What is Hard Luxury And Soft Luxury?

The world of luxury is absolutely glamorous.

But colossally so.

And this can be overwhelming.

If you’re someone who’s navigating these luxurious waters for the first time, this article can help you make some sense of this glittering world a little easily.

First up, what exactly is luxury?

To quote Vogue, “Experimentations are luxury.”

Equating wealth or gaudiness with luxury would be very reductionist. Luxury is so much more than just riches or just sophistication. The one word that could be applied is subjectivity. Luxury is unique and special, classic and fresh, chic and minimalistic, elegant and opulent, simple and regal. There cannot be one set definition for this word; in fact, luxury is luxury because it cannot be put into a box.

It is intricate craftsmanship, exclusivity, handmade diligence.

Luxury is a love affair with details, with tailoring the product for the customer, adding that extra oomph which is a result of years and years of unbridled, meticulous attention and care.

To get a little technical, economics defines a luxury good as something for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises, meaning people spend extra on these items from their overall expenditure.

And we can’t exactly blame them, can we?

Luxury products are extremely alluring, after all.

Getting a little further, luxury goods can be bifurcated into hard and soft luxury.

What is soft luxury?

Soft luxury goods include apparel and bedding.

Soft luxury and ecommerce have gelled well and consumers have been happily ordering soft luxury online including soft luxury goods such as leather accessories, bags and designer clothing. As per a recent statistic online soft luxury sales have easily crossed the 10% mark and that looks like increasing rapidly in the coming days.

What is hard luxury?

Hard luxury goods refer to durable items such as jewellery, furniture, electronics, appliances, tools, etc.

Hard luxury demands more investment and generally the price of hard luxury is distinctly much higher than that of soft luxury. Hence sales of hard luxury including of goods like jewellery and watches, has been slow compared to soft luxury. Apparently not more than 5% of hard luxury purchases happen online today and most hard luxury sellers are not really confident that their luxury customers would buy hard luxury goods online as easily as they buy soft luxury online.