Once apon a time there were stores who had friendly, discreet and professional staff. Sales assistants that actually assisted you. Personnel that was proud to show you around. Shopping in luxury brand stores was a rounded experience. Clients were faithful to a brand.
Does this still exist?
I would like to react to a survey held by American Express on High Net Worth Individuals. Although it's not that recent, it underlines an important trend.
American Express GenX luxury survey
To sum up this survey, BabyBoomers have more time on their hands and have accumulated more "goods" during their lifetime and are therefore more inclined to invest in luxury experiences
The twist is that, even though GenXers don't have much time on their hands (active professionals), they will spend as high a percentage of their incomes on luxury experiences as Baby Boomers. Is this an education thing? Have they been brought up to favour "experiencing" over "having"?
In a market place that is saturated with household name luxury brands, how do you grab those GenX shoppers? After all they represent over 20% of clients. More importantly - how do you keep them coming?
What if shopping rebecomes an experience?
As the demand for luxury goods exploded in the late 90's so did the expansion of retail networks. This expansion was so rapid that some brands were not always keeping up with standards in high service. It didn't matter so much at the time. Business was booming. Numbers were up. Who cared? Nonchalence and aloofness became luxury retail staff trademarks. I guess it was their way of dealing with frantic boulemic shoppers.
After 2001 this all changed. As people started asking themselves "what is it all about?" so the luxury industry started concentrating on basics again. Product and clients. After having invested on sophisticated CRM programs,luxury brands are starting to invest in their staff with sales and product training.
That's all very well. Staff will be able to perform well and inform clients about the product and brand. But something is still missing to be able to call shopping "an experience".
Faith.
Faith in the task, faith in the team, faith in the brand. Just as GenXers believe in a luxury brand's inherent quality, store staff should believe in their product. Sharing their enthousiasm and therefore enhancing the emotional value of the product. Connecting with their clientele on this product level creates a positive experience - for both shopper and staff.
Summary only...
According to an article in "Cyberpress", affluent travellers are starting to ask themselves this question:
