Luxury retail faces up to the challenges of a post-pandemic world
The luxury sector needs to fully embrace the possibilities of ecommerce if it wants to maintain engagement with consumers in the new socially distanced world.
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the luxury sector had found itself in a state of flux.
Fashion weeks and seasonal shows were beginning to smack of lumbering self-indulgence, thrown into sharper relief by the growing influence of streetwear culture characterised by product drops and pop-ups and calls for greater sustainability.
Late last month Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele announced that the Italian brand was scaling down its longstanding fashion show calendar, dropping from five to just two a year.
Aside from the shake-up to the fashion calendar, many luxury brands had been slow to adapt to the fluid nature of digital channels.
However, now with lockdown restrictions slowly lifting across the globe, the sector is having to shift its approach as consumers show no great appetite to return to the flagship stores and crowded glitzy malls so much part of the traditional luxury retail experience.
