Goldsmith world: investments between watches and e-commerce

Digital is becoming popular, even in the world of luxury. This is affirmed by the goldsmith and watchmaking sector, which aims to revive its fortunes in the two-year period 2019-2020 thanks above all to a new and different approach to the web. This is confirmed by the Digital Luxury Group, as outlined by IlSole24Ore, which highlights how the digital behavior of 62 brands in the luxury and premium watch sectors has been analyzed: of these, only 27 sell their creations online, equal to 43%. So less than half has its own e-store.

On average an e-store reaches 13 countries, the number exceeded by 54 served by Montblanc thanks to the wide range of products, from watches to classic pens, and from the launch of the e-commerce platform in 2011.

The key markets are still the United States and Great Britain, where 80% and 75% of the brands are present online, while fewer sell directly in Russia, Brazil, India and in the area of South America. And Italy? It ranks 5th, after France and ahead of Spain, while China collects only 41% of the brands’ presence with its own e-stores, and ranks after the Netherlands.

Online is also intended as social shopping: 52% of the brands examined in the report offer the possibility of making purchases from Facebook and Instagram and there are also brands that do not yet have a direct e-store but offer this possibility, such as Vacheron Constantin, Girard-Perregaux and Hublot.

And, for what concerns the digital services reserved to the customer, 27 factors have been considered, from technical assistance to receiving feedback, from personalization, to location and payment channels. The most common service is the story of the products through video, together with the in store pick-up of a purchase made online.

Very important, according to the study, will be in the future to offer the localization of the product in a store, a service today provided only by 30% of the brands. Furthermore, no brand offers services such as customer reviews, gift cards or crypto-currency payments.

Finally Cartier is at the top of the general ranking for online services, with in-store pick-ups, apps, videos, chat and in-store availability of watches. In second place is Louis Vuitton, which offers roughly the same