LuxFi is the New Revolution for Luxury Assets E-Commerce
The pandemic has changed the way we buy things forever. Even once it is over, the exponential growth in online shopping won’t just disappear. The trend cannot be reversed, and now more than 60% of all shopping is done online. Some forecasts put that figure at 70% by 2025, and by the end of the decade close to 85%.
The explosive growth has been a boom for several industries, one of which is the luxury industry. Yet, this massive migration towards online retailers has shown some cracks in the system. Regular e-commerce was never designed to handle high-end items and that’s creating a lot of problems for consumers. Let’s see how LuxFi is changing this.
Traditional Luxury E-commerce
For the longest time, the luxury industry didn’t want to adopt online commerce. Luxury items benefit the most from their exclusivity, and having a tailored retail experience is part of that package. So, even after electronics, sports brands, cars, and most industries embraced e-commerce, luxury goods stayed on the sidelines.
All of that changed with the pandemic crisis around the world. Despite the challenges this event induced in the global economy, the luxury economy was still growing even under lockdowns. But to sell luxury items, the industry had to adapt and finally adopt the e-commerce model with all of its implications.
There were many advantages and the industry jumped between 2020 and 2021 due to these factors:
1. Possibility to Search Different Categories of Luxury Products with Different Filters
In the pre-pandemic retail experience, luxury stores would have a visible selection of items presented to the shoppers. People would have to look among the selection or ask the staff for what was available or which were the most coveted items that season.
The e-commerce model gave shoppers the possibility to search an entire stock of goods using predetermined parameters. That opened a whole new way of looking for individual items, matching luxury items, and having a wider selection quickly.
2. Shipping
E-commerce is great at managing bulk shipping to many locations. Now, shoppers could browse the wider selection of items and have them directly sent to their home addresses. This model of shipping has always been one of the advantages e-commerce has over the regular retail market.
People want to have the convenience of receiving the items in the comfort of their homes. Not to mention, the added security of not having to carry valuable objects in crowded malls makes shipping all the more appealing.
3. Product Recommendation
Another great thing e-commerce can do is giving tailored and customised recommendations. Search engines are great at comparing the attributes of various objects and recommending the most relevant to each person in particular. This allowed people to discover luxury brands and items that had not been considered before.
This new way to relate products power charged the luxury market. As consumers look more and more at how to match different items and brands to create the perfect look.
4. Mobile-friendly Website
Most of the online activity has migrated to smart mobile devices. Gone are the days when the internet was accessed via a bulky home computer, e-commerce is now largely a mobile experience.
The luxury industry followed suit and now many exclusive brands offer their products on mobile platforms. This has reduced the friction for many consumers and increased sales in the sector.
5. Remote Return Policies
Of course, returning an item is as much a part of retail as it is buying it in the first place. Luxury e-commerce retailers also had to adapt to this new way to do return policies. The regular e-commerce sector has accustomed buyers to the idea they can return items quickly and remotely.
6. Access to a wider variety of products
Finally, e-commerce relies on large warehouses where thousands of goods are stored. This means the front end of the online shop can show a massive variety of products that can be bought by the buyer. The number of items in one of these locations would never fit in a regular store, and today’s consumers expect this level of variety.
All of these factors have created a boom in the luxury sector. The move towards e-commerce has been mostly good for the industry and has greatly expanded its reach. However, the regular e-commerce model has shown some cracks too.
One is that luxury goods need a higher degree of care when being transported. Most private and public shipping services lack the ability to provide this degree of care. This has led to many items being damaged during transportation and resulting in complaints and returned items.
Also, since everything is remote, many forgeries make their way into otherwise legitimate e-commerce retailers. A common scam is to order a luxury item, then return it, but replacing the original item with a duplicate one.
Many times the people who receive the returned item are not even the staff who first sold it. In fact, most times it doesn’t even go to the same location. This has resulted in a flood of imitations being sold back to unsuspecting customers, as detailed in this article.
LuxFi Revolutionary Blockchain E-commerce Model
The regular e-commerce model is not sufficiently good for the luxury industry for the reasons detailed above. A new way of doing things is needed if the industry will keep benefiting from its move to online retail. LuxFi has the perfect solution:
1. Use of Blockchain Technology for Product Authenticity, Information, and History Traceability
Forgeries in the luxury industry are a plague. There is no way to avoid them, but not everyone has the necessary knowledge to spot them. For this reason, LuxFi created an authentication system based on NFTs and blockchain technology.
Each item on the LuxFi platform is paired with an NFT that has the necessary information to authenticate the good and trace it. Also, the metadata of all the goods is stored on the blockchain, which is a permanent ledger that cannot be tampered by anyone.
2. Possibility to Pay in Crypto
Bank transfers tend to be very slow and can be very expensive when done between different countries. Credit card payments are expensive and the fees these companies charge make purchases more expensive than they ought to be.
LuxFi allows for payments using crypto. The blockchain is global, and the fees when moving value over a decentralized network are considerably lower. It’s the perfect way to foster a global ecosystem that is transparent, fair, and open to anyone.
3. You Get the Digital Version AND Real-world Item
The NFT containing all the information of the physical item is transferred along with the original goods. The new owner now has the perfect medium to prove to future buyers the authenticity and origin of any item bought on LuxFi.
Each item is authenticated by professionals and all the information is saved in the NFT. The days when the authenticity of an item can be doubted are gone.
4. We Have the Real Value of An Item
The luxury market is very opaque. The prices and valuations of goods are often hidden from people and this makes it difficult to ascertain the true price of any given item. LuxFi uses big data to track prices in the market. Also, it saves all the transactions made on the platform.
Now. buyers and sellers have access to all the necessary information to make an informed choice. The information asymmetry present in the past is now eliminated, creating a safe and transparent ecosystem for all participants.
5. Investing Opportunities
Aside from their beauty and appeal, luxury goods have always been investment vehicles. But investing in them is very difficult and can be a large expense in its own right. Storing a large variety of luxury goods is difficult, not to mention dangerous, as it becomes a magnet for unscrupulous actors.
LuxFi allows buyers to retain the NFT as proof of ownership without ever redeeming the token for the physical good. Investors can purchase as many NFTs as their strategy requires and never have to worry about storing them, or transporting them to the next owner.
The NFT can be traded as many times as it’s needed. At any moment, the owner can redeem the NFT for the physical goods which are sent to his/her location directly. LuxFi opens a whole new way to invest in the luxury market.
6. Metaverse Expansion
The metaverse is the next big opportunity in the market. LuxFi is actively exploring ways to allow the NFTs to migrate into these new virtual worlds. The move will open a new dimension for the industry and change the market forever. More information can be found in this article.
Conclusion
The LuxFi business model has been validated by a successful IDO held on November 8th. The next day, November 9th, the $LXF token was listed on UniSwap and Bitmart for public trading. It has been an amazing journey, and now we have even greater things in plan for the future. LuxFi looks forward to continuing the traditional features of e-commerce with new revolutionary traits, reaching new heights in the LuxFi and DeFi industry.
About LuxFi
LuxFi is the world’s first asset-backed NFT marketplace for luxury assets, where people can buy, sell and invest in luxury assets using cryptocurrencies and traditional payments. We eliminate counterfeiting while minting an NFT on a multi-chain blockchain network, with a focus on luxury assets that hold value well and have a high resell value. Leveraging on our big data intelligence system and unique algorithm for automated data collecting and data processing, the value of each NFT on our platform is backed by real-world data.
Stay tuned on our social media channels:
Website: https://www.luxfi.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/luxfiofficial
Telegram Announcement Channel: https://t.me/luxfinews
Telegram Official Group: https://t.me/Luxfiofficial
Medium: https://luxfiofficial.medium.com
