Not long ago, we followed the trend of Herm è s opening new stores in Silicon Valley, USA, and took the opportunity to explore Herm è s' development trends in the transformation of luxury brands. Herm è s' success lies in creating a mysterious and desirable image, while still maintaining composure amidst the wave of digital transformation.

The new news is that Axel Dumas, CEO of Herm è s, recently announced that the Chinese version of Herm è s with a new online shopping feature will be officially launched on its official website. At the same time, in order to attract traffic to the official website, the brand is considering collaborating with JD's "Toplife" platform to sell products online. In the fashion industry, Herm è s, which intends to enter domestic e-commerce platforms, is considered the last barrier to the digitalization of luxury brands. Can it also be understood that in the Chinese market, the digital transformation of luxury brands has been basically completed?

Digitalization has reconstructed brand logic

In the past, a brand was understood as a name, symbol, or combination, forming a complete comprehensive reflection in people's consciousness, and expressing differences in the market through unique and identifiable concepts. And form a long-term image cognition through continuous market behavior activities, while the image symbols of luxury goods are more obvious. Behind a brand lies the association between the enterprise, product, and consumer. It can also be considered that even products in the same category can bring different understandings and feelings when labeled with different brands.

Luxury goods are the creation closest to art in spirit, which generates a premium for the product, and when we pay for this premium, we pay for value beyond the material itself. The digital penetration of the luxury goods industry is in every field, from raw material procurement, design and production, market promotion, channel sales to after-sales service.

From the information age to the digital age, upgrading from commodity centric to user centered, efficiency becomes dominant, and brand logic is reconstructed. The definition of a brand is more like a connector, integrating all resources to build a brand new platform. Some argue that the cross market network effects nowadays provide better matching between platform supply and demand. The larger the scale, the greater the value, and it can attract more people.

What happened from resistance to embrace?

In the initial stage of e-commerce development, the luxury retail industry remained largely resistant to online business, fearing that the characteristics of the Internet would impact and damage the exclusivity of luxury goods. Even in China, where luxury goods and e-commerce were advancing side by side, the digital transformation of luxury goods was still cautious.

The changes in social and economic development have made the radiation range of luxury goods more extensive, no longer exclusive to a few people in a concentric circle, and the premium value of purchasing luxury goods has become increasingly important. People need to experience, and experience also includes a way that is in line with the times, which is digital interaction, effectively helping luxury brands have more opportunities to bring people opportunities to showcase and experience. Luxury brands are also realizing that the key to success in the new consumer era lies in whether they can resonate with this generation of consumers.