CARTIER

 CHANEL

 DIOR

 GUCCI GROUP

 LOUIS VUITTON

ABC-LUXE

 APPROCHE-SUR-MESURE

 EUROSTAF

FIRST LUXE

IPSOS
PRESTIGIUM

Et un remerciement particulier à:

IBM France

1.     EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1.    WEB IMPACT ON LUXURY MARKET

For many years, the distribution model of the luxury brands was pretty simple: there was some brand shops in the major cities such as Paris, London and New-York and resellers were operating in the rest of the world.

Targeted customers were high-income local people and wealthy customers fascinated by occidental luxury brands.

Today, internet impacts this model by making a wide range of information available for an equally wide range of potential customers. Based on economical statistics and interviews, this study will find out who the internet customers are and what products are eligible for on-line sales.

CUSTOMERS MEET PRODUCTS ON THE WEB

1.2.    LUXURY E-COMMERCE ECOSYSTEM

The relation between the customer and the brand can be owned directly by the brand or can be managed by third-part actors such as department stores, on-line shopping guides or discount sites.

If a brand decides to sell on-line through its own web site, three major requests will come from cyber-customers:

• Product information,
• Product ordering,
• Added-value services.

The last two requests have a strong Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as pre-requisite.

LUXURY E-COMMERCE ECOSYSTEM

 
1.3.    HOW TO SUSTAIN LUXURY CODES ON THE WEB
 

The most challenging part of e-commerce for a luxury brand is to sustain luxury codes through an impersonal web transaction.

There are two ways to replicate through internet the experience of shopping in a luxury shop:

§       Providing a glamour interface which will create pleasure and emotion,

§       Offering added-value services which will give to the customer a feeling of exclusivity. 

1.4.    POTENTIAL RISKS AND EXPECTED BENEFITS

Ultimately, if a brand decides to sell on-line, there are potential risks and expected benefits in three domains:

§       Marketing,

§       Commercial,

§       Finance.