Belgian luxury handbag producer Delvaux is opening its own webshop today. The company long resisted e-commerce, but its hand was forced by the corona crisis and the mandatory closing of its physical shops.
Resistance
Called by some the oldest luxury brand in the world, Delvaux has long resisted opening an online store. Its only two ventures into e-commerce for now have been cooperations: one with American department store Barneys (which ended when the latter went bankrupt), the second with Chinese company JD.com (which has recently signed a deal to promote Delvaux’ desirables on the huge Chinese market.
However, the company has finally ceded to the pressure of online profits, and it opens its own webshop today. While there had been some plans for a while, CEO Marco Probst has used the coronavirus and the fact the brand’s physical stores were forced to close in order to speed up digital development. Probst had been Delvaux CEO before, but took an eighteen month leave in order to follow a course on digital marketing on the Columbia Business School.
Arrogance
““When I rejoined Delvaux last December after a year and a half away we were arrogant that we were only bricks and mortar along with very good service. I also realized that I use my iPhone to buy high value electric guitars and so Delvaux needed to open up and create a task force, not so much for e-commerce, more for digitalization”, the CEO told FashionNetwork.
The webshop should enable Delvaux to start using data, as well as raise its visibility and awareness. Probst is convinced that 80 % of all purchases nowadays are at least influenced by online experiences: “Before, we had an institutional home page, but no product information. The next step is about analyzing clicks and customers and who and where they come from”, Probst says.
