The Oxford Handbook of Luxury Business Luxury Supply Chain Management

This chapter focuses on supply chain management in the luxury sector. The concepts of supply chain and supply chain management are introduced first, with an overview of the most prominent scientific research works as well as industrial frameworks and methodologies; a discussion of luxury supply chain management in scientific literature follows. The central section of the chapter is dedicated to dissecting the anatomy of the typical luxury supply chain: first of all, it argues that there is simply no such a thing as ‘the typical luxury supply chain’, as the luxury industry is characterised by opposing trends; the section continues by illustrating how these opposing trends are moving companies into clusters which are internally homogeneous but significantly differing from one another. The chapter then illustrates some market trends that are increasing the complexity of supply chain management in luxury, followed by a brief discussion on how brands are reacting.