AstleyClarke.com, a high-end fashion jewelry site based in London, has announced a $5.5 million (£2.75m) in funding from Index Ventures in London. Despite gloomy, credit-crunch market conditions, big spenders continue to do so, and they are doing more of it online in the luxury bracket. The move reflects Index’s recent interest in the eCommerce industry with Betfair, Lovefilm and Glasses Direct. Index partner, Danny Rimer, will join Bec Clarke from AstleyClarke and Mark Esiri from Venrex on the board of directors.
Online luxury players are in a good position, as they can be more nimble and bold than established brands, which are normally afraid of making their cherished brands look cheap by selling them online. In fact, they have badly mis-read their own audience. Forrester’s Consumer Technographics data says that eight out of ten “high net worth consumers” are hammering the Net with their platinum credit cards faster than I can type this sentence.
Bec Astley Clarke, a former executive at Tesco.com, founded the website in 2006 and will use the new investment to boost marketing and build the company’s infrastructure, including hiring an operations director and an IT director.
Who spells jewelry with 2 Ls?
Ah, yes, American spelling… sigh..
This is interesting.
I always wonder how you could package a luxury website for the high net worth and it seems like AstleyClarke.com just did it. Brilliant!
Here is something me and my friends did some while ago – an experiment and a wild goose chase which only became fond memories
… check out http://www.thehighnetworth.com for The High Net Worth … still waiting for a buyer.. maybe one day.
But for now, it’s back to reality with a day job. :-/
Seems like a good investment but i think the consumers are more likely to look online via Search engine and price comparison sites like Gemisimo.com
The users are looking for new ways to choose their luxury products without going to the store and to get better deals.
The online jewellery business goes beyond just new ways for buyers to buy jewellery. It has allowed people who live remotely to access jewellery that they would not have access to. Here in Australia our business, http://www.bout...ewellery.com.au finds that we tend to ship to outback Australia and to towns and cities that the big retail jewellery chains cannot financially justify servicing. The fact that we carry 9ct gold jewellery it has allowwd us to make gains in the United Kingdom market.
The online jewellery business goes beyond just new ways for buyers to buy jewellery. It has allowed people who live remotely to access jewellery that they would not have access to. Here in Australia our business, http://www.bout...ewellery.com.au finds that we tend to ship to outback Australia and to towns and cities that the big retail jewellery chains cannot financially justify servicing. The fact that we carry 9ct gold jewellery it has allowwd us to make gains in the United Kingdom market.
i think their timing is just right. online shopping has now been the trend both for the big spenders and for average consumers alike. and i don’t believe that selling your products online would diminish their value. in fact, modern technology has made it possible for ordinary products look extraordinary on the net using the power of photo enhancement.
Another website which is on a smaller scale, but looks just as good, is www. manjoh.com. A good find with a treasure trove of great small designers. Reasonable prices which might suit more in the current climate!
Astley Clarkes Jewellery Boutique in London is wonderful!