Nine-Year-Old Retail Website ELuxury.com Shuts Down

January 9, 2009 8:50 p.m. EST

San Francisco, CA (CNS) - Brick and mortar stores aren't the only retailers suffering in this economy. After word that Mervyn's, Steve and Barry's and Bill Blass will close their stores' doors, several retail websites are also feeling the cold, hard economic crunch.

One such website is eLuxury.com, which has reported to Women's Wear Daily that it will be shutting down its site in the next six months. However, eLuxury.com didn't necessarily have a poor financial performance.

The San Francisco-based website was not a discount retail site, and sold products and brands that had their own significant websites. It seems, according to WWD, that customers chose to buy from the products' brands' sites instead of eLuxury.com.

Not all is lost, however. eLuxury.com will revert itself into an online fashion magazine. "Starting in mid 2009, eLuxury's new mission will be to create an 'e-window' into the world of luxury, by serving as an information reference for luxury in fashion, art de vivre, leather goods, wines and spirits, watches and jewelry, gastronomy, cars, yachts and services," a LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton spokeswoman told WWD.

"To that end, eLuxury intends to develop collaborations with the most prestigious names in the world of luxury media, as well as the main contributors of the luxury world."

The company plans to close the retail portion of its business completely by June this year, which would be exactly nine years after eLuxury.com lauched (June 2000), LVMH plans to move many of its employees over to other positions within the company.