姑娘們的福音!香奈兒降價!

If you noticed that Chanel took its handbag prices off its website earlier this week, we now know why: yesterday, Women's Wear Daily reported that the brand will begin “harmonizing” its global prices on April 8. That means some markets will see significant increases in handbag prices, while others will see big drops.

如果你注意到了，在本週的早些時候，網站上香奈兒的手提包降價了，那麼我們現在也就明白了爲什麼昨天的女裝日報報道該品牌將於4月8日開始“調和”其全球價格。這意味着一些市場上手提包價格大幅上漲的同時，其他手提包的價格會降低。

For shoppers in the US, the impact of the policy change will be somewhat subdued, but those who frequently buy in Europe and Asia are probably already aware of the issue Chanel's trying to resolve with its new policy. Because of currency fluctuations and the decreasing power of the euro, a Chanel bag bought in France can cost as little as half of what it costs in China.

策略的變化對於美國購物者影響較小，但是那些亞歐地區的消費者可能已經明白了，香奈兒是想用這個新的策略來消解一些問題。由於匯率波動和歐元的貶值，一個香奈兒包在法國的價格幾乎沒有中國的一半。

Naturally, that leads to enterprising resellers who scoop up as many bags as they can in the European market to sell in Asian countries, where prices are steep. The reseller charges a bit of a markup and makes a profit, the buyer saves some money and still gets the bag and, ultimately, Chanel loses control of its supply chain and all the valuable market data that goes with it. It also muddies the waters when consumers are trying to sort out what's real and what's counterfeit.

當然，這引起了那些有魄力的分銷商儘可能多的在歐洲市場搶購皮包，然後再將這些低成本的包銷售到價格較高的亞洲。分銷商會在成本的基礎上有所加價，從而獲取利潤。並且，(與原來相比)買家在省錢的同時依舊擁有了包。最終，香奈兒失去了對其供應鏈的控制和所有伴隨它的有價值的市場數據，這也使消費者在努力鑑別真假的時候變得糊塗。

The first three pieces of Chanel inventory to get this treatment are three popular handbags: the Boy Bag, 11.12 Flap Bag and Classic Flap Bag. According to WWD, the price of Boy (the size isn't stipulated) in Europe will rise from Euro 3,100 to Euro3,720, while in China, it will fall from ￥32,700 to ￥26,000. For the 11.12, the European prices will rise from Euro3,550 to Euro4,260 and the Chinese prices will fall from ￥38,200 to ￥30,000. Even if you're not familiar with the exchange rates, you can tell these are large changes–the Boy Bag will increase by almost $650 in Europe, which is a far larger increase on a $3,300 bag than the usual 10%. The changes for the Classic Flap weren't released, but because the previous prices were the same for it and the new 11.12 bags, shoppers can likely expect similar prices in the new structure.

香奈兒存貨中的前三個得到這樣處理的是三種受歡迎的手提包，它們分別是：Boy Bag，11.12 Flap Bag和 Classic Flap Bag。根據女裝日報報道，Boy系列(型號未規定)在歐洲市場上的價格將從3,100歐元升至3,720歐元，然而在中國，此皮包的價格將從32,700人民幣跌至26,000人民幣。至於11.12皮包在歐洲地區的價格將從3,550歐元升至4,260歐元，與此同時，此皮包在中國的價格將從38,200人民幣跌至30,000人民幣。即使你不熟悉匯率，你可以辨識出其間發生的重大變化—Boy皮包的價格在歐洲增加了將近650美元，這與通常的在3,300美元的包上增加10%相比，是一個大的增長。Classic Flap皮包的變化沒有被釋放，但對於該皮包來說，以前新式的和舊式的價格是相同的，顧客可能會預料出在新的結構中，此皮包也會保持類似的價格。

As previously mentioned, American shoppers don't have quite as much to worry about; Chanel says that prices in the US, Canada and Japan are already pretty well aligned, so changes will be much more subtle than they will be in Europe and the rest of Asia. When we have information on what the changes will be and when they'll take effect, we'll pass it on to you.

正如前面提到的，美國顧客沒有太多的擔心；香奈兒表示，美國，加拿大和日本的價格已經很好的保持了一致，所以比起歐洲和亞洲其他地區，他們的價格變化相對微妙。當我們得知會有什麼變化或者何時會產生影響時，我們會告訴你們。

There's another element to this story that goes beyond in-boutique sales, though. The Chanel representative who spoke with WWD indicated that these changes were “about the future” of the brand, and, when pressed, admitted that wouldn't just be in brick-and-mortar stores. There's no date for when Chanel will embrace e-commerce for its bags, of course, but keeping prices roughly equal (the goal is to vary less than 10%) across global markets is an enormous step toward making online sales possible.

然而，香奈兒在精品銷售方面在努力實現超越，這是與這件事情相關的另一個因素。香奈兒的代表在女裝日報上說到這些變化對於品牌來說是“關乎未來的”。並且，在被報道時，此代表承認這不僅僅只在實體商店。至於何時香奈兒皮包會與電子商務緊緊相擁，我們不得而知。但是，在全球市場內保持價格的大致相同（目標變化少於10%）對於在線銷售的這種可能是一大步。