Will The Electricity Supplier Become The Third Largest Luxury Market In The World?

According to the Altagamma-McKinsey annual report on luxury digital marketing, 2014,

Online sales amounted to 14 billion euros ($18 billion 600 million), up 50% from the previous year.

At present, 6% of the global luxury market performance is 2% higher than that in 2009.

The report predicts that the share of online sales will double to 12% in 2020 and three times to 18% in 2025, making it the world's third largest luxury market after China and the United States.

To some extent, exclusive.

It has become the last barrier of shopping in the old era.

But the alarm bell has been heard. Luxury brands have no excuse for escaping from the Internet.

Industry analysts say high-end products fail to provide experience like mass market retailers.

But luxury brands have lost their historical advantages. The problem now is how they can make up for this gap.

In November last year, luxury brands refused to enter the last fortress of the electricity supplier, and the luxury brand Dior began to launch an electric business service for testing water.

Watches and jewellery are slightly behind the beauty and apparel industry on the Internet. According to research, the network generates only 4.1% of the pactions.

But retailers reported a surge in turnover.

The British Aurum group, which owns the wrist watch brand Goldsmiths and Mappin& Webb, is the largest online watch retailer in Britain besides Watch Shop. It said that in 2015, the overall business of the company grew by 25%.

In 2015, the Group recorded an income of 414 million pounds (US $616 million), which now accounts for 14% of the revenue generated through the Internet.

Aurum Group CEO Brian Duffy pointed out: "

The importance of selling through the network channel is very obvious, and the paction network is inevitable. The network media is a very good watch sales channel.

He said that through the Internet, in addition to the size and size of the watch, the consumers can easily retrieve the products they like, all thanks to the technology realization of the Internet.

Brian Duffy emphasized: "people will search web sites gradually, and will check websites, but then they will go shopping in physical stores.

Multi channel shopping experience may become a more important development trend in the future.

Even luxury goods giants, which are opposed to electricity providers for a long time, are changing their attitudes.

Cartire, the core jewelry brand of the French group, launched an online retail platform in China in November, and opened its official website in Japan, the United States and Europe.

A survey of China's online shopping consumption released by KPMG late last year benefited from the sustained and rapid growth of smartphone penetration. China's online and mobile luxury consumption has exploded.

45% of respondents said that most of their luxuries were purchased through Internet channels.

"The brand has set up boutiques in China for over 20 years, and the current retail network is very fixed," said Li Feng Group.

However, stores do not cover every city in China. At present, the electricity supplier is a faster way of consumption, which can quickly recommend products to all customers in China, while providing services at the same level as those of physical stores.

Like many luxury brands, Cartire has come to realize the importance of multi-channel shopping experience.

The company added: "one of the most important things is to develop the electricity supplier, let the brand realize that what we do in the boutique is right, and how the brand can pform the service of the entity store into an electric supplier.

In this sense, we see that the electricity supplier really serves as a complementary channel to help brands establish contacts with customers and enhance their determination to visit stores. "

There is no doubt that the electricity supplier is indeed a very important channel for the luxury card sales in the future. Now Cartire's accession will further produce the following effect and bring about a real change to the jewelry and watch industry.

The new era started without mercy. Who thought 2 years ago that Cartire, a jewelry giant, would go down to develop the electricity supplier market.

In addition, Zenith has recently become the first brand in the LVMH group to sell watches in Mens online mall Mr Porter.

Zenith CEO Aldo Magada says, for small brands like them, Mr Porter provides an excellent way to reach new customers.

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The executive said: "so far, the effect of cooperation is obvious. The number of visits to Zenith official website is amazing.

As for sales volume, the result is heartening.

Mr Porter purchasing director Toby Bateman revealed that the number of high-end watches purchased on Mr Porter grew by 34% in 2015, and the total business grew by 149%, mainly because the platform brought more expensive watches, and users were slowly accepting the way of watches online shopping.

However, there are some obstacles to the business of watches and clocks and brands. Toby Bateman said: "most brands are extremely reluctant to enter this challenging high-end watch business world, because many key brands are owned by the group, unless the group agrees to sell them on line, otherwise the brand can not do it alone."

Toby Bateman will travel to Basel for third years in a row. He said that in Basel, people would like to know more about the brand itself than before.

This happens naturally.

At the same time, the brand is also forced to find new markets, and the Internet is obviously the focus of the brand's attention.

Watches and jewellery are widely implemented.

Toby Bateman points out: "watches will be sold on the Internet sooner or later as other luxury products, but companies must find the right synergy between the network and the physical store.

Trust is also one of the most important factors that determine consumers' purchase. This is especially important on the Internet. After all, there is everything in it.

Hermes is one of the early pioneers of the electricity supplier. It entered the electricity supplier market as early as 2015, and began to cooperate with Apple in the end of January this year to sell products on the official website.

Their cooperative watches were first launched in Apple and Hermes stores, as well as multi brand retailers and department stores in October last year.

Laurent Dordet, chief executive of the Hermes clock, said that luxury brands will have big plans in the digital field this year. But he declined to give details, suggesting that customer experience before and after sales through multi-channel and official website will become the focus of development.

However, not everyone is ready to catch up with the wave of the electricity supplier.

Last year, Chanel launched the Coco Crush high jewelry series through Net-a-porter's online pop-up store to test the water for the electricity supplier.

This is to catch up with the broader wave of e-commerce in 2016, but Chanel Beau global director Nicolas recommends that it is too early to let those products participate in such activities.

"There are still many obstacles," he said.

There are barriers to satisfaction, barriers to service and security barriers.

Joining the game later will be more profitable, and doing things better is better than doing faster but doing worse.

Nicolas Beau believes that buying watches should have experience of face-to-face communication, because the product will produce a series of problems, including whether wrist watch size matches the buyer's wrist.

But for him, the most important factor is the psychological change of consumers, and humanized experience is the key.

"In my opinion, the pleasure of choosing watches from stores is still unparalleled in online shopping.

Because watches are precious objects, with strong symbolic significance and expensive monetary value.

This is not a toy. "

He added.

However, a data report shows: "although 3/4 of luxury purchases still occur in physical stores, consumers actually see or hear product information on the Internet before they are affected, and then buy them offline.

In other words, digital channels have become a leader in luxury shopping.

LucaSolca, a bank analyst in Paris, France, has said that the online fashion and luxury market is becoming more and more important, especially when luxury companies realize that increasing physical stores is no longer the only choice.

The Chinese market has been infiltrated, and the forefront of the market has been occupied, so they are looking for more opportunities for growth.

In the past few years, the sales volume in China has increased by 30% over the past few years, with the convenience of online shopping and the seamless connection with offline stores.