Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
best practices in e-business are not found within the luxury industry. It is a
common and acknowledged fact that luxury brands draw their references for
several aspects of e-business - communications, branding, retail, merchandiz-
ing, social interactions etc. - from companies outside of luxury such as Apple,
Dell, Nike, Levi's, Nespresso and several others in multiple sectors. These com-
panies, which may share one or two attributes with luxury, do not necessarily
have the culture, spirit and mechanics of the luxury business and therefore it has
been a real challenge for luxury brands to interpret the e-business best practices
drawn from them to the strategic and operational requirements of each luxury
brand. This has posed an ongoing problem in the luxury online landscape and
explains why it has been nearly impossible to find a website owned by a lux-
ury brand that serves as a benchmark for single or multiple aspects of luxury
e-business. This also explains why you will find that my analysis of best prac-
tices features more independent websites than luxury brand owned websites. In
terms of worst practices, I have refrained from making an extensive analysis due
to the fact that there are just too many worst practices and I would have to write
an entire topic to go round all of them. Hopefully this picture should change
soon. I would, however, like to add that this analysis is made on an independent
and external basis and solely represents my thoughts, viewpoints and opinions,
which have been developed from nearly a decade of ongoing practice in luxury
e-business. You are, of course, welcome to disagree with me, and in this case I
hope the disparity of opinions would lead to better luxury e-business practices.
The Watch Avenue challenges the virtual location notion
It is generally believed that the most important feature of physical retail is
location. In the case of luxury retail, the qualities of the location include
Figure 9.1
TheWatchAvenue(thewatchavenue.com)
