Luxury Fashion Brands See a Future on the Retail Floor, Not Just Online

The perceived slump in sales of luxury goods has top fashion brands considering all sorts of strategies to pump up consumer engagement. 

Burberry has just transformed its London flagship store into a digitally-enhanced shopping experience that brings to life its Burberry World online store, following on the heels of Audi's flagship Audi City digital retail experience in London. This may be just the beginning of a trend to re-engineer the traditional retail store environment so that it entices and excites consumers who would otherwise choose online shopping.

Indeed, fashion brands are more committed to sales on the retail floor than one might think. Brands including Coach, Crocs, and Tumi are planning to open more stores of their own, but they haven't given up on the department store, either. At last week's Reuters Retail and Consumer Summit, Richard Dickson, CEO of branded businesses at Jones Group, stated that "We believe in the department store. Department stores have done a brilliant job continuing to energize and re-invent themselves in order to stay relevant."Continue reading...