How to sell luxury items online: Top 9 tips for selling expensive goods

As we know, the two main reasons consumers buy on the internet are access to a wide range of products and the possibility of finding good deals.

However, you may be marketing a luxury product or a service with a hefty price tag. In order to prepare your luxury online retail project, several elements are important and indispensable.

Luxury goods can encompass a variety of items, from handbags to vintage cars, from designer fashion items to works of art... Knowing your target sector will be the first step before launching your exceptional ecommerce store. 

Let's take a look at what the rules to respect in luxury online sales are and how to prepare your business!

How do you succeed in luxury sales? Selling luxury products + brands online

How do you launch your brand, sell your own products, and set your prices?

Do you create your own luxury items? Before jumping into the online business, you should ask yourself the right questions.

First of all, you must keep in mind that marketing a luxury product is only possible if its price is justified!

To do this, you must identify the reason for the high price.

There are three possibilities:

• Your fixed costs are high. You have no choice.
• You consider the product to have a strong added value for its users (materials, know-how, etc.)
• Your item is rare or unique. It’s therefore very expensive.

You can launch and create your luxury brand with your products: there are many handmade objects that sell very well! Take care of your presentation and choose the best materials.

Designer bags and accessories, high-end clothing: How do you resell expensive goods?

You can start the adventure of selling exceptional products by buying your stocks from luxury brands in order to resell them on your online sales site.

To do this, you must create your company before determining the expectations and trends favored by your target audience.

You need to have an eye for the right items: it’s essential to stand out in your marketing strategy in order to reach a maximum number of potential buyers. Follow your instinct and build collections that resemble your brand, that look like your ecommerce persona!

Take care of your shipments, your packaging, and your customer follow-up: get inspired by the big brands to offer the most premium service possible. 

Pre-owned items: How do you launch a luxury secondhand resale website?

Luxury also means reselling exceptional products, but second hand! The secondhand market has never been bigger: according to Statista, in 2022, the global market value for secondhand and resale apparel was approximately $177 billion, and the trend is accelerating.

More sustainable, more responsible, and more affordable prices depending on the items, these arguments are pushing fashion in favor of secondhand luxury goods.

To start your own online secondhand retail store, you’ll have to create your company and go in search of rare pearls on resale sites between individuals or in flea markets in particular to build up the best stock of items from designer brands, vintage or current.

To sell the secondhand luxury products that you find, the ways that you present your items will be central to attracting consumers: the quality of your photos and the staging of your catalog must be ultra advanced. It’s up to you to create a unique universe and to create an exceptional setting for the sale of your high-end secondhand goods!

9 Best tips to sell your luxury product online

When it comes to putting luxury items on the market for sale, what works best for you may differ from strategies that other luxury retailers may use. That being said, here are some general helpful tips to ensure you start off on the right track!

1. Adapt the price to the target

Unfortunately, it happens all too often that a brand's core target audience can’t afford the product in question.

Of course, it’s important to make sure that this isn’t the case, so that you don't miss your market completely. Market research is your friend when it comes to adapting your ecommerce pricing strategy to reach the right consumers!

Once these prerequisites are confirmed, the trick is to sell intelligently.

2. Justify the price: create or buy exceptional products

In your sales pitch, you should consider justifying the price of the product or service.

If it’s rare, indicate the number of pieces available and insist on the exclusive character of your offer.

To go further, we can cite an example of a brand that numbers the pieces of its various collections, each of which is produced in 150 copies.

On the product label, the customer knows that they have number 27 out of 150, for example. This is a way to make them feel like a privileged customer.

On the other hand, if your item is valuable, think about giving every indication of its quality.

If your product has a strong added value, it’s advisable to explain how having this item will be beneficial for the consumer.

Will it save the user time? Will they be able to keep it in the long term?

Of course, make sure that these points are valid. On the web, transparency of information is paramount.

If a user realizes the exaggerations of the sales pitch, they won’t hesitate to give their opinion on the web. This can cost you a lot of money, especially if you don't properly respond to comments.

Finally, if your fixed costs are high, you must play the transparency card.

Very often, this argument justifies the high price of products made in France, for instance, where the costs of raw materials and labor remain relatively high.

On this subject, I salute the initiative of the fashion brand Atode, which is totally transparent with its customers to justify its prices.

On the brand’s ecommerce website, internet users can discover an illustrated diagram with the production costs, the cost price, and the distribution costs. The brand thus communicates on its margin. This also allows the brand to ensure a certain level of trust with its target audience.

In any case, keep in mind that in this part of the work to be provided, you must ensure transparency and be precise on the information you give. When you talk about an expensive luxury item, you must guarantee quality at all levels, even in the sales pitch!

3. Focus on your online store's design: The best place to sell designer goods

As for a physical store, you can't sell a luxury product online on an ecommerce website that looks amateurish or low cost.

More than ever, the presentation of your ecommerce site must give confidence to internet users to prevent them from being afraid of buying an expensive item online. Avoid dubious designs, spelling mistakes, technical bugs, and poor ergonomics that’ll provide a poor user experience and make online shoppers flee!

Furthermore, just like with any of your other online sales channels, your ecommerce website must convey the brand image of your product. Follow the rules of high-end and luxury for your shop. Opt for a refined style in the content you supply. Pay attention to the choice of images, and above all, focus on your mobile site: m-commerce is essential in your sales strategy!

The idea is to anchor in the consumer's mind that the proposed offer respects the code of luxury, which justifies its price even more.

4. Take care of your customer relationship

When a luxury product has a high price, the customer expects the follow-up to be of high quality.

This starts with customer service.

If consumers have questions about a product, they’ll want to talk to somebody who’s reliable, responsive, and reassuring.

However, you must adapt your approach according to the customer's profile to provide the best experience possible.

For example, if an elderly person is inquiring about buying an Apple computer, the salesperson will have to focus on training and ease of use. For a student, the salesperson will talk about the power of the device and the production software.

To facilitate this mission, the integration of a live chat on your online store is a beneficial element. It allows you to create proximity with the internet user. The consumer visiting your shop to purchase an item will know that they can get a reactive answer from a brand representative.

They’ll be able to ask their questions, and the answers will be adapted to their interrogations. In addition to the accessibility of the brand, you show your ability to offer innovative services, at the heart of web trends.

5. Communicate on the right social media networks

When you choose the social media networks on which you’re going to create content and invest time, human resources, and money, you must identify those where your target customers are present.

If you wish to sell a luxury product with a high price and begin marketing to high-end consumers, you’ll probably have more chances to entice Instagram users in particular.

Moreover, if you have a fashion and clothing, decoration, or lifestyle ecommerce business, you also have a particular interest in ensuring a presence on Pinterest, whose users match your interests.

Facebook and Twitter are much more for the "general public." Your presence on these networks remains legitimate!

However, you'll probably have a harder time generating engagement on Facebook and Twitter.

On the other hand, the targeting options offered on Facebook's paid ads remain advantageous for you.

You can choose to display your sponsored ad according to the occupation and therefore, according to the socio-professional category, even if the correlation between these two criteria is not always obvious.

6. Take advantage of upselling on your ecommerce website

The upsell is the benchmark selling technique for high-priced products.

With an online retail store, when potential customers visit a product page, the idea is to present them with other purchase options.

Unlike cross-selling, where similar goods are offered, upselling consists of offering buyers the same product at a higher price.

Of course, the specificities and quality of the product must follow accordingly. Upselling is also an excellent way to justify a high price.

In other words, the user is offered the opportunity to upgrade, with better services.

7. Create emotion around your brand of clothing and accessories

Beyond the concrete elements of selling a luxury item, you should also think about the abstract aspects such as the emotion of buying an expensive product.

When you present your arguments, try to express the added value of the emotional link to shoppers.

It’s not for nothing that car brand advertisements talk about thrills, emotions, and pleasure.

Justify impulse purchases, the craziest purchases!

8. Offer the right payment methods

Of course, when you sell expensive products, you’ll have to think about offering adapted payment methods such as allowing for payment in several installments.

If you sell, for example, high-end furniture, and you don't give this option, you have very little chance of converting.

Some people visiting your shop may want to pay by PayPal, a payment method that’s firmly rooted in consumer habits.

If they ask you repeatedly, don't hesitate to supply it as a payment method on your store. Don't forget to mention that you accept this option.

Above all, specify all the elements that allow you to reassure buyers about the payment phase, right from the homepage to give visitors peace of mind.

This also applies to data security, represented in particular by the “https” protocol.

9. Choose the right partners for your delivery

As I said above, when shoppers buy an expensive product, they expect the related follow-up to be of quality. It’s the same with the delivery.

In the eyes of customers, as an e-merchant, you’re responsible for the carrier you choose.

Make sure of the quality of your services, especially if it’s a bulky item that would justify high delivery costs. If you notice that there will be a delay in delivery, be proactive and inform buyers before they realize it.

The customer will likely be pleasantly surprised by your quick response, and it’s also a sign of seriousness and quality on your part!

For smaller packages, look for ways to create an enjoyable unboxing experience for the people who shop from your website. The quality of the container must be equal to its content, and this will play an important role in your brand image.

The idea is to create a “WOW” effect that’ll surprise the customer, with special attention: high-end packaging, gifts, discounts, a handwritten and personalized message addressed to the customer...

You now have all the elements to achieve ecommerce success when it comes to selling your luxury items online. After all these explanations, you can realize that the sale of an expensive product requires you to be precise and transparent on the levers related to the marketing of luxury, the marketing, as well as on the logistics.

In any case, don't forget that, whatever the price of your offer, the most important thing is the margin you earn from it.

Do you want to start the adventure of selling luxury goods, whether your own creations or those you find from designer brands, online and then launch your ecommerce business internationally?

The WiziShop platform can help you: the ecommerce solution offers you more than 400 features, 50+ SEO optimizations, powerful AI for generating text content in a flash, personalized follow-up with expert ecommerce business coaches, and complete training, starting from just $40/month (with your first month being only $1).

Try our platform for free for 3 days and find out for yourself why WiziShop is the best solution for launching your future online retail store!