3 key elements of successful luxury eCommerce websites

Chris Powers

September 29, 2021

5 min read

According to Deloitte, Gen Z and millennial consumers—those born between 1981 and 2015—will make up 40% of the luxury goods market by 2025. These digitally native consumers are accustomed to the speed, convenience, and experience associated with online shopping. They demand the freedom and flexibility that eCommerce provides. As it stands now, many luxury brands are not equipped to offer this type of experience to a growing market, and risk missing out on a significant opportunity as a result.

Luxury brands are frequently legacy companies caught between a bygone era of in-store shopping and the rapidly growing eCommerce space. In order to grow and attract this sizable consumer base, luxury brands need to deliver eCommerce experiences that engage and inspire customers.

In this blog post, we’ll examine three key elements of successful luxury eCommerce sites and explain how your brand can implement them to bring your online shopping experience into the 21st century.

3 Key Elements of Successful Luxury eCommerce Websites Infographic

EXCELLENT USER EXPERIENCE (UX)

For all eCommerce brands, the goal of UX design is to ensure online stores are simplistic, easy to use, and delightful to engage with. Ultimately, good UX design improves overall user satisfaction and customer loyalty by forging stronger connections with customers and elevating the experience people have when shopping online.

For luxury brands, the importance of solid eCommerce UX cannot be overstated. It’s especially essential for luxury brands to deliver a frictionless experience. Customers shopping for high-end items are prepared to spend top dollar—and they expect a seamless buying experience. Luxury brands have traditionally invested heavily in physical storefronts and showrooms to deliver an upscale shopping experience. This approach needs to be migrated to the digital realm, and the easiest way to do this is by offering superior eCommerce UX.

Here are some important strategies for elevating your luxury brand’s eCommerce UX:

  • Implement personalized product recommendations to guide customers and help them discover new products.
  • Improve your site’s speed by using a speedy hosting provider, optimizing image sizing, reducing redirects, and more.
  • Integrate intelligent site search functionality to make it easy for customers to find exactly what they are looking for.
  • Streamline your checkout process to make it easier for customers to complete purchases and reduce cart abandonment.
  • Make your homepage clean, clear, and concise to give customers a great first impression of your brand and its products.
  • Implement a responsive, mobile-friendly design to improve the experience for customers using their mobile devices to browse and make purchases.
  • Incorporate breadcrumb navigation features to help your customers easily work their way through your site without getting lost.
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ENGAGING PRODUCT DETAILS PAGES

Luxury products tend to have impressive pedigrees. Frequently, they’ve been used by generations due to their quality, dependability, style, and other factors. As more and more luxury brands migrate to the eCommerce space, many struggles with how to convey these attributes virtually.

Customers aren’t able to interact with products in person, so they’ll need to be able to browse, review, and assess them accurately on your site. For luxury brands, engaging, well-organized product pages can be your saving graces. With high-quality, artful product images and product descriptions that form an emotional connection with the customer, you can create product pages worthy of your brand.

Selling luxury products is all about communicating the feeling of owning them. Make sure you draw customers in with engaging, enticing, and elegant product imagery. Use high-resolution images to accurately convey your products’ quality and allure. Avoid familiar angles and dull backgrounds. Your products should take center stage, so make sure photos are free from distracting elements. If you’re using models, make sure they help support your products and don’t dominate the frame.

PERSONALIZED CUSTOMER JOURNEYS

Eighty percent of online shoppers prefer retailers that provide a personalized experience, and 63% are willing to spend more with those brands. Those are some pretty compelling statistics. Gen Z and millennials are used to having brands engage with them on a personal level, and see this as a key component of a good online shopping experience.

Historically, the luxury shopping experience has been focused on personalization. When shoppers visit a luxury showroom, they’re able to see how products will integrate into their daily lives, like how a dress will fit or how a couch will look in their living room. Customers are free to engage with products in a tactile way.

Unfortunately, this experience doesn’t translate to the digital space. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t methods of delivering a personalized shopping experience on your eCommerce site. Take augmented reality (AR) for example.

By incorporating AR applications into their eCommerce sites, luxury brands enable customers to virtually try on clothing, see how furniture will look in their home, and more. AR apps make it easier for customers to understand the value of luxury products, and help brands bridge the gap between shopping in person and online.

Personalization can also be achieved through custom content, product recommendations, and more. Content can be delivered through social media, promotional emails, customer surveys, and much more. The goal here is to offer relevant information to customers that highlights your products in a way that feels personal to them. Utilize user behavior insights—like pages viewed, products in cart, search queries, etc.—to create unique customer journeys that drive conversion and create brand loyalty.

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LUXURY ECOMMERCE DONE RIGHT

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more consumers are migrating to the web to purchase luxury items. Typically, these customers would have made in-store purchases. Because of this shift in consumer behavior, it’s imperative that luxury companies create engaging virtual shopping experiences that honestly reflect the elevated status of their brand and its products.

By improving your luxury site’s UX, revamping your product details pages, and incorporating more opportunities for customer personalization, you can deliver a winning eCommerce experience that boosts conversions and lives up to your brand’s esteemed reputation.

Interested in learning more about improving your luxury eCommerce site? Get in touch with Codal today.

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