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Abstract

With Internet changing the luxury business landscape, new players have emerged such as the Online Private Sales Retailers (OPSRs). These offer online buyers with a choice of limited-time sales to help companies get rid of their overstocks. Luxury brands are no exception. No research has been conducted about how luxury consumers relate with such websites, hence this paper. In an exploratory fashion, interviews with luxury buyers who also buy online on OPSRs, are conducted to get insights on consumers' perceptions and luxury brand equity that selling through OPSRs may have. We find that appropriate product and brand help consumers forget that they are buying brands' unsold stocks, that transferring the luxury webmospheres would be positively perceived, that consumers from these websites are looking for benefits such as freedom of use and brand discovery, rather than personalized offers, that multiple discounts on several OPSRs may damage the luxury-perception of a brand, that the private sales members consider the service to be good enough for the demanded price, and that personalized invitations can help increase online consumers' feelings of desirability and exclusivity. The paper concludes with practical recommendations for both luxury companies and OPSRs.