Internet Distribution and Luxury

Internet distribution and Luxury

As a "super" boutique, luxury brand website should both speak loud and clear about the brand as such and, continue to share the inherent luxury dream. The site must be able to make the unforgettable sailing experience while offering services of the highest quality, like the prestige of its products.

True online admiral vessels of the brands, these ones are investing more and more in their flagship digital. Louis Vuitton, Yves St Laurent, Chanel and Burberry offer highly acclaimed web sites in the industry, for their success in the alliance between luxury and digital, causing many best practices. In France, Guerlain in November 2013 Lacoste in and August 2014 among the best recent examples of sites both lucrative and immersive, we will have a deep look at them later on.

What specificities for luxury brands on the internet?

Customers’ new technology addicts

We know that the luxury goods buyers are demanding, informed, hurry ... but they are also "connected". According to the Ipsos study of Europe for Google, they have in fact a multitude of connected devices, computer (50%), smartphone (18%) or tablet (22%) and 99% use the internet daily! New technology addicts, they use the Internet more than the national average and are over-equipped in technological devices. Luxury brands customers’ target, being mature on new technologies and regular online shoppers, they expect to find the luxury brands on the internet.

Luxury membership on internet

We know how complicated it is to collect customer data from a point of sale, especially in luxury where the process may seem quirky or intrusive. Conversely, users find it natural to give this valuable information (email, address, preferences ...) on a merchant site or a loyalty program for smartphones as these practices are entered in Internet use.

The "account" created during an online purchase help to push newsletters to the clients, customized if possible, to develop the use (new collections, recommendations) and reward loyalty (private sales, gift vouchers).

At the heart of the CRM site and axis for major development for luxury brands, the customer database allows to find in real or virtual store their preferences, their size, their historical purchase or even find their Wishlist.

Internet before buying

The Ipsos study also shows that luxury goods buyers use the Internet in their research process. They are 69% to do so before converting the purchase, either through the brand's website, price comparators or especially via the search engines for 58% of them (72% in emerging countries). But yet, 91% of purchases are made in store.

Main causes that hinder the development of e-commerce in the luxury sector:

Resistance to the « brick & mortar »

The first barrier to the digitalization of luxury brands, it is the strength of the "Brick & Mortar", the stores in hard. Although luxury customers are over-represented on the web and ultra-connected, the finding is clear: they buy little on the web as shown by the fact that in France only 9% of luxury purchases are made online.

The physical sales channel retains an immutable trait in luxury because of two main reasons. Nothing can replace the pleasure dimension associated with the act of buying a luxury item in a brand’s shop. The direct physical experiences with the products - look, touch, feel – motivates 65% of this behaviour. In addition, the convenience aspect of the operation - to learn about in internet and buy immediately in the point of sale - is a further justification for 53% of them.