The debut of Mr Porter, the biggest ever launch of a men’s luxury-goods website, will be closely watched by the fashion industry to see whether there are enough active male shoppers to support a fashion site.

Mr Porter, a cousin of the successful Net-a-Porter site for women, is aiming to crack the notoriously tough men’s market when it comes to clothes shopping. Men tend to be quickly intimidated and turned off by new fashions being promoted in magazines and stores. And men sharply trail women when it comes to shopping for clothes online. Women’s online apparel sales in the U.S. rose 11% to $10.5 billion in 2010, compared with a 7% rise to $4.5 billion for men, according to NPD Group.

Full story at WSJ

The affinity for traditional commerce and marketing channels is strong among many purveyors of luxury goods, both in the fashion sector and elsewhere. In an international survey of 178 premium and luxury firms in 2008, Forrester Research found that only one-third of them actively sold online, though eight out of every 10 affluent consumers uses the Internet to actively research and purchase luxury goods and services on a daily basis.

That number has risen significantly since 2008, but is still strikingly low. Yoox founder and CEO Federico Marchetti estimates that half of luxury brands now sell directly online, though several we spoke with suggested that the percentage is higher, due largely to recession pressures.

Yet many brands, particularly European manufacturers of high-end wristwatches and other luxury goods, refuse to set up shop online.

Full story at Mashable

PSFK published an article today which covers their research in to the Top 10 luxury sites compatibility with iPad.  Not a great result – only Gucci passed.  Why?  Well obviously due to their dependence on Flash, a technology that Steve Jobs has outlawed in both the iPad and iPhone.  While this decision is controversial it can’t be ignored by the luxury sector.  The iPad is just about to launch in major luxury markets markets like Japan, where iPhone penetration is 46%.  The lag time in not embracing the technology could cost dearly.  Let’s hope this isn’t a reflection of past trends the luxury industry has been slow to embrace.

Following on from our last piece, there are some interesting developments around video hotspotting that could have major implications for fashion and luxury industries.  Essentially they ustilise the engagement of video and link it to ecom.  Pokeware is one of the players which is gunning specifically for fashion.  As this demo on Dazed illustrates, there is still some way to go (static links as opposed to dynamic real-time).  It’s a space that is going to hot up dramatically in the coming months.  BoF have done a nice piece on it here.

Pod 1′s Fadi Shuman gives us his opinion about what’s in store for ecommerce in the luxury sector this year.

Full story at Figaro Digital

Richemont already owns a 29 percent stake in Net-a-Porter and is looking to acquire the remainder of the company from other shareholders including founder Natalie Massenet.

The deal, expected to be completed this week, will see founder Natalie Massenet, a former fashion journalist, become at least £50m richer as Richemont acquires the remaining 70pc of the company it doesn’t already own.

Acquiring Net-a-Porter will give Richemont the channel to sell its own brands including Cartier, Alfred Dunhill and Chloé on the site that around 2m women log on a month to read, browse and buy from more than 200 labels.

The London-based website set up by Mrs Massenet 10 years ago, employs more than 800 people in New York and London. Featuring brands as Jimmy Choo, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Givenchy, the site delivered a 67pc increase in 2008 revenues to £55.2m.

Having set the standard in luxury fashion commerce it will be interesting to see where full Richemont control takes the brand. Watch this space…

This is strong evidence that despite the PR surrounding a lot of the online activity luxury brands are engaging in, the online conversion rate is still low. One of the key factors hindering growth is the inferior customer experience when compared to its offline counterpart. Many major luxury brands still have online shops and brand sites that are unrepresentative and sometimes damaging to brand perception. And until this is addressed, online’s share of the €7bn global luxury will not be fully realised.

When Bell & Ross launched the BR01 in 2005 they already had a respectable web presence, which helped them make a credible entry into the luxury watch market – not an easy task.  Now they have put their full collection of over 300 pieces online rather than the previous small selection available.  This investment in their online boutique demonstrates their commitment to a digital sales channel in spite of the bold message it sends out to their retailers.  We think this is sound thinking on B&R’s part.  Watches are a luxury commodity for which it is possible to get the full luxury experience online, particularly if you are already familiar with the brand and product.  A well architected online boutique can seduce a consumer into making a purchase every bit as well as a retail environment as long as you know which buttons to push.

Savile Row tailor Gieves & Hawkes has recently launched its first transactional website.

The site – designed by London based digital agency Pod1 – is aesthetically very impressive and at first glance appears to perform well.

The homepage looks slick, much better than any of the other top-end fashion sites that have launched recently. In fact it’s great to see a luxury brand that conveys the same sense of luxury online as they do in the real world.

An abundance of detailed product photography combined with easy-to-use rollover zoom functionality, takes shoppers close to the products. And whilst not faultless, the product navigation is generally speaking user-friendly.

Something that did confuse us was trying to establish which products were for sale. The new site positions itself as an online shop. And there is some great supporting content that makes the shopping experience more engaging. But when it comes to finding out details about the products you are looking at – or trying to buy them – far too often you are unable to. In fact it appears that the only products for sale are shirts and accessories, this despite the fact that the major focus of the site is the A/W collection.

Having done such a good job developing the site, we would expect the tailors at Gieves & Hawkes to do a better job selling the products they’ve become legendary for, not just the ones that are easy to flog online.

Though product range aside, the new site is a welcome addition to luxury fashion online, and we hope will be a lesson to other brands looking to use the web to enhance their businesses.