Luxury brands’ digital strategies still need work
Despite accelerating their digital investments, luxury brands’ overall digital experiences are falling short of their customers’ expectations.
This was according to the “L2 Digital IQ Index: Fashion Global 2018,” a study from Gartner L2. The study, which benchmarks the digital performance of 77 luxury fashion brands operating in the United States and Western Europe, evaluates their digital performance across site and e-commerce, digital marketing, social media, and mobile.
When looking at key digital strategies for fashion brands across key markets, including the U.S., U.K, France, and Germany, those in the U.S. continue to lag behind other retail verticals in omnichannel fulfillment functionality. Only 29% of Index brands have click-and-collect, as opposed to 71% of department stores, offering consumers less incentive buy directly from a brand online.
While U.S.-based brands have upped their game when it comes to customer service offerings, they still fall behind when it comes to translating features to European sites. Less than 50% of brands in Europe list customer service in local time zones, with only 36% doing so in Germany.
One common thread across all brands is their emphasis on social commerce, especially investments in Instagram. Year-over-year adoption of Instagram Shopping has jumped from 12% to 42%. Meanwhile, 24% of brands have integrated a Facebook Shop tab on their pages. However, many still fail to actually add a meaningful number of SKUs, according to the study.
"Fashion brands are accelerating their digital investments to keep up with a globalizing commerce landscape and shifts in consumer expectations," said Brian Lee, associate director at Gartner L2. "However, this rush to catch up has led to uneven implementation, and some brands fail to thoughtfully consider digital features before integrating them, resulting in a lack of sophisticated nuance, especially as brands expand distribution into new markets in search of consumers."
This was according to the “L2 Digital IQ Index: Fashion Global 2018,” a study from Gartner L2. The study, which benchmarks the digital performance of 77 luxury fashion brands operating in the United States and Western Europe, evaluates their digital performance across site and e-commerce, digital marketing, social media, and mobile.
When looking at key digital strategies for fashion brands across key markets, including the U.S., U.K, France, and Germany, those in the U.S. continue to lag behind other retail verticals in omnichannel fulfillment functionality. Only 29% of Index brands have click-and-collect, as opposed to 71% of department stores, offering consumers less incentive buy directly from a brand online.
While U.S.-based brands have upped their game when it comes to customer service offerings, they still fall behind when it comes to translating features to European sites. Less than 50% of brands in Europe list customer service in local time zones, with only 36% doing so in Germany.
One common thread across all brands is their emphasis on social commerce, especially investments in Instagram. Year-over-year adoption of Instagram Shopping has jumped from 12% to 42%. Meanwhile, 24% of brands have integrated a Facebook Shop tab on their pages. However, many still fail to actually add a meaningful number of SKUs, according to the study.
"Fashion brands are accelerating their digital investments to keep up with a globalizing commerce landscape and shifts in consumer expectations," said Brian Lee, associate director at Gartner L2. "However, this rush to catch up has led to uneven implementation, and some brands fail to thoughtfully consider digital features before integrating them, resulting in a lack of sophisticated nuance, especially as brands expand distribution into new markets in search of consumers."