Even luxury brands are now eyeing a slice of the online commerce pie.
Which is actually not so strange as people are getting more and more access to the Internet, with Internet shopping being the norm rather than the exception.
Even in Malaysia.
What’s funny is that it took such a long time for these luxury brands to figure out that the online world could be a huge pot of profits. Maybe dinosaurs find it hard to change.
But partly, I believe they think the Internet is still a playground where nothing is truly taken seriously. I mean look at it, the Internet has spawned new careers all together. (Yeah, try telling your Dad that there are professional gamers who do nothing but play games seriously all day and join international competitions!)
The other reason, precisely because the Internet looks and feels like an open playground where rules get re-written all the time. Even when the ink hasn’t dried YET on the old rules.
And bigger companies fear failures. The bigger and bulkier you are as a company, the heavier you fall and the bigger your thud sounds in the business jungle.
The report says failures are costly too because these companies don’t have an Internet strategy. It’s like trying to play a game where you don’t know the rules and sometimes the rules keep changing too!
Burberry’s one of those who do get it (though I am not sure I am a fan of this brand). They believe in creating the same experience for their customers whether online or offline. And I don’t know if this is smart or not but they are creating their own social networking site for their Burberry fans.
(On the same note, so is our AirAsia. It’s come out with KoolRed, the travel social networking site for those suffering from extreme wanderlust. Think TripAdvisor marrying Facebook. It’s quite innovative really but then again, it ties in perfectly with their air travel strategy. Just brilliant but then again, I’m just partial to this airline though I hope it does not grow too big for its boots. We all love the underdog story. We hate it when the underdog becomes the top dog.)
Here’s the article on luxury firms move to make the web work for them .