According to this NY Times article, internet entrepreneurs did a lot of damage to the online market for luxury goods during the boom, especially by assuming everyone wants luxury for less. Now that business people who really know that market are starting online stores, they are developing truly innovative ways to market luxury items…at full price.

Please pay close attention to the idea of distributing a printed book to web site customers. Actually, selling the customers a book designed to be a companion to the web site. This idea is VERY interesting!

NY Times: Point, Click and Strut by Cathy Horyn

Last year, however, a little-known company in England called Net-a-Porter.com turned a profit selling things like $1,500 Chloe bags and $2,000 Marc Jacobs dresses. Started in 2000 by Natalie Massenet, a former fashion editor, with $1.3 million, Net-a-Porter.com had sales in the first half of this year of $16 million, an increase of 71 percent over the same period a year ago. …

A minor criticism of the site is that the design may not be as inspiring as it could be, ….

In the meantime they have come out with something incredibly compelling: a black notebook, bound like a Moleskine, that combines editorial point of view (key looks, Top 10 lists) with a catalog of all the clothes and accessories Net-a-Porter has ordered for next spring.

"I flipped over it," Rose Marie Bravo, the chief executive of Burberry, said. "It perfectly encapsulates the season." Designed to serve as an interface with the site, the Notes, as the $45 book is called, has the double surprise of feeling like an old-fashioned diary in your hand.