Luxury Retail and Digital Management, 2nd Edition

Introduction

What Is the Reason for This Revision?

January 2012 saw the publication of the English version of our book Luxury Retail Management that we had written in 2010 and 2011. Seven years later, as close observers and players in the luxury industry,¹ we realised that the industry had undergone such upheavals since then that we had to revise our book so that it remained relevant in the context of these evolutions. During this rereading, we also realised that the 2012 edition was premonitory in many respects (especially the chapters referring to the Internet and China) but it did need to be completely revamped if we wanted it to preserve its role as a reference book to be read by every specialist of luxury distribution in its English, French or Chinese versions.

We therefore decided to rewrite most of this book, structuring it around the new luxury business model – omnichannel – where the customer is placed at the core of communication and distribution channels, and of organisations. Is, or should be? As we will see while reading through these pages, this will be the major challenge for luxury brands over the next 5 years: placing the customer at the heart and building the organisation and information systems that will allow it around the customer.

It is therefore necessary to start with the client, and to do so one needs to understand the major changes that have taken place in recent years.

Change Is Accelerating: The Luxury Customer Is No Longer the Same

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