Luxup, a unique invitation-only club for international travellers with a love of luxury brands, is set to launch this summer.
It aims to provide members with superior retail experiences and insider fashion tips.
Launching through its website www.luxup.com, the club will initially target Chinese and international travelers visiting London, with subsequent roll-out to the US and Hong Kong in the fall and then to other cities around the world.
Luxup says it will give retailers’ most sought after shoppers opportunities to engage with luxury brands through exclusive retail experiences including access to limited edition collections, exclusive products and ‘money can’t buy’ events. These experiences will be supported by member services including multi-lingual websites and support both online and in-store.
Luxup is led by a team that combines respected fashion talent and business strategists with a proven record of online success. From the world of fashion, Averyl Oates (commercial director), Phil Poynter (creative director), Harriet Quick (editorial director) and Anita Borzyszkowska (communications director) are joined by Phil Ley (global marketing director), Andy Brown (UK marketing director), London fashion curator Sarah Mower and global production managed by North Six Productions. The team is led by founders and joint CEOs, James Corsellis and Mark Watts.
Tourist spending is one of the key sources of growth in the UK luxury goods market, currently accounting for more than 25 per cent of spending, with forecasts predicting travel spend to contribute 75 per cent of luxury growth in Europe by 2015 (Goldman Sachs). Globally, growth in luxury goods consumption is coming primarily from China and Asia Pacific.
Joint CEO Corsellis comments: “The industry is being powered globally by the strength of the travelling buyer of luxury and fashion. Our aim is to offer that new global consumer the warmest welcome and access to the fashion insider’s world, while given luxury brands a new way to interact with global travellers.”
Corsellis said Luxup will provide retailers with a very targeted way of communicating with their customer base, using a combination of the site and iPhone and iPad apps to (draw) them to come and shop in store.
“What we’ll be able to do is understand that customer across the various countries in which they travel, understand what brands that customer shops and what they buy when they shop, and therefore work with both customers and brands to customise what we offer to each of them,” said Corsellis.
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