Sites that serve Net-savvy swells
When companies design sites for the rich, though, they tend to emphasize pretty pictures over utility. ELuxury.com, for instance, starts with one of those dreaded animated introductions and the requisite "skip intro" button, indicating the company knows this feature's annoying but couldn't resist keeping it in.
Cartoonish silhouettes dominate the home page. And learning the navigation is like working a Rubik's Cube. Hovering your mouse over these figures reveals product highlights ("Donna Karan 4 Button jacket, $395" or "Pommery Pop 4 Pack, $44"). Eventually, you may notice the tiny icons at the top that take you to different departments. (The icons for women's and men's fashions look more like signs directing you to the restrooms.) Each of these departments loads its own set of cartoonish figures. Even with my cable modem, the site displayed temporary "Loading" messages.
Rich isn't old-fashioned
One reason some luxury sites aren't in the same league as mainstream shopping sites is they accept the stereotype of the rich as averse to technology. They make their sites pretty instead of functional.
These stereotypes couldn't be further from the truth. Fifty-six percent of millionaires are on the Internet, spending an average of $100 a month, according to Forrester Research. That's twice what everyone else spends. Furthermore, they're technology optimists who consider themselves early adopters, with two-thirds using their two-PCs-per-household every day. They're 13 percent more likely to buy online than other Net users and have much higher "buy-to-look" ratios. About the only things they don't buy more of online are entertainment products such as CDs and videos. Perhaps most surprising is the discovery that most millionaires want good prices, and the overwhelming majority care about shipping costs.
People, no matter how wealthy they are, have certain needs when they shop online, and those needs center around value and service. The winning sites will be the ones that pay attention to what their customers really want.
Brands are for building
Internet pure-play Ashford.com, which has thrived even as other jewelry sites such as Miadora (and subsidiary Jewelry.com) and iJewelry shut down, appears to understand that. The site takes an average order size of $500, a substantial portion of which is margin, and still guarantees free overnight shipping. It recently branched into accessories, vintage watches, pens, and even corporate gifts.
"Loyalty is service and selection, and the power of the Internet is all about what people want," says Mary Lou Kelley, vice president of marketing. "We monitor shopping-bag abandon rates, and we are maniacally focused on anything we think is a hindrance. You can have the most prestigious brand name in the world, but anything that makes someone doubt your site—even if it's just the lack of an in-stock indicator—can make them give up on you online." In the ultimate defiance of the absolute power of established brands, Ashford.com even carries a line of private-label products.
Ashford.com's graphics are small and organized, and the full product breadth is easy to access through consistent navigation. Research tells Ashford.com its customers know what they want and value speed. So the site provides content such as an editorial column on fashion, but it doesn't beat you over the head with it.
Some luxury sites will succeed based on services. Forrester found wealthy shoppers are early adopters of replenishment services such as groceries because they're pressed for time. Another service provider is Model E. The site provides concierge services for customers' automobiles on a subscription basis. Service personnel pick up your car, wash it, perform all scheduled and emergency maintenance, and make sure you have transportation in the meantime. For an extra fee, they'll even deliver a Porsche Boxster, BMW SUV, Audi TT, or other luxury car to you, in special colors and with aftermarket upgrades. You don't even lease the vehicle; you merely "subscribe to it." Recently, the company introduced a prototype for a radical private-label car/truck hybrid for the Gen-X and dot-com millionaire set, called the Tritanium.
In the world of luxury goods and services, brand is what you make of it. Good brands don't mean a thing if the user experience isn't there.