Why Is "Super Mini" Handbag Popular?

In the past ten years,

Prices have skyrocketed.

Now, the brand is in progress.

The Classic Mini Handbag super mini version won back the love of "ambitious consumers".

London, UK, if a customer enters the Chanel shop for the first time in 5 years, looking for a Classic Flap Bag, they will find the price of the handbag doubled.

From 2009 to 2014, the cost of a classic flip bag has risen by 70%.

In fact, according to the Boston Consulting Group research, between 2002 and 2012, the price of seven luxury brand handbags rose, averaging 14% per year.

By constantly raising prices, Chanel and Louis Vuitton have gradually pushed customers of entry-level products away from the luxury handbag Market, pushing them to affordable affordable luxury brands such as Michael Kors, Tory Burch and Coach.

According to data from Exane BNP, from 2010 to 2015, the growth rate of handbags sales in the BRICs (China, Russia, India and Brazil) reached 6.6%, and the threat from luxury brands to the super fashion companies was still small. But now the market of high-grade handbags is developing more softly, "Mario Ortelli, senior luxury analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein," said, "among the fastest growing areas are consumers who have just entered the market," he said. "They just started buying their first handbag..." Sanford Bernstein BNP

So they are looking for brands that are not so expensive.

As a result, many luxury brands have launched smaller versions of their most famous handbags, which are proportionally reduced to match lower priced labels.

Although entry-level consumers may not be able to afford a full-size Fendi Peekaboo (18 cm X 31cm size is priced at $3950), trumpet Version (5.5 cm X 11 cm) does not need too much money, and sells for 1550 US dollars, while the mini version (18 cm X 11.5) starts at 3150 dollars.

Gucci, Givenchy, Dior and other brands also provide consumers with the most symbolic handbags of their miniature (Micro), nano (Nano) and toy (Toy) versions of handbags, which are priced at a fraction of the full size of the price.

The price of Saint Laurent's Sac Du Jour is 1350 dollars, the mini version is 1990 dollars, the full-size original is 2750 dollars.

Similarly, consumers can save more than $800 compared to full-size original versions by choosing the mini version of Gucci Bamboo Handle Shopper.

Retailers such as Selfridges, Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys also made plans for their mini version handbags on their own e-commerce sites.

In Selfridges department store, the overall sales volume and online search frequency of mini version handbags increased by 100% in 2015 compared with 50% in the same period last year.

"If you launch a handbag at a lower price, you can tap into the consumer group that you can't reach at ordinary times, and it is very likely that your sales will increase every square foot," said Luca Solca, head of the luxury department of Paris securities and banking department.

Smaller size products require less materials and processes than full-size products, which makes production costs relatively low.

"Now you reduce the production cost of handbags, which will give you more support in the face of greater market pressure."

He added.

But the brand must ensure that small bags do not occupy the space of higher priced products, Solca cautioned: "if you replace smaller expensive bags with bigger expensive handbags...

Next, your profitability will be affected, "he said." it all depends on your additional or reduced bag space. "

Reducing the price and expanding the entry-level product line also expose the brand to the risk of image erosion, and may also make more exclusive customers stop. However, Solca believes that this is not the problem with mini size handbags. Most mini handbags are just the duplicate styles of the logo luxury handbags, which means that the success of the mini bags also comes from the desire of the original bags. Mini bags mean that the brand does not need to use the discount promotion to sell its core products handbags to boost its performance.

"It's okay to lose exclusivity by providing low priced bags without using discount promotions."

Ortelli added.

But in the end, Solca said that the success of the Mini Handbag strategy is attributed to people's desire for brand, which is the most exclusive luxury offered by the brand.

"The same price is 2000 euros for handbags, and Michael Kors or Tory Burch should be sold harder than Prada brands. After all, this price may be 700 euros cheaper than the usual handbags," he said.

Not all brands rely on mini handbags to boost sales.

Last June, after 3 consecutive months of net income fell from 105 million 300 thousand euros to 58 million 700 thousand euros after the end of April, Prada announced that it will launch a series of low-cost full-size handbags, ranging from 1000 euros to 1200 euros.

How long is the product life of the original version of the mini version, in fact, it is doubtful: "it may be attractive from the price, and it can create a humorous or lovely style, but once the whole brand product has a mini copy and replace the new R & D products at the same price, it will become meaningless," said Peter Harris, the Asian distributor of Christian Louboutin, Stuart Weitzman and the president of Pedder Group, specializing in shoes and accessories business.

"We are talking about fashion business," Ortelli added. "Now it's a popular bag. Maybe we'll love it again in the next few years."