Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH), which had a turnover of $46.8 billion in 2018, is the owner of luxury brands including Veuve Clicquot, Hennessy and Chateau d’Yquem and has officially announced a Blockchain-powered platform called "Aura".

Aura is designed to enable luxury brands to track materials that are used to manufacture items, through supply channels and production, to the shops where they are sold. It is also the intention to use Aura for some luxury brands for the trade of second-hand items such as handbags, dresses, watches etc. The second-hand market is currently $360 billion p.a. and is predicted to grow to over $400 billion in 2020, making it actually larger than the market for new luxury brands, which is $302 billion, according to the fashion resale company Thredup.

What is really interesting about Aura (which is being built with ConsenSys and Microsoft) is that LVMH has signalled that it is already in discussions with other leading luxury brand owners (i.e. its competitors) to use the technology.  The idea is that the technology will become "industry-wide" through a consortium membership model (details are TBC). 

Ken  Timsit,  Managing  Director  of  ConsenSys  Solutions,  the  enterprise  blockchain  arm  of  ConsenSys, comments: “AURA  is  a  groundbreaking  innovation  for  the  luxury  industry. ConsenSys  is  proud  to contribute and to work with LVMH on an initiative that will serve the entire luxury industry, protecting the interests,  integrity,  and privacy  of  each  brand,  leveraging  Ethereum  blockchain  technology  in  a  truly decentralised way.”

Learn more about use of blockchain and innovative technology in the lux/lifestyle space at out event on 5 June 2019. Further details and registration here:https://thecollectivebyls.com/blockchain-event/