Luxury web atmospherics: an examination of homepage design

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the on-going debate in research on how a luxury brand ' s image of exclusiveness and uniqueness may be preserved in the ubiquitous mass medium internet. Specifically, the study aims to provide insights on how luxury brand homepages should be designed to evoke perceptions of luxury. Design/methodology/approach – First, desk research on 81 existing luxury brand homepages and expert interviews are used to empirically detect specifics of luxury homepage design. Second, a randomised laboratory experiment is conducted to analyse the effects of luxury versus conventional homepage design on perceived luxury. Findings – First, luxury homepage design differs from conventional homepage design in four main aspects: the use of darker background colours, the use of a larger or full screen space to present the stage content, a horizontal navigation bar, and a substantial reduction of elements. Second, experimental results indicate that luxury homepage design significantly affects consumers ' perceptions of conspicuousness and uniqueness. Research limitations/implications – The experiment was conducted in a laboratory setting. Future research could use this work as a framework and extend it to a field environment, analysing the effect of luxury homepage design on key performance indicators, such as site traffic and conversion rates. Practical implications – The results of the study provide luxury managers with guidance for designing luxury brand homepages. Originality/value – While previous research has mainly addressed luxury homepage design conceptually, this paper is the first to empirically identify key characteristics of luxury homepage design and empirically examine the effect of luxury homepage design on consumer perceptions of luxury.