Chanel autumn/winter 15. Picture: Getty Images

No, this is not an April Fool's joke: Chanel is finally preparing to launch an e-commerce store.

Chanel's president of fashion, Bruno Pavlovksy, confirmed the news last night - coinciding with the brand's Salzburg-New York event - adding that the website could launch as soon as next year.

“It’s not so much a shift," he told WWD. "It’s an evolution to better serve our customers. Some of the customers are able to come into the boutique. Sometimes they don’t want to because they want to shop faster and they know exactly what they want, so it should be able to better respond to the customers’ requests. It’s more e-service than a pure e-commerce approach.”

Pavlovsky was previously famously outspoken about his desire not to venture into the world of online sales, emphasising that shopping at Chanel should be about the experience: "to be able to wear Chanel clothes, you need to try them on." While this next step is unlikely to impact upon the number of shoppers in stores, it could well open the door to a whole new set of more digitally-savvy (or time-poor) customers.

Watch this (virtual) space... 

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