Luxury Brands, Can They Make it in a Digital World?
When it comes to shopping designer or luxury brands via online vs in-store, how do we know which is best? Sure, we may prefer shopping online, but when it comes down to designer items, unless it was something as popular as the Heaven by Marc Jacobs Kiki platform boots, we would likely prefer to see the item in person first. Not only that, but if there is a chance to go to one of these fashion houses’ stores, typically it is also an experience of the brand itself.
Let’s just take a moment to admire these beauties.
The argument against this is that we are becoming a digitally based world, so how do luxury brands adapt? There are new VR and AI technologies that have made some online headway, but many still argue it is nothing compared to seeing these pieces in person first.
One of my favorite designers, Marc Jacobs, had a great take on this topic. Back in 2020, whilst doing an interview with Business of Fashion’s Tim Blanks, they discuss this idea of “replacing physicality” and that they feel the opposite. They treasure the value in it, and the experiences that come along with in-store shopping. Marc states that going to store is much more important, “it’s a ritual, it’s an experience!”
Heaven by Marc Jacobs Store, NYC, 2022.
Marc Jacobs Flagship Boutique in L.A., 201.7.
The worry the designer has, which seems to creep upon many of us, is that within all these new mediums of how clothing and accessories are being displayed to us, we don’t have any real connection to the new material we are being presented. Luxury goods, or fashion in general, to many of us is considered art. Marc makes an amazing metaphor about how we do not feel the same looking at something such as the Mona Lisa as a thumbnail on our computers as we would if it was right in front of our faces. This is the case for how many of us consumers and even designers feel with these products being showcased on this new type of platform.
The problem still stands of the fact that these luxury brands are being even further coerced into developing their sites so that their customers are satisfied.
A Forbes article from February of 2021 titled “Three Mindset Shifts to Make Luxury Brands More Agile” discussed a statistic that many shoppers abandon their purchase online because they can’t see the product well enough, and that more than half of shopper said that their online experience is inferior to the ‘prestige’ of their physical stores. With the lack of physical experience, luxury brands must embrace solutions that shift e-commerce from 2D and mundanity, to a more emotional and precise 3D experience.
References:
Girod, S. J. (2021, February 18). Three Mindset Shifts to Make Luxury Brands More Agile. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephanegirod/2021/02/18/three-mindset-shifts-to-make-luxury-brands-more-agile/?sh=5541a1ae59ba
Jacobs, M. (2020, May 18). Marc Jacobs Says, 'I Still Have Stories to Tell'. (T. Blanks, Interviewer)