Luxury & e-commerce; Bvlgari's bet
Having or not having e-commerce platforms? It is no longer the question, but an essential to be in the luxury business, particularly with consumers’ changing behavior and their rapid adoption to e-commerce.
Bvlgari established the first e-shop in the late 2000s but its journey towards an integrated omnichannel experience was long and challenging (Roxan, 2020). Last year, luxury shopping at physical boutiques was plagued by the inconvenience of COVID 19 outbreak. However, Bvlgari CEO Jean-Cristophe Babin saw the pandemic had a role as an accelerator of their worldwide digital expansion with the launch of life-like e-commerce platforms in seven additional countries within 90 days from May to July 2020 (Roxan, 2020). They aim to offer an online experience that is increasingly similar to that of a boutique and create a fluid interconnection across all physical and digital touchpoints (CCI Team, 2021).
At first, investing in an online selling platform seems like a waste of effort, or worse, and active disruption of luxury itself. Easily accessible whenever you go, consultable by anyone, luxury would become too accessible for customers to be protected from non-consumers.
However the change was inevitable, with the previously-mentioned covid but also technology’s integration into day-to-day lives: “more than 80% of the clients who shop in a Bvlgari boutique have had a previous digital contact with the brand” (Julia Roxan, 2020).
The fluid connection between online and offline shopping, as well as the care provided to the online platform aim to reappropriate to the brand the space of the website. You may be scrolling through the boutique in a subway, but will you have the same feeling when scrolling into any other website ? A strong feeling of brand identity is instilled through its online platform, and the bond between consumer and brand is stimulated even more.
E-commerce has some particular advantages. Bvlgari’s CEO Jean-Christophe Babin said Bvlgari eshop became the top 1 store worldwide, because of the lockdown policy applied to the whole world.
Bvlgari’s e-commerce platform is further enhanced by 3D product imagery and augmented reality (AR) which allows for enhanced personalization through mobile devices. With the AR experience, customers are able to superimpose true-to-size images of the brand’s bags into their surroundings for a life-like shopping experience (CCI Team, 2021).
Besides the advantages presented before, this novelty has few limits. One aspect to consider is that e-commerce represents about 10% of the luxury brands sales. Even if the global pandemic has changed the game rules of online shopping, some customers are more inclined to buy online, when some still want to go to the boutique (Antoine 2021).
One principal limit is the lack of personalized customer experience online. During a shopping in a luxury boutique, the seller is here to guide the customer and present the products. Online shopping prevents sellers from proposing another product that can fit with the one the customer chose or from convincing him to take anymore by the product.
Nonetheless, there is a potential disadvantage because of the online image. Also, there is still an a priori when the customer is buying from a reseller, to get a counterfeit or a damaged product (that can be caused by the delivery process). It may lead to distorting the brand image (Emily 2019). Also, online shopping may democratize the luxury brand, so Bvlgari should stay aware and keep an online website complementary to the boutique and not one that could replace it.
Presently, the acceptance of new technologies integration in luxury retailing is likely to be met with resistance to change from luxury consumers. Moreover, it is often difficult to reconcile the old and established brand image that luxury brands want to convey to consumers with the frivolous high-tech image of new technologies used in luxury retail. However, the 25-34 year olds represent the largest proportion of regular consumers of luxury products. This population is particularly comfortable with digital tools and online purchasing. The 16-24 year olds are also the third largest consumers of luxury goods. They are the future of luxury customers, so it is easy to imagine that the acceptance of this novelty will be well done in the very near future.
The Luxaholic Team
REFERENCES
Julia Roxan .(2020). Bvlgari Launches Its All-New E-Commerce Platform in Singapore. Luxuo. Available at:
CCI Team. (2021). CCI Q&A: Bvlgari CEO Jean-Cristophe Babin on Rising to Meet Luxury’s Challenges. Jing Daily. Available at: https://jingdaily.com/bvlgari-ceo-jean-cristophe-babin-luxury-challenges/
Antoine, (May 2021), Le commerce électronique mondial atteint 26 700 milliards de dollars, le COVID-19 stimule les ventes en ligne, CNUCED. Available at:
Emily (June 2019), Comment l’industrie du luxe a su s’adapter au e-commerce?, ECN. Available at:
https://www.ecommerce-nation.fr/comment-industrie-luxe-adapter-e-commerce/
Statista. Do you ever purchase high-end or luxury products / services? [visited on 15.11.2021]. available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1063812/luxury-good-and-service-purchase-frequency-by-age/
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