COVID-19 Is Plunging Old-Fashion Luxury Brands Into The Digital Age
Even after e-commerce became commonplace, many luxury companies remained cautious about jumping into digital sales. Items that justify their thousand-dollar price tags with claims of exceptional craftsmanship and materials aren’t always able to communicate their desirability through tiny two-dimensional images. They may also lose their shine if shoppers can compare prices across sites, while the lavish experience of purchasing an item in an opulent store can feel merely transactional when checking out on a screen. Still, as more shoppers have moved online, luxury companies have followed, and with COVID-19 now keeping consumers home and many stores shut, it’s pushing them even harder to give new priority to their digital businesses. “During this time, when attitudes to shopping may be changing and habits may become even more online, I felt we needed not only an evolution, but a revolution in our digital culture,” Remo Ruffini, CEO of high-end jacket maker Moncler said on a July 27 call with investors and analysts. The company, which previously outsourced its digital operations to fashion-tech outfit Yoox Net-a-Porter, announced it would bring those operations in-house and said it plans to double its e-commerce sales to 20% of its business by 2023. Read more at Quartz.
