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visitor's rich experience is coherent in every section of the “house”. In addi-
tion, the presence of the designers on the website - who make an appearance
in the company of their pets - elevates the content and reaffirms to the visitor
that they are not alone in the “house”.
The information on the brand, its history and heritage, designers, style, col-
lections, products, press articles and other content are aptly displayed in dif-
ferent sections of the “house” which the user discovers as they make their tour.
This ensures that the visitor is stimulated enough to prolong their stay on the
website and, in the process, their enjoyment of the company of the designers.
This website, which has broken the conventional style that luxury web-
sites have been following for over a decade, will surely be a benchmark for
years to come.
Learning from the worst practices
It is not a very easy exercise to evaluate the worst practices of luxury
online. First, there are just too many culprits and I would need an entire
topic to point out what is wrong with luxury online through website illus-
trations. Second, these worst practices are not entirely a death sentence that
the brands and websites have imposed on themselves, as there are several
internal factors that have led to the sometimes nightmarish nature of lux-
ury websites - although this is not an excuse. Third, every luxury brand is
unique in its identity, personality and essence, and one man's error may not
necessarily be another's therefore highlighting these could lead some brands
who do not fall within this bracket to relax their efforts.
In spite of all these, however, it is quite disheartening to find the web-
sites of established brands in a state of incoherence in online experience and
poor performance. For example, a visit to Chanel will reveal a website that
is divided into three main sections - fashion and accessories, fragrance and
beauty, and fine jewelry and watches. Upon further exploring the website,
one can't help but be dismayed by the level of disparity in presentation and
the incoherence in the brand experience that the three sections provide. While
the fashion and accessories section focuses on providing as many images and
videos as possible, most of which appear in high resolution, the beauty and
fragrance section goes to the opposite extreme by featuring text and product
images that are of such a poor quality that it hurts the eye. This is a horror
for beauty aficionados, who need to read the labels and content information
of skincare and cosmetics before purchasing and, moreover, for those that
wish to print, as there is no opportunity to do so. A move to the fine jewelry
and watches section and, again, we feel that we are on a different website.
The style, concept, layout, sounds and experience is completely removed
from the other two sections. The impression is that this website is a series of
independent micro-sites that have been haphazardly embedded together.
