Creating a luxury online customer experience

In the history of shopping in the west customer experience has seen major changes, however one sector has perhaps seen more continuity than others; the luxury sector.

Shopping experiences went from practical and personal in the 19^th century; shops were smaller, the products lines kept behind the counter, there was no opportunity to browse, the purchase was a conversation between the consumer and shop keeper. The advent of the department store changed all this. The new model required higher turnover to work, all were welcome in the department store, huge window displays combined with huge store spaces, restaurants, reading rooms, and even the introduction of toilets, helped make shopping a pastime and create desire for new products. It also made mass-consumer shopping much more anonymous.

It's easy to recognise the enduring changes the department store had on modern shopping habits. It’s also easy to see that modern retail customer experience has a history longer than retail consumer insights. However, CX in retail has changed since the glory days of the department store. The window displays, captivating interiors, and easy access to brands has become ‘every day’. While the anonymity of the shopping for all to experience has come full circle as retailers look for the experience to become more personalised. There are more consumer expectations from brands, we don’t want to feel anonymous, we want to feel special in the moment, but also after the purchase and every time we use the product.

One sector that never lost sight of the personal touch, and eschewed anonymity in shopping, is the luxury and high-end market. They may have taken inspiration from some display innovations, yet on the whole continued to provide a more bespoke and one-on-one experience in their bricks and mortar stores. Luxury is often closely linked to status and luxury stores are great at creating exclusive environments that facilitate a perception of being part of an exclusive group. In some cases luxury is synonymous of power and money which, as we are know, are still very much considered desirable even if it is not socially desirable to admit it to ourselves or others.

The one on one personal attention in a store, as well as creating elements of the scarcity effect, a feeling of urgency and sense of FOMO, is one that has shown to repeatedly prove itself to create a sense of desire in the luxury market. Luxury has been able to take this to the next level and it is no longer just about being able to afford something. It is about being allowed to buy it, making the desire levels infinite and therefore the price someone will pay for the product equally infinite.

The area which luxury has challenges in is online. The anonymous and low intervention shopping of non-luxury department stores or other mainstream consumer goods stores makes a fairly easy transition to online. This is not the case for luxury brands, online is a level playing field. So how can luxury brands translate those key components of a luxury customer experience to online shopping?

Scarcity and exclusivity are tried classics in the luxury market. Hermes may have discontinued their waiting list, but in order to snag one you need to express a commitment to the brand, even butter up a sales associate. Scarcity and exclusivity in this case is overcome through personal relationships between the brand and consumer. Difficult to replicate in the online space. Some brands have endeavoured to create more exclusivity through early access to promotional lines for social media followers, and online accounts allow for more personalization. However, there are further opportunities to create more in-depth personalisation, linking both in-store and online shopping.

Behavioural segmentation in this area can be a boon to luxury brands online. Going deeper than traditional demographic segmentation it gives luxury brands the opportunity to be more discerning and more granular with their segments, and in turn create digital communications and personalized initiatives that can better resonate with consumers true self, enhancing the perception of that one-on-one relationship with the brand. This can be coupled with limited-edition online only product lines and digital VIP membership programs with exclusive benefits.

Sensory experiences have become a more important part of luxury shopping because it taps into our emotions and makes us feel closer to the brand, although we sometimes may not notice it. Take the Aime Leon Dore flagship stores in London or New York as an example. Beautiful designed spaces, they use Japanese incense, have achingly cool music pumped through the store, and even an adjoined café. They also have doorman to control numbers, but even so, the stores are full of seating. The invitation to luxuriate in the store, is certainly not replicable online. However, the brand aim to transfer some of the sensory experience with live DJ sets available on their digital store recorded instore and their logo is subtly present on their garments for those ‘in the know’ to acknowledge. This breaks down the barriers between the two, allowing shoppers to replicate some of the brand’s curated vibe both when interacting with it online and experiencing it’s power when wearing it.

Of course the shop experience isn’t just about look and feel but also personal contact. Digital showrooms and moving replicated shop tours that provide online shoppers a significantly different experience than flat photos of products. Online consultations, private online appointments with personal shoppers, delivery systems and packaging that provide those one-on-one interaction and personalized interactions that luxury shoppers value so highly. Luxury lunches and exclusive weekends in Capri create instagramable moments that are promoted by the brands but also by the customers, validating their luxury status and everything that means to them.

There are ways to replicate a more luxury customer experience in online spaces. However, what’s important to understand is whether that fits with your brand. Ultimately the luxury market is built on the strength of brand. To understand what customers value beyond product and exclusivity to those intangible brand attributes that many customers might even have difficulty articulating, is where the true challenge of online CX lies.

The question is where will the shopping experience take us next, how will the need for exciting and emotionally satisfying experiences lead and what will we desire from the retailers in the future? At the moment it is hard to imagine what else retailers could do while still being profitable, but that doesn’t mean that we have reached our peak or that there are ideas that we just haven’t yet thought of. Customers don’t really know what they want until you offer it to them so asking them directly would be pointless. Behavioural science gives us a window into what would make a brand and retail experience more desirable, what needs to we need to leverage and where is there an opportunity to dial up the desire and get them to spend more time and money enveloped in our world.