September 22, 2020
Sam Sherman is cofounder of Socium Media
By Sam Sherman
Like many industries, the luxury goods market has taken a hit over the past few months.
In April, U.S. retail sales fell by more than 16 percent compared with the previous month. And we are not even through the worst of it, with global sales of luxury goods predicted to plummet 60 percent in the second quarter of 2020.
The challenge for luxury brands is finding ways to shift physical store experiences online to save their margins.
The key is to own your brand name online to increase orders made directly through your site – while still offering customers the service and experiences they crave.
Unique obstacles to ecommerce
The shift to ecommerce is particularly challenging for luxury brands. High-end products tend to have textures and details that shoppers can only appreciate during an in-person experience.
Consumers historically prefer buying luxury goods in a store or through third-party sellers, both of which allow them to try on and touch products before making a big purchase.
Without the power of the physical experience, luxury brands must invest in the looks, functions, and marketing of their online channels.
To help users feel excited and comfortable buying online, companies are crafting personalized on-site experiences and adopting simple return terms and free shipping offers to reduce the friction of purchasing high-ticket items online.
Historically, many brands are used to displaying and marketing products in-person or with high-quality online content. But something as simple as building creatives has become a challenge since photo shoots are not as accessible as they were before the pandemic.
One way that brands have continued to showcase their unique voices is via user-generated content on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, which show promising success metrics.
Digital strategies to maximize ecommerce revenue
To see greater revenue in this online-only world, pay special attention to how you market your luxury products. The following three strategies should form the foundation of your new digital playbook:
Own the search results for your brand name
If you cannot be in front of consumers physically, the bare minimum you can do is position yourself well online with paid search for your branded searches.
Chances are third-party affiliates and suppliers that sell your product or something similar are in that position right now. Get ahead of them and control your brand message with a collection of relevant keywords.
Backlinko reports that the first three search results in Google get 75 percent of all clicks. Investing in this strategy should drive a lot more traffic to your site.
Get familiar with Google Shopping campaigns
A proper Google Shopping campaign setup can help prioritize your brand over other sellers.
You can create brand-focused or non-brand-focused campaigns with a comprehensive negative keyword strategy and priority settings to maximize your online revenue.
The first step is to update and optimize the product data coming through your ecommerce platform. Then, you can feed this data into Google Merchant Center to launch Google Shopping campaigns.
Use full-funnel media campaigns with paid search and social
For a luxury brand, it could take 10 days or more to get potential customers from their first interactions with your brand to a purchase.
For a clearer picture, check into your analytics to identify the time delay between the different actions you measure on-site. You want to make sure you’re present through every touch point of the buyer’s journey.
To do so, incorporate paid search and paid social into a full-funnel digital campaign.
You will also need to identify at which stage you want your user experience to be different. You can achieve this with the correct mix of paid media channels and tactics best suited for each stage of the funnel.
SHIFTING AWAY FROM physical experiences into ecommerce may be one of the biggest challenges your luxury brand has to face.
By readying your online channels to welcome consumers searching for your products, you can create a living, breathing extension of a bricks-and-mortar store.
Sam Sherman is cofounder of Socium Media, a New York-based direct response marketing agency. Reach him at sam@sociummedia.com.
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