Louis Vuitton Price Increase Master Thread *please include location*

[theprettymiss]

Honestly, I still dont understand LVs push for extra “exclusiveness” when everyone (and theyre mama) has owned an LV bag.

Its a little too late for them to push regular working people out of the brand, imo.

I think these price increases mainly impact new LV buyers (such as myself) and it will push more people into going the resellers route.

 

[SpeedyJC]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I find it funny though since even Hermes can’t stop people that I think would be outside of their targeted demographic from buying their bags so how does LV think this will do it. I will enjoy watching how all of this plays out.

Well Hermes tries to by limiting Birkin sales but of course now with the growing popularity of second hand markets there efforts are rather futile at this point. I mean yes of course the price of their bags alone are enough to keep prestige but they went the extra step of the infamous waiting list so that having money for the bag itself was not enough.

Another side note - I read another article ( I really need to find these articles and post links for people to read) but the article stated that LV was starting to advertise to teens. I know that sounds strange but these are teens from affluent homes who have relatives who can buy for them. By doing this they are setting these teens up to become that target customer of the affluent 18-34 year old with disposable income.

 

[viewwing]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I find it funny though since even Hermes can’t stop people that I think would be outside of their targeted demographic from buying their bags so how does LV think this will do it. I will enjoy watching how all of this plays out.

I don’t think LV is trying to stop them from buying their stuff, but their marketing strategies will just not be targeted at this group of people. Every brand needs to concentrate on their targeted demographic.

 

[Winter’sJoy]

I don’t think LV is trying to stop them from buying their stuff, but their marketing strategies will just not be targeted at this group of people. Every brand needs to concentrate on their targeted demographic.

Of course, but if they are trying to accomplish this through pricing I feel they are trying to stop them. Marketing towards a specific group is fine but no so much if they are using pricing to do it. I feel pricing should correlate with the cost of producing a product and the quality of said product. Of course everyone wants to make a profit but to what end? Maybe I am looking at this wrong and am open to the thoughts of others.

 

[Winter’sJoy]

Well Hermes tries to by limiting Birkin sales but of course now with the growing popularity of second hand markets there efforts are rather futile at this point. I mean yes of course the price of their bags alone are enough to keep prestige but they went the extra step of the infamous waiting list so that having money for the bag itself was not enough.

Another side note - I read another article ( I really need to find these articles and post links for people to read) but the article stated that LV was starting to advertise to teens. I know that sounds strange but these are teens from affluent homes who have relatives who can buy for them. By doing this they are setting these teens up to become that target customer of the affluent 18-34 year old with disposable income.

No wonder there is so much scamming going on these days. People are going to try to keep up with the Jones no matter what sadly. I wonder how much this particular demographic group can sustain their label and profits.

There is no way I would buy my child these kinds of things even if I was a billionaire.

I also wonder how they plan to do this with rampant resellers like you mentioned. On top of that they want you to buy but if people make too many purchases in a short span they put restrictions on their accounts according to some of the posters here, make it make sense. I have never had my account restricted but I believe others when they talk about their experiences. None of this makes sense to me but oh well they have the right and I have the right not to buy. They won’t miss me I’m sure.

 

[Winter’sJoy]

Another point of view-

I'm originally from East Asia. When I was in college, only the very few carried LV, usually those with rich parents. That was almost two decades ago. Now it's not uncommon to see these young college kids with several LV bags in their collection already. You see them posting hauls and videos all over the internet. In my opinion, "luxury" has become more accessible to general average consumers. I once read a book about how the label conscious young Japanese women save up for months to buy a LV bag, while eating $4-5 convenience store lunch meals.

So much has changed since then though so I think it’s crazy that LV wants to relive these “glory” days. So many young people are making their own money and generating income from things like YouTube and being an influencer.

 

[ChanelFan29]

I am pretty much done with luxury bags. I bought and sold a LOT for a few years. This price increase means I'll *maybe* buy one LV bag or SLG a year for my birthday. Can I afford more than that? Yes, but I'd rather invest and save the $, because I feel like this year is a good time for that. I am also kind of shocked that a starter bag like the Speedy 30 is $1160 USD!

I remember my first two LV purchases.... A Speedy 35 at the end of 2010 for around $760-ish, that was my first LV! I got a Neverfull GM (before the pouch came with it) in early 2012, I believe that was around $870. Heck, I got a Victorine wallet for $550 in January and now that's $570.

I am happy with the collection I have accumulated... Speedy 30 DE, Speedy B 25 mono, Neverfull MM in Mono/DE, Pochette Accessories, Keepall 55B, Gucci Mini Ophidia, Hermes Evelyne TPM and PM. Plus a Chanel Jumbo and Mini in black caviar. I have one LV Tp left and 5 LV wallets (Zippy, Rosalie, Victorine, Key cles and a card holder). I sold all of my Chanel SLGs.

Right now I am not using ANY of my luxury items due to Corona. I only want to use purses that I can throw in the wash.

 

[Kevinh73]

Of course, but if they are trying to accomplish this through pricing I feel they are trying to stop them. Marketing towards a specific group is fine but no so much if they are using pricing to do it. I feel pricing should correlate with the cost of producing a product and the quality of said product. Of course everyone wants to make a profit but to what end? Maybe I am looking at this wrong and am open to the thoughts of others.

Luxury products are never correlated to cost of production and material. If they are, most items, including none luxury products such as an uniqlo tshirt, would be priced a lot lower. Part of the allure in buying LV hand bag is not everyone can afford one. If everyone can afford one, then people will deem it undesirable and stop buying them. Case and point: Coach handbags. Not only you see them everywhere, but they also sold a bunch of them at low prices at various outlets all over US. Soon enough people stop buying them because they are no longer exclusive. So what did Coach do? up their quality and stop selling so many of their handbags at outlets. It’ll take awhile before people start seeing their bags as the more desirable ones.

LV is trying to tread that fine line of being everywhere while selling few bags at lower price point (sub 1k) to attract buyers and get them used to the pricing and hopefully get these newbies to open up their wallet and buy more expensive handbags down the line. While no one likes price increases unless you are a shareholder of lvmh, I get what they are trying to do. They are trying to price their bags so that they are just slightly out of reach for the masses so that when she saves up and buy that one speedy or that one neverfull, she will likely treasure it more. This high of finally getting the bag that she has been saving for months, will lead her brain to want another LV bag as that will produce the same high again. It’s all human psychology and I’m sure all luxury brands have that down and then some. Resell websites have somewhat disrupted luxury market but they also validate what is desirable (ie bags that hold up their resell values vs bags that do not). Why is Gucci leather goods cheaper than LV? The quality is fairly comparable. The reason is we all know some of these gucci leather goods go on sale/ can be found at Gucci outlets. As soon as Gucci closes up all those outlets and burn all the rtw and handbags that were not sold at full price, prices at resell websites for Gucci goods will go up instantly.

 

[Winter’sJoy]

Luxury products are never correlated to cost of production and material. If they are, most items, including none luxury products such as an uniqlo tshirt, would be priced a lot lower. Part of the allure in buying LV hand bag is not everyone can afford one. If everyone can afford one, then people will deem it undesirable and stop buying them. Case and point: Coach handbags. Not only you see them everywhere, but they also sold a bunch of them at low prices at various outlets all over US. Soon enough people stop buying them because they are no longer exclusive. So what did Coach do? up their quality and stop selling so many of their handbags at outlets. It’ll take awhile before people start seeing their bags as the more desirable ones.

LV is trying to tread that fine line of being everywhere while selling few bags at lower price point (sub 1k) to attract buyers and get them used to the pricing and hopefully get these newbies to open up their wallet and buy more expensive handbags down the line. While no one likes price increases unless you are a shareholder of lvmh, I get what they are trying to do. They are trying to price their bags so that they are just slightly out of reach for the masses so that when she saves up and buy that one speedy or that one neverfull, she will likely treasure it more. This high of finally getting the bag that she has been saving for months, will lead her brain to want another LV bag as that will produce the same high again. It’s all human psychology and I’m sure all luxury brands have that down and then some. Resell websites have somewhat disrupted luxury market but they also validate what is desirable (ie bags that hold up their resell values vs bags that do not). Why is Gucci leather goods cheaper than LV? The quality is fairly comparable. The reason is we all know some of these gucci leather goods go on sale/ can be found at Gucci outlets. As soon as Gucci closes up all those outlets and burn all the rtw and handbags that were not sold at full price, prices at resell websites for Gucci goods will go up instantly.

Well
Maybe I’ve been doing it all wrong because I’ve never bought something just because others couldn’t and wanted to be apart of some special club. I bought the items because the brands were associated with quality and I liked the style.

I thought luxury has always touted itself as quality i.e., quality materials, partially handmade, long lasting. The opposite of fast fashion.

I’m confused because some are saying they want consumers that don’t have to save for a bag and then you say they want the ones that are so happy to get a bag after saving that they buy over and over again. As for the last part, judging by this forum that already happens. Posters buy one bag and then another and another because they develop an addition and that is at current or cheaper prices.

 

[Kevinh73]

Well
Maybe I’ve been doing it all wrong because I’ve never bought something just because others couldn’t and wanted to be apart of some special club. I bought the items because the brands were associated with quality and I liked the style.

I thought luxury has always touted itself as quality i.e., quality materials, partially handmade, long lasting. The opposite of fast fashion.

I’m confused because some are saying they want consumers that don’t have to save for a bag and then you say they want the ones that are so happy to get a bag after saving that they buy over and over again. As for the last part, judging by this forum that already happens. Posters buy one bag and then another and another because they develop an addition and that is at current or cheaper prices.

People buy luxury goods for all kind of reasons. For you, it's quality. For others, it would be association of luxury lifestyle/ to show off. With Instagram, many millennial buy luxury bags so they want to come off as wealthy so they can gain followers. Then in turn, these millennial influencers can get sponsors to give them money so they can spend that money as they please. The point I'm making is people buy these luxury bags for all kinds of reasons and I'm sure there are other reasons why people buy them besides the few I listed.

Luxury have always touted itself as quality. Sometimes that is true. Sometimes it's not IMO. LV actually makes pretty good quality bags. They often stand behind their bags as you can return them most of the time if there is obvious quality problems. They recall bags if certain style becomes too problematic due to whatever reasons. You can also bring your older bags to have them fix them at a cost/ or sometimes free. Try that with most brands and they definitely don't do that. All of these comes with added cost which is priced into buying a LV bag. Surly you have bought stuff from H&M before. I can assure you H&M isn't likely to take any hand bags back after 30 days and I would challenge you to find any H&M bag that last as long as LV bags.

LV wants two types of consumers imo. One type is who can go into LV and buy anything they want. They don't have to save up. Those ones are obviously in the minority and LVMH will not have the numbers they have if they only cater to that type of customers. I would bet majority of the customers at LVMH buys maybe one or two bags a year. Those are the ones who you see post here quite often saying they have speedy, neverfull, toiletry pouch, key pouch, etc. that saved on their online favorite tab. These people are bread and butter for LVMH. At the end of the day, there are only hand full of people who can buy multiple LV bags at once. In order for LVMH to make their number, they have to cater to general public instead of just to ultra rich.

Judging from the number of posts under LV tab (compare to Chanel, Dior, Hermes, Coach, etc.), I'm pretty sure LVMH has succeeded in their strategy.

 

[p3b]

Ha ha! I know an Instagrammer that constantly purchases everything LV sells just so she has something to show pictures of. She doesn't use half of the things she owns but wants to be relevant on Instagram. Another Instgrammer sells some of her items. First she takes a bunch of pictures of them so she can show them all over to seem like she has a lot. I am sure these are not the only people doing this. Just like the YTers I have seen that have often purchased just to have content, then find reasons to sell soon after they purchased. The joke then becomes how long will it take before they find fault with the item and/or sell it.

 

[Winter’sJoy]

People buy luxury goods for all kind of reasons. For you, it's quality. For others, it would be association of luxury lifestyle/ to show off. With Instagram, many millennial buy luxury bags so they want to come off as wealthy so they can gain followers. Then in turn, these millennial influencers can get sponsors to give them money so they can spend that money as they please. The point I'm making is people buy these luxury bags for all kinds of reasons and I'm sure there are other reasons why people buy them besides the few I listed.

Luxury have always touted itself as quality. Sometimes that is true. Sometimes it's not IMO. LV actually makes pretty good quality bags. They often stand behind their bags as you can return them most of the time if there is obvious quality problems. They recall bags if certain style becomes too problematic due to whatever reasons. You can also bring your older bags to have them fix them at a cost/ or sometimes free. Try that with most brands and they definitely don't do that. All of these comes with added cost which is priced into buying a LV bag. Surly you have bought stuff from H&M before. I can assure you H&M isn't likely to take any hand bags back after 30 days and I would challenge you to find any H&M bag that last as long as LV bags.

LV wants two types of consumers imo. One type is who can go into LV and buy anything they want. They don't have to save up. Those ones are obviously in the minority and LVMH will not have the numbers they have if they only cater to that type of customers. I would bet majority of the customers at LVMH buys maybe one or two bags a year. Those are the ones who you see post here quite often saying they have speedy, neverfull, toiletry pouch, key pouch, etc. that saved on their online favorite tab. These people are bread and butter for LVMH. At the end of the day, there are only hand full of people who can buy multiple LV bags at once. In order for LVMH to make their number, they have to cater to general public instead of just to ultra rich.

Judging from the number of posts under LV tab (compare to Chanel, Dior, Hermes, Coach, etc.), I'm pretty sure LVMH has succeeded in their strategy.

I just want to highlight your comment about the general public being their bread and butter so to try and price them out like some have hypothesized doesn’t make sense, that’s all I’m saying.

All of the information you gave is pretty known if you keep up with the you tubers and just from browsing on this forum and being a buyer of LV, which I am.

 

[Kevinh73]

I just want to highlight your comment about the general public being their bread and butter so to try and price them out like some have hypothesized doesn’t make sense, that’s all I’m saying.

All of the information you gave is pretty known if you keep up with the you tubers and just from browsing on this forum and being a buyer of LV, which I am.

Lol. Sorry. I’m not sure what part of what I said doesn’t make sense. But obviously we all have opinions so I’ll just leave it as we disagree.

Just so you know I’m in no way think it is right for LV to increase their prices at this point in time. I’m just putting myself in their shoes and think what make logical sense for them to increase price. If by increasing prices by $50 or $100 and all of a sudden people can’t afford to buy LV, then these people aren’t likely be the bread and butter audience for LV. I certainly understand people’s frustration as I’m in the same boat as well. Who wouldn’t like to buy LV at a lower price point? All I’m saying is I’m sure lv has done their marketing research forwards and backwards and predict that the money they will gain from these price increases will not hurt their overall bottom line. Of course nothing is certain and I’m sure we will find out if their strategy works during their next earning call.

 

[UPandUP]

I was able to get the PA for 540 back in March and I am still upset that the price increased to be honest, I love that bag but it’s not worth more than 540. 630 is unreasonable to me. It’s principle at this point


got my PA in March for 540 too now I’m actually a

Bought PA NM in 2016 for $500. The recent sudden jump in price is gross.

 

[dropsofjupiter]

LV wants two types of consumers imo. One type is who can go into LV and buy anything they want. They don't have to save up. Those ones are obviously in the minority and LVMH will not have the numbers they have if they only cater to that type of customers. I would bet majority of the customers at LVMH buys maybe one or two bags a year. Those are the ones who you see post here quite often saying they have speedy, neverfull, toiletry pouch, key pouch, etc. that saved on their online favorite tab. These people are bread and butter for LVMH. At the end of the day, there are only hand full of people who can buy multiple LV bags at once. In order for LVMH to make their number, they have to cater to general public instead of just to ultra rich.

Yeaah sorry but this is where you lost me.. I'm sure you're knowledgeable but if what you're speculating is true and LV really is trying to cater to those who buy 1-2 bags a year on average, they're not doing a very good job appealing to their target customers. In this hypothetical scenario, let's say that the average working man/woman has had their eyes on a certain bag- a Neverfull, Pochette Metis, or whatever, and they've been saving up for a year to treat themselves. Maybe they wanted to wait until a special occasion or to confirm the news of their annual pay raise to finally pull the trigger. Well imagine their surprise (and disappointment) to see that the price of their dream bag has increased by almost $300 just a year later. Now what? They put away that money already to buy this bag, but maybe now they can't swallow paying over their allotted budget. Or not even that, maybe at that point they don't even think it's worth the price anymore and would rather spend the money on something else/a different fashion house.

This person might also have no idea that this forum exists, or is a part of the "luxury community", so they'll either end up changing their mind or going the pre-loved route, but either way, LV's crazy price increases is going to drive these types of customers away and less people will get to have that boutique experience, especially if it's going to take a while for the economy to recover post-pandemic. But yes, there's no doubt that business is business and they're just trying to create this image of "exclusivity". Wanted to point out that I'm not debating with you btw, I've only barely started getting into LV this year and this is just my two cents. I actually think this thread is an interesting discussion.