However, Landsend.com has a limited e-retail strategy of sales only in the US
market.
The e-retail of luxury goods ought to be approached from a global distrib-
ution perspective rather than the widely practiced restricted sales to a few
markets. This is because limiting e-retail by geography affects a luxury
brand’s perception as a global brand. For example, at the time of writing, the
website of highly respected luxury brand Hermès had e-retail for only the US
and French markets with a highly limited product range. The e-retail practice
of a global luxury brand such as Hermès ought to be extended to other
geographical markets.
Final notes
The major features of the website and e-store design are summarized in Table
6.3. These tips, while not conclusive, provide a guideline to developing a
highly luxurious and functional luxury website and e-boutique.
chapter 6 223digital luxuryTable 6.3 Dos and don’ts of website design
Dos Don’ts
- Avoid saving the best pages for last
- Avoid multiple sequential click-through
pages in the same section - Avoid cluttering pages with excessive
information - Avoid graphics that require long
downloads - Do not for any reason close down a
website during reconstruction or
launch an unfinished or a ‘coming
soon’ website - Maintain a consistent Marketing Mix
strategy and brand exclusivity both
online and offline - Do not retail luxury goods on non-
luxury e-retail malls - Do not write long-winded text in tiny
illegible font size - Do not under-estimate or take the
online consumer for granted - Dot Com companies failed for
offering free and cheap products,
managerial incompetence,
mismanaged logistics, under-
utilized customer database, and
misunderstanding the e-retail market.
Do not make the same mistakes! - Have a great homepage
- Provide multiple language choices in
addition to multiple location contents - Apply a clear colour management plan
- Align website design to brand image
- Apply 3-clicks to buy
- Provide the browser with ‘bread-
crumbs’ as a tracking device - Use clear, concise and consistent
language - Provide expert and updated information
- Provide short-cut navigation tools
- Provide homepage link on all pages
- Provide e-CRM link on all pages
- Enhance the web atmosphere through
videos, sound and animations - Apply quick downloads
- Provide control tools for videos, sound
and animations - Provide multiple product views
- Apply Viral Marketing, Permission
Marketing and Collaborative Filtering
tools - Apply Micro Marketing tools like pop-
up and banners moderately - Leave some background ‘white space’