Luxury - do it yourself at home

Adressing the opportunity to generate traffic (and sales) via the web in coherence with existing retail structures, Louis Vuitton and Boucheron have launched new programs for personalisation

of e-purchases.

Being a household name still counts - but being your household's brand is better.

Faced with less than euphoric previsions, mainstream luxury brands are countering the effect of recent years' fashion to flood the market with best-sellers by acknowledging individual tastes and providing clients with their unique vision of the brand.The idea isn't new. This industry has always been about providing and retailing the personally desired (service, product etc).What is new is the chanel.

After the wave of open poll sites ( such as ask500people.com ) brands are leaning in and taking the temperature thanks to croudsourced customer service sites such as RedesignMe and Satisafction. Concurrently, fashion sites such as StyleShake appeal to the customers creativity and push the idea of personalisation even further by letting clients design their own garment (taste is optional).

"YOUR OPINION COUNTS" seems to be the slogan on the 2.0 net. The majors in the luxury field, still a little shaky on how to forge their on-line image have heard the plea and have integrated this new fad - branding two birds with one stone.

By offering new high end services to potential cyber-shoppers, luxury houses will simoultaneously create traffic onsite (by proposing a novel internet experience) and introduce the brand's universe a little further into clients' personal space.