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Opinion: Why Are Luxury Brands Cowards Online?

by

Nicolas Zurstrassen

|

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

Last month, at Luxury Society’s Shanghai Keynote event, Nicolas Zurstrassen – e-commerce expert and former director of Chinese e-giant Baozun – lit up the stage with his insights on best practice e-commerce for luxury brands. Here – he provides some more food for thought on the subject.

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

Last month, at Luxury Society’s Shanghai Keynote event, Nicolas Zurstrassen – e-commerce expert and former director of Chinese e-giant Baozun – lit up the stage with his insights on best practice e-commerce for luxury brands. Here – he provides some more food for thought on the subject.

Last month, at Luxury Society’s Shanghai Keynote event, Nicolas Zurstrassen – e-commerce expert and former director of Chinese e-giant Baozun – lit up the stage with his insights on best practice e-commerce for luxury brands. Here – he provides some more food for thought on the subject.

A common refrain across the luxury world is that “We don’t do digital because it isn’t a luxury environment”. This then doubles down into “Well our clients won’t buy online therefore we don’t need to prioritise e-commerce”.

And there you get the catch-22. Products aren’t available, because brands won’t make them available, therefore consumers can’t buy the products, means that there are no customers, therefore brands don’t go online.

“ Currently, they’re forecasting e-commerce to be 16% of retail spend by 2018 ”

Yet consumers will buy everything else online. In China, they purchase cars, insurance, fast fashion, groceries and yes, also lots of luxury (at a discount obviously). Currently, they’re forecasting e-commerce to be 16% of retail spend by 2018. And globally, though the number lags, it’s still expanding exponentially.

Why should this consumer want a different channel only when it comes to luxury?

The fundamental problem is that luxury retailers have refused to define what the online retail experience should be. Instead the e-commerce retail experience is defined by Jeff Bezos, a programmer and banker.

“ Amazon has determined the framework that every other e-commerce store has followed ”

Amazon has determined the framework that every other e-commerce store has followed. Ease of purchase through one click buy. Limited photography and product experience. Absolutely no service.

When brands approach e-commerce this basic framework still dominates.

Is it little wonder then that what it has become is essential an online factory store. No retail magic, no service and a constant focus on price.

If offline retail stores were defined and run by the operations team then this is probably what they would deliver.

Consumers want price > check
Consumers want broad choice > check
Branding and service is too expensive > delete

Offline no sane retailer would allow their operations team to determine the customer experience in store. Rather hundreds of hours and millions of dollars are poured into elevating the brand experience. It’s a little art. It’s a little science. It’s a lot of magic.

Why not take this magic and try to apply it online? Because that’s where the consumer is.

Brands could do well to look at what they consider their arch nemesis to learn about the future of e-commerce. Because Alibaba, and the retailers it enables, have a lot to teach brands about selling online.

To further investigate the changing luxury landscape and select industry expert opinions on Luxury Society, we invite you to explore the related materials as follows:

2016 Luxury Industry Predictions From The Experts
Is The Definition Of Luxury Changing?
The Issue With Ethics, Fashion & Luxury

Nicolas Zurstrassen
Nicolas Zurstrassen

Marketing Director

Bio Not Found

RETAIL

Opinion: Why Are Luxury Brands Cowards Online?

by

Nicolas Zurstrassen

|

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

Last month, at Luxury Society’s Shanghai Keynote event, Nicolas Zurstrassen – e-commerce expert and former director of Chinese e-giant Baozun – lit up the stage with his insights on best practice e-commerce for luxury brands. Here – he provides some more food for thought on the subject.

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

Last month, at Luxury Society’s Shanghai Keynote event, Nicolas Zurstrassen – e-commerce expert and former director of Chinese e-giant Baozun – lit up the stage with his insights on best practice e-commerce for luxury brands. Here – he provides some more food for thought on the subject.

Last month, at Luxury Society’s Shanghai Keynote event, Nicolas Zurstrassen – e-commerce expert and former director of Chinese e-giant Baozun – lit up the stage with his insights on best practice e-commerce for luxury brands. Here – he provides some more food for thought on the subject.

A common refrain across the luxury world is that “We don’t do digital because it isn’t a luxury environment”. This then doubles down into “Well our clients won’t buy online therefore we don’t need to prioritise e-commerce”.

And there you get the catch-22. Products aren’t available, because brands won’t make them available, therefore consumers can’t buy the products, means that there are no customers, therefore brands don’t go online.

“ Currently, they’re forecasting e-commerce to be 16% of retail spend by 2018 ”

Yet consumers will buy everything else online. In China, they purchase cars, insurance, fast fashion, groceries and yes, also lots of luxury (at a discount obviously). Currently, they’re forecasting e-commerce to be 16% of retail spend by 2018. And globally, though the number lags, it’s still expanding exponentially.

Why should this consumer want a different channel only when it comes to luxury?

The fundamental problem is that luxury retailers have refused to define what the online retail experience should be. Instead the e-commerce retail experience is defined by Jeff Bezos, a programmer and banker.

“ Amazon has determined the framework that every other e-commerce store has followed ”

Amazon has determined the framework that every other e-commerce store has followed. Ease of purchase through one click buy. Limited photography and product experience. Absolutely no service.

When brands approach e-commerce this basic framework still dominates.

Is it little wonder then that what it has become is essential an online factory store. No retail magic, no service and a constant focus on price.

If offline retail stores were defined and run by the operations team then this is probably what they would deliver.

Consumers want price > check
Consumers want broad choice > check
Branding and service is too expensive > delete

Offline no sane retailer would allow their operations team to determine the customer experience in store. Rather hundreds of hours and millions of dollars are poured into elevating the brand experience. It’s a little art. It’s a little science. It’s a lot of magic.

Why not take this magic and try to apply it online? Because that’s where the consumer is.

Brands could do well to look at what they consider their arch nemesis to learn about the future of e-commerce. Because Alibaba, and the retailers it enables, have a lot to teach brands about selling online.

To further investigate the changing luxury landscape and select industry expert opinions on Luxury Society, we invite you to explore the related materials as follows:

2016 Luxury Industry Predictions From The Experts
Is The Definition Of Luxury Changing?
The Issue With Ethics, Fashion & Luxury

Nicolas Zurstrassen
Nicolas Zurstrassen

Marketing Director

Bio Not Found

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