Internet Markting Luxury Goods - Why is it important?

INTERNET MARKETING LUXURY GOODS
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Internet Marketing Luxury Goods
The luxury shoppers of today are increasingly using the internet as a tool to find information about luxury goods and services. Faced with luxury customers who have high mobile expectations, and who have equally demonstrated a tendency to spend a lot online, luxury brands are surely keeping up with this trend. A survey conducted by Worldwide Business Research and ShopIgniter on over 130 luxury marketing executives worldwide concluded that 85 percent of them were planning to increase their digital marketing activities in the year 2013. Of particular interest to them was the social media where 72 percent of them said that they were planning to increase spending on the various social networking platforms (Hoffman and Coste-Maniere, 2012).
Many luxury brands shoppers across ages and income access luxury brands websites and customer review websites before they go ahead and make any purchase. It has even been made easier by the social networking forums that are available; which enable the luxury shoppers to form online communities where they can share their thoughts and opinions on the various luxury goods. Advertising has also been made more captivating with online ads which make the customers more comfortable with the ads of luxury goods where all that they need to do is click on them to learn more about the product and then make the purchase. Due to the increasing reliance on the net for information and inspiration, it is incumbent upon luxury marketers to devote to making their online sites as visually and intellectually engaging as possible. Looking into the future, the young luxury consumer segment is an integral target market (Atwal 2009). This group which comprises of the Generation X and the millennial segment when combined they make up around one and a half times the size of the older consumers - Boomer segment.
These young generation that form a large part of the luxury consumers grew up with the luxury products that their parents bought. Conveniently therefore, they are more brand aware and consumer-savvy more than any other generation. And because of their general comfort with the internet, this medium is therefore a fundamental competitive tool provided it promotes the brand`s quality and exclusiveness. To further bolster this, a recent feature by Time`s on these young luxury consumer disclosed that this age 18-27 group is more psychologically engaged in luxury than the generation of their parents (Atwal, 2009). This is despite the fact that their incomes are lower. Needless to say that the interplay of many factors like age, income shopping habits as well as the need for convenience has inspired this new phenomenon which is online shopping for luxury goods.
Initially, many luxury brand owners were wary, their main fear being that e-commerce would probably diminish the integrity of their bra...