Data’s role in opening up luxury to a broader market
Technology has changed the way one buys and sells on an e-commerce platform. At Reebonz, we have adopted a data-first approach, drawing insights from our consumers’ behavior which then allows us to:
- Address the current challenges of functional areas and develop forward-facing applications to stay ahead of competition. Our luxury ecosystem is built on catering to different segments of consumers and creating a community to buy and sell on a single trusted platform such as – our Closets app, which allows consumers to sell their pre-owned luxury items via the app conveniently, creating a community that builds trust and ensures organic growth; and 0ur White Glove Service, our premium selling service, that offers convenience to consumers selling their pre-owned luxury items via our platform.
- Integrate the data we have collected from our consumers and then, analyze the behavior of the consumers and visualize what they want. From showing trending products based on our consumer’s product selection preferences when browsing to sending targeted messages to the right audience at the right time. In view of these, predictive analysis plays a crucial role in our business.
- Forecast demands through daily data – understanding what consumers are browsing (eg: categories, styles, colors, etc)
- Provide personalized services and targeted messages to the right audience at the right time through our Relationship Managers who provide assisted shopping services and arrange for private viewings with our consumers to allow them to touch and feel the luxury products before they make their purchases.
- Use omni-channel marketing so that consumers can take a multi-device path to purchase.
In 2016, we also developed the first-of-its kind report by Reebonz —the Asia Luxury Index, based on our actual sales data and transactions. The report examines the growing landscape of the luxury ecosystem and also what are the top brands that consumers are buying into – taking in data from 5 countries namely, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Australia.
- With the insights, we saw a rising demand for pre-owned luxury with a 30% increase from the year before (2014 vs 2015) and these bags continued to dominate the total luxury goods transactions, making up 60% of the sales transactions both in the new and pre-owned categories.
- With the insight that shoes and timepieces were the next growth drivers for the brand, we were able to anticipate demand and strategise to meet the demand for these product categories.
- It has also established our positioning as the authority in online luxury space given our broad and deep market penetration and transactional volume.
Global granularity: data’s role in identifying global and hyper-local trends
Having the right data allows us to understand the local markets better including trends and shopping behavior of our consumers allowing. This allows us to provide them with more — e.g. working with the banks with the widest reach to provide the extra service and convenience to them or knowing what ‘gamification’ strategies work best and better strategise ways to engage with the local community.
Our campaigns are planned on a global scale but adopting a localization strategy to ensure that we communicate effectively with the local markets. With the right data, we localise content for specific local markets’ needs and also, channel localization in the form of user platforms. These ensure we deliver the right messages at the right time to the right target consumers ensuring that all marketing efforts are in line with our brand direction.
C2C’s luxury impact: how consumer-to-consumer has changed luxury retail
With consumers being technologically savvy in the present day, they seek an integrated experience when making purchases. In our Asia Luxury Index published last year, there was an increase in the number of purchases made for pre-owned luxury products with a sales growth of up to 30% from the year before (from 2014-2015). This influenced the creation the Closets app to allow our consumers to buy and sell their pre-owned items on a single trusted platform.
C2C platforms are now being used to provide consumers with opportunities to discover a wider range of products apart from the traditional B2C platforms. With C2C platforms available like our Closets app, our consumers can buy and sell their pre-owned luxury on one single trusted platform. The app aims to bring the convenience of ecommerce to pre-owned luxury items by facilitating payment, pick up and delivery. Reebonz aims to provide consumers with the widest range of luxury items while at the same time addressing consumer issues of trust, payment and logistics in C2C transactions. It has made C2C transactions more accessible and changed the way our consumers access luxury. The luxury retail landscape is no longer just a linear platform but rather, a luxury ecosystem where consumers can buy and sell on the same platform.
Dynamic pricing: the shift from premium to value in luxury
With the trend that many millennials are starting their luxury consumption journey with us at an earlier age, through segmented pricing events, we are able to target a wider audience base. Using insights in competitive pricing, we are able to deploy the most sophisticated channel and promotional strategies to our targeted audiences. Understanding the price sensitivity of different items, during the peak festive shopping periods, we are able to understand which channels to optimise and determine which items to promote on each channel.
Contributed by: Samuel Lim, CEO & Co-founder at Reebonz.com, a trusted online platform for buying and selling a wide range of luxury products. In his earlier years foraying into entrepreneurship, Samuel had also founded eFusion Solutions and its group of companies. Samuel started his business trials at the age of 20 while in National Service. He holds a Bachelor of Accountancy from Nanyang Technological University. Samuel has been President of the Audiotext Service Providers Association as well as Entrepreneurs Organization Singapore. He is also a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO).
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