Louis Vuitton Has Bumped Up Handbag Prices in the U.S.

In the wake of the Trump administration’s tariffs, Louis Vuitton handbags just became more expensive in the U.S.

Luxury analysts at Bernstein and Barclays flagged that the French luxury brand has bumped up prices by roughly 4 percent on us.louisvuitton.com.

“This price increase likely comes as as response to the recent introduction of a 10 percent tariff in the U.S. The price increased ranged from +7 percent for some bags like the NeoNoe to 1 percent for products like the Twist or Keepall,” Barclays analyst Carole Madjo wrote in a research note Thursday.

She said her team also detected price bumps of 3 percent in Japan and 2 percent in France.

Luca Solca, analyst at Bernstein, noted that prices were unchanged for CarryAll, Biker, All In and Graceful handbag ranges, suggesting these products may be produced in the U.S., where Vuitton operates three leather goods production sites in Texas and California.

In his view, Vuitton’s average price increase of 3.6 percent “seems more than enough to cover even the worst-case scenario of 20 percent tariffs on EU exports from the U.S.”

What’s more, “these price increases provide a case in point: the first level impact of tariffs will
be negligible,” according to Solca, arguing that megabrands like Vuitton in particular “remain highly desirable and command clear pricing power.”

In addition, given that tariffs are also applied to “industrial first cost,” Bernstein expects price
increases on luxury goods to be “well below the 10 percent headline number, falling within the 5 to 7 percent like-for-like price inflation the industry has seen over the past 50 years.”

Analysts are more concerned about the wider impact of tariffs on consumer sentiment, financial markets and currencies.

Last week, Hermès International said it would increase prices across various product lines in the U.S. effective May 1 to offset the tariff impact, as reported.