Designer Fashion & Designer Handbags Online Shopping

Limitless possibilities of shopping online might soon be over
Maggie Clark, aka Shopaholic

The Internet creates the idea of endless freedom and convenience for the shopping world.

Whether you are purchasing clothes, electronics or vacations the Internet allows you to comparison shop and purchase from home. However, there are purchasing restrictions that one faces while shopping on the Web.

When you buy tickets to a sporting event, concert or other high-demand event, it is common to see a restriction on the number of tickets one customer can purchase.

When shopping for tickets such as the Rockies World Series tickets, there typically is a maximum ticket per purchaser. Is this really necessary? Venue holders fear that one customer purchasing more than 10 tickets to a single event may be trying to make a profit from them. Most events have a limit of eight tickets per single purchaser; very high-demand events might have an even lower maximum buy. This is to help regulate ticket scalping.

This policy now is extending to luxury accessories.

While the Web gives the impression of endless opportunity, our weak dollar has many luxury stores feeling threatened. This is causing some stores to take precautionary measures.

High-end shoppers may be in for a surprise when they go to purchase multiple colors or styles of one designer item. The high price tag on a designer item might restrict the typical shopper to only one luxury item. However, there is a restriction that even endless money cannot bypass. Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman now have a policy that applies to designer handbags, like Prada's latest ruched nylon styles that cost $1,290, Bottega Veneta's signature woven leather hobos at $1,490 and the new rectangular Yves Saint Laurent clutch that goes for $1,395.

Do these restrictions keep the exclusiveness of the product? This might be the case but there is an ulterior motive to these policies as well. Their motivation stems back to the current status of our U.S. dollar. There is fear that foreign buyers will hoard the bags then resell them in Europe or Asia where the same items in Prada and Gucci stores typically cost 20 percent to 40 percent more. The popular Yves Saint Laurent Downtown bag, which is restricted to three per customer at Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, costs roughly $300 less (900 pounds) at Harvey Nichols in London.

While foreign shoppers warmly were welcomed by many retailers last month, it is a slightly different story for luxury stores. Gucci and Prada have spent the last decade trying to reach those customers in their own countries by opening expensive new shops throughout Asia and Europe. An online researcher searching for a high-end bargain might be costing these select stores.

For now, the policies at Saks, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman apply to online sales only of handbags and shoes. Many foreign shoppers were boarding planes to the United States with the intent to bargain shop less than one month ago. This may result in these policies losing 100 percent effectiveness.

Maggie Clark, aka Shopaholic, is a Coloradoan advertising sales executive. She does not write about her clients. She never met a bargain she could pass up and she always can find room in her closet for another pair of shoes.


Case-by-case basis for designer bags
Eric Wilson

FOR products that are truly in demand, it may seem reasonable to limit the number a customer can buy at one time.

Now readers of the fine print on the websites of luxury retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman are discovering that such a policy also applies to designer handbags such as Prada's latest ruched nylon styles, which cost $US1290 ($A1442); Bottega Veneta's signature woven leather hobos, at $US1490; and the new rectangular Yves Saint Laurent clutch, which looks like a postcard addressed to the designer (with a $US1395 stamp).

"Due to popular demand," potential shoppers are warned, "a customer may order no more than three units of these items every 30 days."

The bags may be popular, but how many customers who can afford them really want more than one?

On its face, the policy sounds odd; that is, because it really doesn't have anything to do with popular demand. Rather, it is the fear that foreign buyers, taking advantage of the severely weakened US dollar, will hoard the bags, then resell them in Europe or Asia, where the same items in Prada and Gucci stores typically cost 20 to 40% more.

The popular Yves Saint Laurent Downtown bag, restricted to three per customer at Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, costs $US1495. At Harvey Nichols in London, the same bag is £910 (about $US1796).

Foreign tourists who are treating American department stores like a nationwide outlet sale have largely been viewed as beneficial to retailers, and by some estimates, those shoppers were the only bright spot in what was a feeble holiday sales season.

But that spending power has not been so welcome at luxury companies such as Gucci and Prada, which have spent the past decade trying to reach those customers in their home countries by opening expensive new shops throughout Europe and Asia.

Now those companies stand to suffer a sting from increasingly educated comparison shoppers, if not a more serious blow from a grey market of designer goods resold from American stores.

Ron Frasch, the chief merchant of Saks Fifth Avenue, which has 54 stores across the US, said the number of foreign shoppers trying to buy multiple items in stores was "pretty minor", but he added, "it is certainly an issue that we watch".

Besides restricting online sales, Saks may also deny a customer's purchases of duplicate merchandise in stores on a case-by-case basis. "What we try to do is use a lot of logic and common sense if we sense that someone is taking advantage," Mr Frasch said. "We monitor at the store level and at the corporate level for any patterns."