Golden moments: How tech helps luxury retailers forge lifelong bonds with customers

Luxury brands are facing the challenge of serving valued customers consistently and personally, on a global scale.

Personalisation allows a luxury brand to indulge its affluent customers in a meaningful way that will drive lasting loyalty. After all, it may be months or even years between purchases of a haute couture handbag or designer sunglasses. The big challenge is communicating and serving in personal ways, but on a global scale, to meet today’s sky-high customer expectations.

While fast fashion personalisation is all about encouraging frequency of sales, driving by discounting and deals, luxury personalisation is different. It’s more about nurturing a long-term emotional connection, making people feel special, and meeting service needs at every touchpoint – which might be a Paris boutique one week, the brand website the next, and a US airport store the next.  

Power of worldwide selling ceremonies

This is why in today’s global market, more and more premium brands are turning to technology solutions that support luxury shoppers’ love of making prestigious purchases of fashion, watches and jewellery, wherever in the world they happen to be.

Nick Owens, IT Director at luxury swimwear brand Orlebar Brown knows how critical it is for store employees to recognise global customers, if lasting relationships are to be forged. “Our customers are truly global travellers,” he says, “so we want to make sure the shopping journey is as seamless as possible, delivering consistent customer experience.”

A frictionless experience is priceless

The rub in too many cases of luxury retail comes when a brand fails to recognise global shoppers across its systems and locations. If a brand cannot reconcile all data points to one human being, how does it deliver a personalised experience and build loyalty?

Technology adds the gloss of highly-informed customer service. Retailers with software systems in place can provide the visibility that underpins unified commerce and a top class customer experience.

That means the selling ceremony can always be on-brand, but also tailored to each shopper’s unique needs. Human interaction in store provides a golden opportunity for brand loyalty to be sealed. By leveraging technology on the back end, sales assistants can access valuable data. If they are given the time, space and digital tools to nurture the relationship, strong relationships can form.

Bespoke service at store level

With unified commerce IT capabilities, a wealth of customer insight — such as product preferences, past purchases and personal data — can be made available across a luxury store network. VIP consumers’ wishes can be anticipated and fulfilled. After care can be tailored.

Each time new information is entered, it is immediately uploaded to the cloud, where it’s ready for the shopper’s next visit. Customer data can be added this way across every channel and touchpoint.

Customer retention - the glittering prize

The market for personal luxury goods reached a record high of €260 billion in 2018 according to the latest Bain research, representing 6% year-on-year growth. But brands must be wary of the next generation of high-spending consumers who crave convenience and will switch allegiance in a flash if they don’t receive seamless service.

When sales assistants are equipped with a single, real-time view of customers and stock, they can skilfully tell the brand’s story, and carefully personalise and enhance the experience. These are the golden moments that will win the hearts and minds of customers and have a lasting impact on brand loyalty.

Read Cegid’s new eBook, In the Luxury Universe: Focus on Global Proximity, Service and Selling Ceremony, explores how customer touchpoints can be managed to drive loyalty across channels and how optimising this needs to become a key business priority in luxury retailing.

Written by Alan Holcroft