With the rise of the internet as a solid platform for browsing, comparison shopping and purchasing, the wealth and breadth of content that exists is easily and widely accessible to shoppers. Perusing a search engine provides a thorough and comprehensive overview of what you can get for your money and where you can get it, along with, of course, the ability to purchase with the click of a mouse. Now, more than ever, brands need to finely curate their digital content in order to stand out, build a qualified online audience, and reinforce the brand image.
Before the success of luxury ecommerce, it was thought that a consumer would never spend the money for a luxury good online, without having the ability to go in-store and actually see the merchandise or interact with the salesperson. We have learned over the past several years, however, that this is absolutely not the case as the luxury consumer spends $4.9 billion per year, a 20% growth from 2009 (Bain & Co.). Now that ecommerce is widely accepted as a viable and important revenue stream for luxury brands, we need to address consumer’s behavior and how they actually shop online.
Comparison shopping has been cited as one of the top utilities of online shopping. Consumers browse for the products they are interested in, honing in on elements like price and availability. For a luxury consumer, there is also a third factor, validation of the sale. Luxury goods are not necessities, and therefore the purchase of a luxury item is emotional rather than practical. It is the job of the brand to connect emotionally with the consumer in order to differentiate from competitive brands, facilitate the sales transaction and validate the consumer’s choice.
On a basic level, brands accomplish this by having websites and online presences reflective of the brand image. However, taking it a step further, it is about brands curating content in order to make an emotional connection that will ultimately increase sales and strengthen consumer/brand relationships.
Digitally, the company that comes to mind is Net-a-Porter, who offers a perfectly curated selection of clothing and accessories, and who supplements this product offering with brand stories, video features, stylist notes and the ability to contact a stylist directly. All of these work to establish Net-a-Porter as an expert and, as consumers, we trust in this expertise, enough so to make the company worth $525 million in its acquisition by luxury group Richemont. In this way, the role of a curator can help define one brand from the next and build more meaningful relationships with consumers that translate to increased site visitation, higher sales, sharing and distribution of content, and longer time spent on site. Offline, this can also impact overall brand sentiment, in-store traffic and customer loyalty.
Ultimately, it all comes back to content and the value-add that brands provide online.
Photo credits: Mama’s A Rolling Stone
This article is from the Fashion’s Collective archives
