The COVID-19 pandemic brought and left many disruptions in its wake, and effects have been severely felt across most sectors. However, one notable effect that is evident is the permanent and irreversible shift in the status quo. The wake of the pandemic saw an accelerated shift towards a distanced and digital way of doing things that triggered changes in the e-commerce world, particularly online video shopping. Brands and customers had to go with the change and adopt new trends in online shopping behaviors and experiences, which according to recent patterns, are here to stay.
To keep up with the changing trends, Italian fashion group Gucci realized that it needed to change tactics to tap into its unexploited online marketing and customers’ online shopping potential. That’s how the luxury fashion giant launched its latest virtual shopping service.
The online video shopping services allow customers to communicate directly with staff through video chat as they shop online. Gucci was the first brand in the luxury sector to develop this new marketing and customer service technique. Other top brands continued to look for new strategies to counter the effects of the pandemic on business and shopping behaviors.
Here are the 3 things Gucci realized they needed to change and how it ended in a sales conversion boost.
1. Change in Tactics to Fulfill Brand Business Objective
When the Italian luxury fashion brand was first launched Gucci 9, its CEO, Marco Bizarri, stated that the mission was to provide its customers all over the world with a direct and straightforward connection to the Gucci staff and community. The luxury brand aimed to offer a personalized connection that promised a seamless and accessible shopping experience.
Although the brand has taken tremendous steps to fulfill this objective in all the years it has been in business. It was not until 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic that it launched an offering that augments with this objective. The fashion brand took the world by storm last year when it opened Gucci 9 Hudson, the luxurious Client Service Hub. It’s an online video shopping platform where Inline sales specialists interacted with website visitors remotely and virtually.
The new virtual shopping services, dubbed Gucci Live, establish a direct, real-time link between customers, sales professionals, and brand advisors in a new luxury store in Florence. ‘Gucci 9’ was launched as an empty store that allows customers to shop online from the comfort of their home or offices. As part of its design, the store incorporated clear lighting and high definition cameras for a more sophisticated visual experience.
2. A Change in Attitude to Embrace Digital Transformation in the E-commerce Sector
Given the extent to which the pandemic disrupted the traditional brick and mortar customer shopping habits of most businesses, Gucci included, the fashion giant embraced the changing trends in the business world. These included accelerating digital transformation, industrial automation and technological approaches to marketing and service delivery. The result was an upgrade of the Client Service Hub in Florence, which became a “Cloud Store” of all sorts. The luxury video shopping service was the brand’s remote clienteling solution that allows its customers to chat with Online Sales Associates. The ‘store’ features cameras, high-quality TV lighting and a well-stocked showroom layout to give clients nothing short of a luxurious virtual shopping experience.
As the customer “shops” online, the sales advisor moves around the shop and through sections as the client instructs. The advisor can showcase displays, zoom in on details, try out different products (mainly bags) and do in-depth product demos. To protect the customers’ privacy, they are only heard and not seen throughout the videos.
Gucci’s intention was to provide new video shopping services and give its customers a personalized experience that replicated in-store shopping.
The luxury brand further said that although most of its clients can comfortably and efficiently shop online independently, the majority prefer the high touch and personalized services that come with luxury shopping.
Gucci opted to bring the store to those customers who either are not comfortable shopping alone or those who prefer in-store shopping, but cannot access the services since the stores remain closed.
3. Adopting a Reliable, High-Tech Video Shopping Technology Resulted in a High Conversion Rate
To bring Gucci Live to life, the luxury fashion brand used INSIDE by Powerfront, a high-tech customer experience solution that made the video shopping idea a seamless, effective and efficient reality. INSIDE can be used on a desktop by agents at a contact center or in an App form inside the Gucci 9 store.
The desktop version is an extension of the INSIDE Omni-Channel Customer Service Dashboard for the Online Sales and Customer Service Team. The phone version contains the INSIDE Store App for Showroom and Retail Teams.
Conversations between the customer and the Online Sales Associates from the Client’s Service Hub are seamlessly transferred from the contact center to the inside Store App and vice versa. Customer information and conversation history can be readily available and easily accessible once a chat has been successfully transferred.
The view of the INSIDE Store App Floor shows the Sales Associates, all the clients they are currently in direct communication with, and other visitors the system put on hold on the floor awaiting possible proactive engagements by the Sales Associates.
The system allows the Sales Associates to move with the customer seamlessly and simultaneously between video and chat messages. It also identifies, marks out “Favorite” visitors, and places them on the floor. The solution safeguards customer privacy by only sharing their voices, and thus hiding their pictures. However, other brands which have since taken a cue from Gucci and adopted INSIDE in an expanded version that utilizes two-way and one-to-many video retailing.
Although still in its early stages of operation, the Gucci Live service has since yielded tremendous benefits for the brand. Generally, brands that use this tool experience conversion rates after each video call between 25-35%, and can go at high as 48%.
Gucci Live is currently available in the Florence and Hudson locations. However, the Italian luxury brand has stated that it intends to open five similar stores in New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Shanghai and Singapore.
For more information on INSIDE by Powerfront, how it works, and how it can significantly boost e-commerce conversion rates, please contact us to schedule a demo.
