YOOX Group has developed a niche in the online luxury good from a time in which many people thought this was a contradiction. For generations the luxury market focused on the brick and motor experience with world-class service. However, as technology has evolved and economic growth has generated more and more luxury consumers, the ecommerce luxury goods industry is exploding. Consumers expect the same service standards as they have become used to in the luxury goods market; however they expect these standards to be applied to new platforms. This requires significant effort from operations to uphold these standards as well as marketing because consumers have learned to block promotional messages and demand unique content.
Company Background
YOOX Group is one of the industry leaders in global Internet retailing that has formed strategic partnerships with many of the leading fashion & design brands to provide the company's online and ecommerce presence. The organization has established itself amongst the market leaders with the multi-brand stores yoox.com, thecorner.com and shoescribe.com, as well as with numerous mono-brand online stores all "Powered by YOOX Group" (YOOX Group, N.d.). The company currently has offices and operations in the United States, Europe, Japan, China and Hong Kong; however it services more than one hundred countries worldwide through over thirty customized brand offerings from different retailers and partners.
The founder and current chief executive of Yoox Group, Feberico Marchetti, was able to create a business that most people thought of as something of a contradiction which is the he sale of luxury goods online (Fairchild, 2014). Most people associate the luxury goods market with something of a full service experience that customers must experience first-hand. However, through the founder's vision, the group has been able to create a new ecommerce platform that targets the luxury niche for many popular luxury designers....
Using this application it is also possible to view social media "friends" wish lists, baby, or wedding registries. Other unique features include the ability to view different individual artist designs that are hosted as well as celebrity "showcases" that offer content that cannot be found elsewhere.
Opportunities Analysis
YOOX is in a difficult position to further expand their company however there is also a lot of potential to increase the total market size by adding new target markets; especially in developing markets. Online and mobile shopping for luxury products has exploded in China, in addition to other developing markets where smartphone usage continues to accelerate according to a recent survey of 10,200 consumers in China which found that by KPMG that seventy percent of respondents said they use their desktop every day in order to purchase items or search for information on luxury products, while 60% said they use their smartphones every day for this (CFO Innovation Asia Staff, 2014).
More and more people in the market are using the latest smartphones to research products in the luxury industry and in China; in particular, the luxury goods online presence has leapfrogged the traditional retail channels for millions of consumers in these markets. Some consumers have purchased luxury goods from brands without ever stepping foot in one of their retail locations. As a result, a brands online presence has never before reached such significant importance in the business model.
Email is still the most popular and cost effective way to reach most consumers. However, this platform is predicted to continue to evolve in the future as various email service providers (ESP), such as Google, have been able to adapt filters to screen out various email sources from promotional…
