Online Luxury Retailer Offers Extremely Edited Assortment

I was checking out trendhunter.com to see what was going on in unique retail trends when I stumbled across an article about a unique luxury website called 3luxe.com.



3luxe.com sells luxury items in a variety of categories.  The catch? There are only three of each item in any category, no matter whether it's a washing machine, fractional jet ownership or cocktail shaker.

Users are allowed to vote on whether they like the item or not with a unique thumbs up or thumbs down icon with the phrase "Luxe it or leave it" under the thumbs.  Clever.

Even the sites tagline sells its simplicity: Simply find the best of everything.

THE REAL WORLD RETAILING TAKEAWAY
The success of a retailer can always be based on a carefully edited assortment.

3luxe.com hits that nail on the head by scaling back on everything to only offer three items per category.  Sure, it doesn't give you any selection.  But it's a luxury site so you're trusting them for their recommendations.  And the fact that users can rate the products gives you added assurance that like-minded individuals are the recommenders.

Having spent time in a start-up retail environment in the beauty business, our whole merchandising strategy was to have a great, edited assortment.  We didn't want to be Sephora and offer 27 cosmetics lines, we only offered four.  Four carefully selected lines.  One had cache, one was more mainstream, one was more edgy.  You get the point.

Retailers who offer every line under the sun aren't smart retailers.  That strategy results in too much inventory.  It results in customer confusion.  It results in the lack of customer service (who can possibly know everything about every line?).

Take a page out of the 3luxe.com's playbook and edit your merchandise assortment.

Your customers and your staff will thank you.