Why online luxury shopping needs curating
Luxury brands have long been reluctant to embrace digitalisation and e-commerce. Today, the need for an online presence is undisputed. However, many luxury brands do not succeed in creating a luxury shopping experience. Curation and personalisation is a good start.
According to a McKinsey study online sales of personal luxury goods (apparel, footwear, accessories, jewellery and watches, leather goods, beauty and perfumes) today account for €20 billion or 8 percent of total luxury goods sales. By 2025, the number of online sales is expected to nearly triple to €74 billion or almost one-fifth of personal luxury sales. Digital is having an even greater impact on how luxury shoppers choose high end brands. 78 percent of luxury sales today are “digitally influenced”, meaning that, in their luxury shopping journeys, consumers hit one or more digital touch points. The luxury shopper who begins and ends the customer journey offline is becoming increasingly rare, representing just 22 percent of all luxury shoppers.
Almost 80 percent of luxury sales today are “digitally influenced”, meaning that, in their luxury shopping journeys, consumers hit one or more digital touch points.
The digital appearance — be it to inspire or to sell — is therefore crucial for luxury brands. At the same time customer expectations have never been higher. Customers expect a digital luxury shopping experience rather than simply searching and buying. They are purchasing the experiences and emotions that a brand can offer, not just the products itself.
How can the luxury experience be transferred into the digital world? Is it even possible to create an added value online?
The need for curated offers
Let’s take a look at a typical high end fashion shop:
Instead of carefully curated pieces, there is an endless selection of products, hoping one of the hundreds of products will fit the customer.
Put yourself in the customer’s position: You are looking for a new piece of clothing and do not know yet what you are looking for. The lowest price or the largest selection are not your primary decision criteria. Of course, the filter options help narrowing down your search. However, chances are that you still have hundreds of items to look at. Are you really going to fight your way through all the pictures and look at photos that are too small and whose real colour could be totally different from what you see?
Luxury goods are a high anxiety purchase
Luxury goods are a high anxiety purchase. Customers have little time. High end products are expensive. Fabric, cut and colour are difficult to estimate. Ordering the wrong product costs time and money. Does the fact that you still have hundreds of other products to choose from help?
Let’s take a look at an alternative solution: Imagine a luxury fashion brand presenting — instead of the complete product catalogue — three stylishly curated outfits every day. The individual pieces fit together perfectly. A stylist explains why the different pieces go together well. Depending on the product range, matching accessories and jewellery goods are also available. With one click, you find detailed information on products that you are interested in. A video shows — if you want to — how the item is produced and what materials it is made of. If you have further questions, a virtual or physical assistant is at your disposal, depending on the complexity of your question.
At which of the two online stores would you rather be inspired and want to shop? On which of the websites would you rather come back a second time?
Personalization
One of the advantages of the brick and mortar store business is the personal relationship between salesperson and customer. That personal relationship is lost online, and virtual assistants will — despite vast amounts of data and rising intelligence — never be able to fully fill that void.
Thanks to data analysis and artificial intelligence, computers will soon know a customer better than any salesperson.
However, thanks to data analysis and artificial intelligence, computers will soon know a customer better than any salesperson, even before their first visit. Soon, consumers will not only receive curated offers, but suggestions tailored to their personal preferences and needs. The disadvantage of not having a personal relationship can thus be — at least partly — compensated by an enhanced shopping experience. And in contrast to the in-store experience a customer can easily reject all suggestions, without feeling bad. By the way, the data collected online will also improve the offline experience, since the salesperson will know more about his customer too.
Technology, Storytelling, Social Media and more
Curation and personalisation is a good start to improve your luxury online shopping experience. But there are many more questions to be answered to create a memorable experience:
- how to convey storytelling in the digital world and how to stand out in the millions of stories told?
- how to tell bite sized stories to reach consumers while commuting, during micro-breaks from work, during lunch, or wherever they are?
- how to embrace technology to continuously enhance customer experience and create a memorable digital experience?
- how to integrate social media and user generated content?
Luxury is all about selling a unique experience, a special feeling, a dream
Whatever question you are trying to answer, the following is important to bear in mind: Luxury is all about selling a unique experience, a special feeling, a dream. It is not only the specific properties of a product that are bought. It is the emotions associated with the product and brand. The values that the brand stands for. How the product makes you feel. Try to appeal to emotions rather than facts and figures.
Want to find out how to assemble the pieces of the puzzle? We look forward to finding out with you! Give me a shout via Linkedin, or in the comments section below.
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