CONSUMERS

The New Shopping Experience Should Be Seamless

by

Sophie Doran

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit: This is the featured image credit

Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua speaks with Chris Donnelly, global managing director at Accenture Retail, about the balance between expanding online and building more stores to spur sales growth

Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.

PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.

In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”

The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris

Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua speaks with Chris Donnelly, global managing director at Accenture Retail, about the balance between expanding online and building more stores to spur sales growth

Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua speaks with Chris Donnelly, global managing director at Accenture Retail, about the balance between expanding online and building more stores to spur sales growth

“What the customer really wants is a seamless experience,” reports Chris Donnelly, global managing director at Accenture Retail. “They want to be able to buy on their terms, whether that is instore, whether that is online, if they want to return something instore or online, they like options. It is the customer who creates his or her own experience now. Far be it for retailers to dictate how that is to pan out.”

As retail rents reach all new highs in shopping hotspots like London, Hong Kong and New York, brands and retailers are increasingly turning to eCommerce to achieve global distribution and provide heightened convenience for customers.

Yet in new and emerging markets, where brand awareness may be low or non-existent, brick-and-mortar stores play a huge role in developing a familiarity with and understanding of a brand and its products. So how should expansion be balanced going forward? Where should brands be investing?

“ They buy it online and take it back to the store, they buy it in store & have it sent back to the warehouse ”

“You have to have both,” believes Mark Neale, founder & CEO at Mountain Warehouse, an expanding travel and outdoor retailer with 150 stores in the United Kingdom.

“At the end of the day I think consumers are looking for a good quality product at a good price, which they can buy in well located stores or online, and they do both. They buy it online and take it back to the store, they buy it in store and have it sent back to the warehouse. People are doing whatever is most convenient.”

Indeed, patience is waning in instore high street environments. The average shopper aged between 16 and 24 will wait in line at a checkout for just six minutes before giving up and leaving, according to research by omnichannel retail experts Omnico. Among older shoppers that wait time tolerance drops to under five minutes.

“ The average shopper will wait in line at a checkout for just six minutes before giving up & leaving ”

In high street retailers, one in 10 shoppers has made a purchase, via mobile, from another retailer’s website while standing in a checkout queue. Among younger age groups, that figure rises to 15%. When we can access information or order products with just one click, time is becoming the most precious commodity for shoppers.

The implications for luxury are undoubtedly different. Purchasing necessity products is far removed from the purchase of unique items at high price points where brand equity is a key driver. Clients are less likely to purchase a Gucci handbag on their mobile whilst waiting to check out at Louis Vuitton, if they have already decided on a specific Louis Vuitton product.

But luxury brands should be thinking about ways to create truly omnichannel experiences, to meet all consumer expectations when it comes to convenience. One of the very reasons consumers shop for luxury, with luxury brands, is to experience superior levels of customer service. Yet how many luxury brands can accommodate purchases online and returns in store, or vice versa?

“Unfortunately customers want it all” concludes Mark Neale, “they really do expect to be able to buy and be served on their terms.”

To further investigate the retail experience on Luxury Society, we invite your to explore the related materials as follows:

Luxury Retail: Big Data is Watching
Omni-Channel Retail: A Roadmap to Execution
The Future of Showrooming & New Consumer Behaviours

Sophie Doran
Sophie Doran

Creative Strategist, Digital

Sophie Doran is currently Senior Creative Strategist, Digital at Karla Otto. Prior to this role, she was the Paris-based editor-in-chief of Luxury Society. Prior to joining Luxury Society, Sophie completed her MBA in Melbourne, Australia, with a focus on luxury brand dynamics and leadership, whilst simultaneously working in management roles for several luxury retailers.

CONSUMERS

The New Shopping Experience Should Be Seamless

by

Sophie Doran

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit : This is the featured image credit

Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua speaks with Chris Donnelly, global managing director at Accenture Retail, about the balance between expanding online and building more stores to spur sales growth

Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.

PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.

In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”

The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris

Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua speaks with Chris Donnelly, global managing director at Accenture Retail, about the balance between expanding online and building more stores to spur sales growth

Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua speaks with Chris Donnelly, global managing director at Accenture Retail, about the balance between expanding online and building more stores to spur sales growth

“What the customer really wants is a seamless experience,” reports Chris Donnelly, global managing director at Accenture Retail. “They want to be able to buy on their terms, whether that is instore, whether that is online, if they want to return something instore or online, they like options. It is the customer who creates his or her own experience now. Far be it for retailers to dictate how that is to pan out.”

As retail rents reach all new highs in shopping hotspots like London, Hong Kong and New York, brands and retailers are increasingly turning to eCommerce to achieve global distribution and provide heightened convenience for customers.

Yet in new and emerging markets, where brand awareness may be low or non-existent, brick-and-mortar stores play a huge role in developing a familiarity with and understanding of a brand and its products. So how should expansion be balanced going forward? Where should brands be investing?

“ They buy it online and take it back to the store, they buy it in store & have it sent back to the warehouse ”

“You have to have both,” believes Mark Neale, founder & CEO at Mountain Warehouse, an expanding travel and outdoor retailer with 150 stores in the United Kingdom.

“At the end of the day I think consumers are looking for a good quality product at a good price, which they can buy in well located stores or online, and they do both. They buy it online and take it back to the store, they buy it in store and have it sent back to the warehouse. People are doing whatever is most convenient.”

Indeed, patience is waning in instore high street environments. The average shopper aged between 16 and 24 will wait in line at a checkout for just six minutes before giving up and leaving, according to research by omnichannel retail experts Omnico. Among older shoppers that wait time tolerance drops to under five minutes.

“ The average shopper will wait in line at a checkout for just six minutes before giving up & leaving ”

In high street retailers, one in 10 shoppers has made a purchase, via mobile, from another retailer’s website while standing in a checkout queue. Among younger age groups, that figure rises to 15%. When we can access information or order products with just one click, time is becoming the most precious commodity for shoppers.

The implications for luxury are undoubtedly different. Purchasing necessity products is far removed from the purchase of unique items at high price points where brand equity is a key driver. Clients are less likely to purchase a Gucci handbag on their mobile whilst waiting to check out at Louis Vuitton, if they have already decided on a specific Louis Vuitton product.

But luxury brands should be thinking about ways to create truly omnichannel experiences, to meet all consumer expectations when it comes to convenience. One of the very reasons consumers shop for luxury, with luxury brands, is to experience superior levels of customer service. Yet how many luxury brands can accommodate purchases online and returns in store, or vice versa?

“Unfortunately customers want it all” concludes Mark Neale, “they really do expect to be able to buy and be served on their terms.”

To further investigate the retail experience on Luxury Society, we invite your to explore the related materials as follows:

Luxury Retail: Big Data is Watching
Omni-Channel Retail: A Roadmap to Execution
The Future of Showrooming & New Consumer Behaviours

Sophie Doran
Sophie Doran

Creative Strategist, Digital

Sophie Doran is currently Senior Creative Strategist, Digital at Karla Otto. Prior to this role, she was the Paris-based editor-in-chief of Luxury Society. Prior to joining Luxury Society, Sophie completed her MBA in Melbourne, Australia, with a focus on luxury brand dynamics and leadership, whilst simultaneously working in management roles for several luxury retailers.

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