group has comfortably adapted to technology and is currently evolving to
adapting technology to their needs and their lifestyles.
The time has come for luxury brands to change their stance regarding e-
retail. There is a current need for luxury brands to design merchandizing,
retailing, marketing and logistics strategies to incorporate the internet. This
will form an effective tool for integrating the online and offline retailing
activities. The prevailing issue is whether it is realistic to imagine that the
physical luxury retail store environment can be replicated on the internet. Or
that luxury goods can be successfully sold online without diluting their brand
aura and brand equity.
The challenge of selling luxury goods online is evidently enormous as the
online luxury shopping experience is considerably different from the conven-
tional physical shopping experience. Also the sensory nature of luxury goods
requires a face-to-face contact rather than the face-to-screen contact provided
by the internet. The internet also seemingly lacks the exclusivity and prestige
qualities of the offline locations of luxury fashion stores. In addition, the
online luxury consumer has a different set of needs from the offline luxury
consumer although some of the offline consumers also shop online and vice
versa. These needs have to be understood and satisfied by luxury brands.
Therefore the questions relating to creating a high-status website atmos-
phere, replacing the human senses in the virtual environment, satisfying the
high demands of online consumers and matching ‘high class’ with the ‘mass
class’ of the internet world are justified. However, the application of feasible
e-retail strategies makes the successful e-retail of luxury goods possible. Prior
to investigating these strategies, let’s take a look at the online consumer and
understand how their evolution has affected e-retail.Online luxury fashion consumer behaviour
The existence of an online luxury consumer population is no longer in ques-
tion and this consumer segment is also growing rapidly and steadily. Luxury
fashion consumers frequently make online purchases through the limited
available luxury e-retail websites. They are also more willing to make contin-
uous online luxury purchases than offline. For example, apparel is one of the
fastest growing e-retail product categories globally. An indication is that in
the USA, online sales of apparel were forecast to generate revenues of $12.5
billion by the end of 2005, an increase of 23 per cent from 2004.
Consumers of luxury goods are among the global consumer population
that crave continuous internet access. They represent a substantial proportion
of the 600 million + consumers worldwide who currently see online access as
an absolute necessity, in the same manner they view eating and sleeping. This
is excluding the estimated near 1 billion online users exposed to e-retail. A
large portion of this online population represents high net-worth individuals186
luxury fashion branding