From Jacquemus to Balenciaga: Luxury fashion brands go hyperphysical

Luxury is no longer about simply reviving heritage codes of the past, but rather it’s a dream space. Status is therefore found in radical solutions and ground-breaking projects.

The number of retailers that do this are few and far between, access to metrics has meant that retailers have A/B tested the souls out of their websites to make sliding into transacting the most frictionless experience imaginable, and leading to an SEO-optimised sea of sameness when it comes to the ecommerce experience.

The physical locations that survive this extended pause will likely reopen with a focus on high-touch clienteling and luxury service, where shop visits are appointment-only (or tightly controlled and restricted) and oriented around consumer experience rather than pure sales.