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Dior Chief Digital Officer: China Has The Highest Priority For Us.

2019/7/24 12:53:00 4

DiorLuxuryDigitalization.

Perhaps you have not yet realized that Dior has changed quietly. In the past July 19th, its online boutiques in China were officially launched, which means you can purchase all the products including handbags, garments, high-end jewelry and beauty products directly on its Chinese website. The brand has already launched this e-commerce service in Europe, the United States, South Korea and Japan.

In the past, the most old-fashioned luxury brands regarded high fashion and handbags as the last line of defense for consumers. Customers could only order beauty or non core accessories on the official website, but not the core products that could bring the most revenue to their offline stores. Dior didn't spend much time from conservative to radical. In 2017, LVMH completed the controlling takeover of Christian Dior Couture (hereinafter referred to as Dior boutique). In 2018, it made a series of restructuring. The former Fendi CEO Pietro Beccari became Dior CEO, and the Kim Kim changed from "to" the artistic director of the brand menswear, and the number one of them was the chief digital officer in April 2018.

Riewenherm has previously served as director of marketing for Value Retail Germany and managing director of Mytheresa.com, a luxury electronics business. The German will set up a digital flagship store on the Internet for her own goal once he takes office. In an interview with industry media Textilwirtschaft, he divided his strategy into three steps: first, to establish and optimize professional logistics and supply chain; the second step is to further internationalize its online business; finally, to differentiate competition with the opponent by brand uniqueness.

Soon, the chief digital officer rebuilt the website of Dior, and began to pilot and promote the whole category of e-commerce and online shopping, Click&Collect and other services from the United States. But in China, even before he took office, Dior China's autonomous digital strategy went farther and faster than he imagined.

"Dior is not afraid to try new digital platforms in China. It has always been the leader of digital fashion in China," said Liz Flora, a research editor of Gartner L2 Inc. Asia Pacific region of digital intelligence company. "It was the first brand to launch the Tanabata Festival flash purchase on WeChat in 2016. In 2018, it became the first luxury brand to open an official account on the flicker. It became one of the first luxury brands that owned the official account of Xiao Hong book. In its latest fashion show, it became the first luxury brand to use HUAWEI paid demo service to broadcast live. "

She pointed out that after HUAWEI suffered some Western boycott disputes this year, Dior still became China's first large-scale luxury brand using HUAWEI services. Through the platform of HUAWEI, HUAWEI broadcast the spring and summer fashion show in Paris in 2020, attracting 870 thousand users to subscribe to the program, and over 771 thousand users watched the program. This kind of taste is not adventurous.

L2's data show that Dior has a rapid growth in natural search. "Because the brand has integrated digitalization into its strategy to keep in touch with young consumers. It has won the resonance among young consumers through various efforts, including appointing the ambassadors of the millennial generation, creating a popular hot shoe that won social reputation, and a KAWS cooperation project popular on WeChat's friends circle, "Flora said.

"China is a key market for Dior. Because of the maturity of digitalization here, it has the highest priority for us. We fully recognize the uniqueness and difference of China's digital environment, and admit that Chinese consumers are more mature in terms of digital and mobile phone usage. "Riewenherm told BoF in an exclusive interview that he hoped to integrate China into the global blueprint under the premise of customization as far as possible:" we will provide localized and customized solutions in terms of payment methods, communication channels and social plug-ins. In general, this is a completely different ecosystem from Europe. On the other hand, brand positioning, excellent products and services are globally consistent. These are the key assets of the world's successful luxury brands, and we will never compromise on quality and service. "

Riewenherm said that this month's launch of China's top quality e-commerce is the first important milestone in this process. "(in terms of electricity supplier) we are still in the initial stage, but we will catch up quickly to provide the most advanced full channel experience and the needs of fully customized Chinese consumers. "

His experience in Mytheresa.com and prior to the Dior market in Europe and America has laid a solid foundation for its digitalization in China. He hired a large number of people with rich digital background, and shifted the original digital team's thinking from image and content to the shopping function that consumers really care about, especially to create responsive design suitable for the era of smart phones.

Data were also seen as a key factor in the success of Dior strategy. "We have built an internal data lab to innovate our marketing strategy, retail and e-commerce at the same time, and data will enable us to provide better services throughout the user journey," he said. He revealed: the data lab and a user experience expert are constantly developing new innovative features for the web site. We first test these characteristics before deciding whether to industrialisation or not, "he said." there are many exciting things, including artificial intelligence, but at present, he is trying to make the team focus on strengthening infrastructure so as to make Dior's electricity providers more scalable.

Bain consulted the 2018 China luxury market research shows that digitalization is the third growth engine of luxury goods sales in China. Generally speaking, this term covers both e-commerce and consumer interaction based on digital platform. Compared with the latter, luxury goods in the field of e-commerce have made very little progress. Online channel luxury sales increased by 27% in 2018, accounting for 10% of the total sales of luxury goods, but this wave of growth is still mainly driven by cosmetics category, while the penetration rate of other categories is still very low.

If the digital innovation of Dior in China in the past is more focused on marketing and consumer interaction, then, for Riewenherm, in the future, the electricity supplier will become a new focus. "In view of the current market size and penetration, the potential of e-commerce is endless, and we are just beginning," he said. "If a website is built well and the product and presentation mix is correct, then consumers online shopping is no different from offline shopping," Riewenherm said. He said that in the future, Dior will see more and more high priced goods orders, such as the combination of Dior handbags and premium jewelry.

"Today, the trend of luxury goods business in China has shifted, and even some of the most stubborn anti electric business brands have begun to change," Flora said. According to Gartner L2's "digital IQ index: 2019 China luxury" report, the proportion of fashion brands in China has increased from 58% in 2018 to 76% in 2019. At the same time, the proportion of fashion brands of WeChat electric business increased from 36% to 60%.

But with many luxury brands and local e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and Jingdong, Riewenherm said that Dior will insist on maintaining the exclusive nature of its products. In addition to LVMH's own official e-commerce provider, 24S.com and Dior, "we want to completely control our brand." The same is true with regard to distribution, "he said.

Dior has been using the same advantage of channels to build the whole channel, which is the strategy of Riewenherm. "Customers are deciding where they want to go shopping. To provide them with a seamless experience, we will launch online shopping and offline delivery services to link websites and stores. In other words, Dior customers can get the inventory of boutique stores through the website, and we will provide a complete e-commerce service through the digital equipment of the boutique. " In previous interviews, he said the brand's goal was to provide this service in all boutiques by 2020.

Riewenherm regards the strong influence of China's channels and social platforms to strengthen the biggest growth point of its electricity suppliers. "(in China), we can talk more directly with our consumers and reach new target groups. The electricity supplier has provided a new way for potential customers far away from our existing retail network, "he told BoF." since time (and availability) is a new currency for the luxury sector, we will use e-commerce and all channels to focus on improving the products we sell. " In addition to micro-blog and WeChat, the social networking platform such as jitter, little red book and so on has also been a very concerned item in the Riewenherm agenda.

Although Dior is the pioneer of Chinese luxury digital in many ways, it can promote important social participation, but Flora said that the nineteenth place in the report still needs to be improved, such as strengthening its mobile website and WeChat function. In addition, she also said that according to its report, the proportion of micro-blog users in fashion brands ranked fourth in the period from May 2018 to March 2019. "Because the strategy of celebrity ambassadors is dominated by female star channels, celebrities with the highest participation in China are often male pop stars." In the report, only one of the top ten posts in fashion brand participation is female stars, of which 7 are male stars, and Louis Vuitton and Bottega Veneta have considerable advantages in this regard.

Flora said: "the example of Dior shows that Chinese consumers need to walk on the forefront of any luxury brand global digital plan, and there is no time to waste. China's digital ecosystem is not only different from other parts of the world in terms of platforms, but also very complex in coping with rapid changes, navigation competition platform alliances, winning participation and traffic.

"The traditional luxury brands that have been successful in China will be those that adapt to the needs of the younger generation. The right digital strategy is also important for product development," she said.

"We are just beginning. The exciting moment is coming, "Riewenherm told BoF excitedly.

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