secure, accessible login processes, which directly impact user experience on forms and at checkout.
• Fraud and chargebacks: So-called friendly fraud is on the rise, with some merchants reporting that 20% of all refunds are fraudulent. Managing chargebacks and preventing fraud is critical to protecting your bottom line. Shopify Payments uses fraud analysis to flag high-risk orders and offers reimbursement for fraudulent chargebacks and associated fees.

Scalability and customization capabilities

Luxury markets today have two seemingly contradictory demands: deeply personal experiences and flawless global scale. 

A winning brand can deliver bespoke, high-touch experiences to every customer—whether they are in a flagship store in London or on a mobile device in Singapore. These are the capabilities to look for when choosing a tech platform: 

• Unified clienteling: The foundation of personalization is a deep understanding of your best customers. A unified customer profile helps brands cater to the top 1%–5% of clients who drive a disproportionate share of revenue. These make one-to-one outreach more effective, unlocks access to exclusive events, and allows for the creation of private product assortments.
• Immersive product experiences: Technologies like 3D and AR are proven to lift conversions, with some Shopify data showing an increase of up to 94% and broader studies reporting even higher. For categories such as beauty, eyewear, and jewelry, virtual try-on (VTO) is essential, as it creates a more confident purchasing experience and reduces returns.
• Intelligent search and discovery: How customers find products is just as important as the products themselves. AI-powered merchandising and semantic search protect average order value by understanding customer intent. Relevant results reduce the chances of shoppers leaving to search for “dupes” or alternatives. 
• Composable architecture: Luxury retailers are overwhelmingly moving to headless and composable stacks, with surveys showing nearly 50% of enterprises have adopted this approach—with retail being the strongest mover. It’s a smart way to create the bespoke user experiences and faster update cycles that the market demands.

Globalization at the edge: For your customers in key growth markets like the Middle East and Asia, this means a fast, frictionless experience that feels native, with local pricing, payment methods, and duties handled automatically. Shopify’s Managed Markets can help with tax registration, duties, and market-specific domains when expanding internationally.

Luxury ecommerce strategies for 2026

1. Target millennials and Gen Z with omnichannel experiences

The luxury goods market has reached a new normal of lower growth. To succeed, brands must focus on anticipating and catering to younger consumers’ needs. 

Gen Z and millennials now account for the largest share of luxury purchases, with an average of 16 and 14 items purchased per year, respectively. For these core customers, luxury is defined as much by the experience as it is by the product, a belief held by 62% of Gen Z and 68% of millennials.

To truly resonate with millennials, luxury fashion brands need to reconsider distribution channels and product offerings. This means meeting expectations for seamless, channel-agnostic journeys, where behaviors like buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) are standard practice.

2. Build authentic brand narratives

Social media is the one of the most common ways buyers discover new products—and you can help them love your brand by engaging with them meaningfully, especially during their initial encounters.

Luxury brands have a big advantage over other companies: a deep history. Chanel, the second-most recognized luxury brand in the world, has a heritage dating back more than 100 years. The brand shares its stories through the Inside Chanel series on their ecommerce site. It features 32 short films telling the story of culturally defining moments, such as how Chanel No. 5 came to life.

Got a long brand history? Here are some ideas:

• Determine key moments in your brand and feature them in a short film.
• Give insight into the manufacturing process behind your bestselling items. 
• Incorporate celebrities or influencers into your store and share the content on social media.

3. Deliver premium fulfillment and white-glove service

Luxury brands must boost their ecommerce investments to offer a seamless multichannel shopping experience. One of the best ways to stand out isn’t revolutionary but makes all the difference: offering fast and free shipping.

With so many brands offering same-day delivery in many markets, some high-end ecommerce stores have followed suit. Louis Vuitton offers complimentary delivery with options for picking up or returning items in-store, and duties are waived for international orders. 

4. Implement AI-driven personalization at scale

The luxury market has recognized the importance of personalization for years. A 2024 Boston Consulting Group report found that personalization leaders grow revenue about 10 percentage points faster and are positioned to capture $570 billion incremental retail growth before the end of the decade.

Luxury shoppers are used to getting special, individualized treatment in high-end stores. They’re treated like a VIP, with access to personal shoppers and exclusive shopping events. 

Some stores also offer personalized selections for last-minute fashion emergencies. The personalized experience is another reason why millennials often prefer an initial in-store visit. With innovations like artificial intelligence and machine learning, though, they can get a similar customized experience online.

In an increasingly global ecommerce market, casual luxury brand Rebecca Minkoff personalizes their global experience with IP geolocation. It’s a smart strategy because unexpected costs like exchange rates can heavily impact a customer’s likelihood of abandoning their cart.

The luxury ecommerce site updates currencies automatically in more than 100 countries and over 70 currencies. That way, customers know exactly what they’ll pay before they add to cart. Shoppers can also select their preferred location and currency.

5. Create immersive product presentations with AR

Given that 78% of shoppers consider product images vital, the next frontier in visual commerce is immersive content. Technologies like 3D and augmented reality (AR) are meeting clear consumer demand, as over 90% of US shoppers are open to using them while shopping.

The business impact is undeniable, with products featuring 3D/AR content seeing a 94% average conversion lift. Rebecca Minkoff saw this firsthand after implementing 3D/AR for their handbags on Shopify. 

Their shoppers became 27% more likely to purchase after interacting with 3D models and 65% more likely after using AR, demonstrating the technology’s ability to build buying confidence.

6. Provide concierge-level customer service and clienteling

Digitally native luxury fashion brands have an advantage. These businesses have captured the hearts and minds of millennial shoppers. And they’re now entering the physical retail space. 

Mr. Porter is the “brother” site of Net-A-Porter. It caters to men’s fashion and lifestyle luxury brands, another growing luxury customer base. Like Net-A-Porter, Mr. Porter offers premium omnichannel assistance to their top customers, known as EIPs (for extremely important people).

The service includes a dedicated personal shopper and early access to sales and product launches with reserved prices. Non-EIPs can still access 24/7 customer care or fashion consultation by phone, email, or live chat.

For those shopping on the app, carts and wish lists are automatically synced with Mr. Porter’s online accounts. It’s a seamless on-the-go shopping experience.

Customers don’t have to request VIP treatment to receive it. Ecommerce automation can help you set up an always-on VIP experience by identifying and segmenting important shoppers with back-end workflows. These include automatically handwritten notes to customers when they spend over a certain amount in your online store.

Luxury fashion retail stores take note. Ecommerce can offer an equally engaging customer experience with the right tools, and the technology is getting better every day.

7. Develop exclusive membership and VIP programs

Luxury consumers are happy to join a loyalty program if the perks are worth it. Few monobrands offer the points-based program style, instead focusing on personalized shopping experiences and events for top-tier spenders. 

Traditional loyalty programs are popular in luxury fashion marketplaces, however. Farfetch’s Access Rewards program, for example, has a Private Client tier that offers personal styling and concierge services. Customers can advance over time. 

You are automatically enrolled as a Bronze member upon creating a Farfetch account and making your first purchase. Your spending over 12 months determines your tier level, and with each upgrade, you gain access to a new suite of perks.

Emerging trends shaping luxury ecommerce

Sustainability and conscious luxury consumption

Sustainability has evolved from a consumer trend into a core business imperative for luxury brands, driven by both regulatory mandates and consumer demand. 

New regulations, such as the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), are already in force, introducing requirements like Digital Product Passports (DPPs) with textiles among the priority categories. 

The impact of this regulatory shift is raising concern at the executive level, where 87% of fashion leaders anticipate that sustainability rules will affect their business in the year ahead.

Social commerce and omnichannel experiences

Social media has become the primary channel for product discovery. A 2024 Salesforce report shows that 53% of shoppers find products on social platforms, up from 46% in 2023. Younger shoppers lead this trend, with 76% of Gen Z and 70% of millennials using social media to find new things.

But the shopping journey doesn't stop online. Finding something on social media is often the first step in a larger omnichannel experience. For example, the same report found that 34% of people return online orders at a physical store, showing why online and in-store experiences need to work together perfectly.

Direct-to-consumer model advantages

Some big luxury brands are choosing to sell less through wholesale partners to gain greater control over their brand experience and improve profitability. 

For example, Kering’s wholesale revenue fell 22% in 2024, while sales from many of their retail stores declined only around 7%. The benefits of a direct-to-consumer (DTC) model are clear, as Moncler Group reported double-digit DTC growth in 2024 and had a high 29.5% earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin.

Luxury ecommerce case studies

Orelbar Brown

Global luxury brand Orlebar Brown unified their commerce stack by switching to Shopify, solving challenges from disconnected online and in-store systems. 

Their previous fragmented architecture created high costs and operational strain. CTO Jamie De Cesare said, “The energy put into getting systems to speak together could be used for improving customer journeys.”

By moving to a single platform, Orlebar Brown achieved:

• A 50% reduction in technology ownership costs.
• A 66% increase in their basket-to-checkout rate.

The shift allowed them to reinvest savings “into driving a much better experience for the customer,” creating a “win-win situation,” according to Jamie.

👉 Read Orlebar Browns’s story. 

Derek Rose

Derek Rose wanted their stores to feel as luxurious as their loungewear, but a clunky, disconnected POS system was getting in the way. It created frustrating stock errors and couldn’t show a customer's full shopping history. As CEO Sacha Rose said, they needed a solution “that worked seamlessly between our online and offline channels.”

With Shopify’s mobile POS, the checkout experience now comes directly to the customer. This elegant approach fueled immediate growth, helping Derek Rose double their number of stores in just three months and lifting turnover by 7% by selling online inventory in-store.

👉 Read Derek Rose’s story. 

Mejuri

For jewelry brand Mejuri, the goal was to innovate faster, but their custom-built technology had become a “blocker.” As chief digital officer Rohit Nathany explains, “We are in the business of selling jewelry and not building custom tech.”

The brand migrated their entire commerce operation to Shopify in an “insanely fast” nine months. This move solved their build-versus-buy dilemma, providing a platform that handles 80%–90% of their needs out of the box while still being extensible. 

This agility is now unlocking rapid international expansion, empowering Mejuri to turn their retail stores into local fulfillment hubs.

👉 Read Mejuri’s story.

Adapting to the new wave of luxury shopping

To grow online, traditional brands need to adapt and embrace the luxury shopping tips we’ve outlined. Chanel and Louis Vuitton have proven that the ecommerce opportunity is real. 

Luxury fashion businesses must embrace social and environmental responsibility, adapt their product offerings for a growing customer base, and provide more experiential online shopping options.

These combined tactics will help you future-proof your luxury fashion business and win with ecommerce.