Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
These texts leave a trace of the pages already visited during the browsing
experience. Breadcrumbs could be likened to footsteps and they are useful in
retracing steps and in avoiding a sense of loss on a website. This is particu-
larly important for luxury websites such as Chanel.com and Montblanc who
have excessive sections, sub-sections, embedded mini-sites, micro-sites and
multiple links.
Finally, there is the question of vertical and horizontal navigation. In the
recent past, it has become
à la mode
for luxury brands to integrate horizontal
navigation tools for both images and text views on their websites. While this
demonstrates an evolution in luxury online, horizontal navigation should not
be adopted because all the competitors have this tool, but because it is in line
with the website design concept and other sensory and interactive elements.
A luxury brand doesn't need to jump on the bandwagon of horizontal navi-
gation just because it's in vogue.
Functionality
has speed, security and softwares as its main elements.
In order to ensure that a website is competent, it has to perform well. This
means that its pages have to open swiftly and smoothly; that the downloads
have to be fast; the videos have to stream in record time; and that the screen
modes have to be easily altered and exited. In the case where there are
opportunities to upload files, this also has to be fast. And the golden rule for
videos is to enable control through play, pause, fast forward, stop, volume,
full-screen and simple opting out. There is no point having a pretty website
if it's not efficient. I'm sure you'll agree that the magic of the Ferrari is not
only from the beauty of its design and color, but also for its performance.
The same approach should be applied online. My observation is that, cur-
rently, luxury websites compromise the speed of their website features in
their bid to integrate the interactive media applications such as Flash and
Active X. In cases where this has been badly done, the web pages take for-
ever to load and drive the clients away. Who wants to re-live the Boo.com
experience ten years on.
An additional key element of a website's functionality is the security.
Several luxury websites that have incorporated e-commerce have the addi-
tional challenge of ensuring that the transaction area is protected. While the
issue of security is mostly linked to the transactions that take place in the
e-boutique, security is also linked to the safeguarding of client informa-
tion and the respect for their privacy. This means that the client information
generated from transactions and subscriptions to newsletters and other pro-
grams must be kept in an exclusive database and may not be used or trans-
ferred to other parties. As has been emphasized throughout this topic, luxury
brands represent a promise to clients and this is based on an unspoken trust
that the brand will keep its promise and even surpass the expectations of cli-
ents. Therefore, when luxury brands are tempted to share client information,
even within the same group, in a bid to optimize relations, the result could be
fatally negative.
