Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent buck luxury trend as e-commerce outperforms
Luxury brands Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) and Gucci are defying the lackluster recent performance of their contemporaries, after seeing ‘exceptional growth’ driven by e-commerce efforts.
Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent buck luxury trend as e-commerce outperforms
The Kering-owned brands' efforts in the digital space saw sales from Gucci's e-commerce website increase by more than 50% during the third quarter, while revenue from YSL's online store nearly doubled.
Revenue overall at Kering, which also owns Balenciaga, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen, grew by 10.5% to €3.1m. Kering does not release brand specific revenue.
Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele has prioritised digital engagement since his appointment in January 2015, and during the quarter launched a partnership with graffiti artist Trevor Andrew who painted the brand’s logo all over New York City as part of the GucciGhost product line.
Gucci also ran the #24HourAce video project that saw a number of artists take over the brand’s Snapchat account for one hour. Additionally the brand sold a number of capsule collections exclusively online. Overall the luxury label saw a17% increase in revenue.
"Our excellent sales in the third quarter underscore the relevance of our strategy and the effectiveness of its execution," said François-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive officer of Kering.
"In a complex environment, we stepped up the pace of revenue growth and continued to gain market share. Thanks to the creativity of our brands and the outstanding customer experience they offer, we achieved double-digit increases across all geographic regions excluding Japan."
YSL continued to enjoy "extremely strong growth" in the third quarter, with revenue rising by an "exceptional" 33.9%.
Kering's success comes at a time of flux for the luxury industry, which is trying to adapt to changes in consumer shopping habits, and channels of consumption.