عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Swiss Watchmakers Target Shoppers Online

The Tag Heuerr watch maker factory is pictured in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Photo: Reuters
The Tag Heuerr watch maker factory is pictured in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Photo: Reuters
TT
TT

Swiss Watchmakers Target Shoppers Online

The Tag Heuerr watch maker factory is pictured in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Photo: Reuters
The Tag Heuerr watch maker factory is pictured in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Photo: Reuters

In order to lure younger shoppers, brands large and small are joining an online push sweeping the luxury goods world, where web sales are already major growth drivers for fashion labels.

Swiss watchmakers were finally convinced that customers would pay thousands to buy intricate timepieces on the web, after a boom in online luxury goods sales.

In an interview at the Baselworld watch trade fair, Jean-Claude Biver, head of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-LVMH’s watch business, said: “We didn’t realize the speed at which millennials would take to buying cars or watches online.”

LVMH’s Tag Heuer, a label long associated with motor racing, is looking to fully build out its own shoppable sites over the next 18 months, Biver added.

Tag already operates online stores in five countries including the United States and Britain, and has a partnership in China with JD.com, the company said. According to Reuters, LVMH sister brands Hublot and Zenith are yet to follow suit.

Many watchmakers have flirted with web sales, though often through one-off collaborations with multi-brand web retailers.

Watchmakers have reasons to take control of their online image, as websites run by unofficial resellers proliferate.

Jerome Biard, chief executive of Corum, owned by China’s Citychamp, said: “We want to reassure people, while taking into account that today clients also might like to buy their watch at home.”

The Swiss brand’s first e-commerce site will be fully operational in about two months, Biard added.

Consultancy Bain & Co projects says that web sales are expected to make up a quarter of all global luxury goods sales by 2025, up from around 9 percent last year.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

Parts of Great Barrier Reef Suffer Highest Coral Mortality on Record

FILE PHOTO: Peter Gash, owner and manager of the Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, snorkels during an inspection of the reef's condition in an area called the 'Coral Gardens' located at Lady Elliot Island, north-east of the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 11, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Peter Gash, owner and manager of the Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, snorkels during an inspection of the reef's condition in an area called the 'Coral Gardens' located at Lady Elliot Island, north-east of the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 11, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo
TT
TT

Parts of Great Barrier Reef Suffer Highest Coral Mortality on Record

FILE PHOTO: Peter Gash, owner and manager of the Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, snorkels during an inspection of the reef's condition in an area called the 'Coral Gardens' located at Lady Elliot Island, north-east of the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 11, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Peter Gash, owner and manager of the Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, snorkels during an inspection of the reef's condition in an area called the 'Coral Gardens' located at Lady Elliot Island, north-east of the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 11, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo

Parts of the Great Barrier Reef have suffered the highest coral mortality on record, Australian research showed Tuesday, with scientists fearing the rest of it has suffered a similar fate.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science said surveys of 12 reefs found up to 72 percent coral mortality, thanks to a summer of mass bleaching, two cyclones, and flooding, reported AFP.
In one northern section of the reef, about a third of hard coral had died, the "largest annual decline" in 39 years of government monitoring, the agency said.
Often dubbed the world's largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef is a 2,300 kilometer (1,400-mile) expanse of tropical corals that house a stunning array of biodiversity.
But repeated mass bleaching events have threatened to rob the tourist drawcard of its wonder, turning banks of once-vibrant corals into a sickly shade of white.
Bleaching occurs when water temperatures rise and the coral expels microscopic algae, known as zooxanthellae, to survive.
If high temperatures persist, the coral can eventually turn white and die.
This year had already been confirmed as the fifth mass bleaching on the reef in the past eight years.
But this latest survey also found a rapid growing type of coral -- known as acropora -- had suffered the highest rate of death.
This coral is quick to grow, but one of the first to bleach.
'Worst fears'
Lead researcher Mike Emslie told public broadcaster ABC the past summer was "one of the most severe events" across the Great Barrier Reef, with heat stress levels surpassing previous events.
"These are serious impacts. These are serious losses," he said.
WWF-Australia's head of oceans Richard Leck said the initial surveys confirmed his "worst fears".
"The Great Barrier Reef can bounce back but there are limits to its resilience," he said.
"It can't get repeatedly hammered like this. We are fast approaching a tipping point."
Leck added the area surveyed was "relatively small" and feared that when the full report was released next year "similar levels of mortality" would be observed.
He said that it reinforced Australia's need to commit to stronger emission reduction targets of at least 90 percent below 2005 levels by 2035 and move away from fossil fuels.
The country is one of the world's largest gas and coal exporters and has only recently set targets to become carbon neutral.