Onlines Sales: Boosting Luxury Brands One Label at a Time. Second City Style Fashion Blog

Armani Privé Spring '07

What? Your weren't invited to Girorgio Armani's Privé show in Paris last month? Come on 860,000 people attended! Online that is. His show was streamlined on MSN.com.

According to an article in today's WWD, European designers and luxury goods firms (initially wary of the cyber world)are suddenly buzzing about new media and communication technologies, unveiling six-figure gems online, dispatching fashion shows to cell phones and iPods, and expanding e-commerce to more product lines and regions, from the U.S. to Japan.

Believers contend the high-tech world offers crucial new channels to communicate with current and future customers, enrich their brand experience — and capture impressive sales.

"For us, it's like electricity, trains, cars, planes were for other generations: It hadn't existed before," said Karl Lagerfeld, who last year did a live podcast of his signature fashion show from New York. "The world has changed: For some audiences, it will soon be the only way to reach them….Fashion has to be seen.

Gucci has also done a live Web cast of its cruise collection, and offered a podcast of a store opening in Tokyo, underlining the role of new technology for brand communication.

"I love the fact that this presentation is open to anyone who wants to come and see it. There are three million people on Secondlife.com. You can fly, meet people, sunbathe on a huge rock," Victoire de Castellane, Dior's fine jewelry designer, enthused about her online teaser.

In the early days of the Internet boom, luxury brands feared online selling would undermine the exclusivity of a dedicated brand environment, promote the "gray market," antagonize wholesale clients and generate few profits, said Pierre Mallevays, founder and managing partner of Savigny Partners, a luxury goods advisory and mergers and acquisitions firm in London. "All those fears are pretty much dissipated by now," he said. "The Internet channel is effectively turning into the best or one of the best stores in each local market."

Prada recently teamed up with LG Electronics of South Korea to launch a signature phone with an advanced touch screen. The fashion house collaborated on every aspect, from software and graphic interface to the design and packaging.

Prada is also venturing further onto the Internet. Besides an interactive site for its perfumes, the brand introduced a new informational site — pradatheleadingskischools.com — that is expected to start selling Prada skiwear this fall, a company spokesman said. He added the brand would sell special ready-to-wear and accessories related to its America"s Cup sailing bid at lunarossachallenge.com.

Robert Triefus, Armani"s executive vice president of worldwide communications, credited informational sites like Style.com and multibrand online retailers like Net-a-porter, Neiman Marcus, eLUXURY, Shopbop and Nordstrom for popularizing the Internet as a go-to resource for fashion information and shopping. Today, "every magazine, every editor, every publisher realizes they have to have a live and interactive presence to complete the magazine."

Word.

Source
Photos: NYMag