Okonkwo Prelims

Chapter 6

Digital luxury

‘Luxury brands have been slower than most to unlock the potential of

e-retail. They have struggled to overcome the challenge of making

their digital environments as alluring as their stores.’

Mark Tungate, writer and branding specialist and author of

Fashion Brands: Branding Style from Armani to Zara

The case for e-retail

Technology has definitely changed the landscape of consumer behaviour and

the way business is conducted, including luxury fashion management. The

impact of the digital revolution on consumers in the last ten years is over-

whelming. The Internet has empowered consumers more than ever before and

has elevated their product and brand expectations. The Internet also provides

online consumers with instant information, and lower switching costs in

terms of time, information, product comparison and purchase. As a result, the

task of retaining the attention and loyalty of consumers has also become more

challenging.

The Internet as a means of information and retail distribution has estab-

lished e-retail as a core aspect of global business. E-retail is now an indis-

pensable complementary sales channel for offline retail activities in several

categories of goods, including luxury fashion. It is also an effective avenue of

enhancing brand awareness, reaching new markets and creating competitive

leverage and differentiation for luxury brands. The internet provides a unique

opportunity to access the huge market constituting of millions of people that

make up the online consumer population.

The Internet plays a significant role in fuelling the universal appeal of

luxury brands to a global consumer group. Just as the language of fashion

branding is universal, the e-retail community is also worldwide. Since luxury

fashion goods don’t need introduction or clarification in the global market-

place, the allure of their highly creative products on consumers is identical,

wherever the consumers may be located. They are uniformly appealing to an

international consumer base that stretches from San Francisco and New York,

to Paris and Moscow, Hong Kong, Sydney and beyond. In the same way, the

drawing power of the brand aura is consistent among a worldwide consumer

group. Several brands like Christian Dior, Gucci and Burberry have a high

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