Retail surgery: What can retailers learn from the luxury brand market?

Luxury brands offer service aimed at those who have high expectations, and David Rolfe, client services director at digital and CRM agency Tangent Snowball, says others can learn from this.

“While most retailers might not have the time or budget to focus so intensely on their customers, a few personal touches can make the difference,” he says. He advises employing salespeople who have a good level of product knowledge.

Luxury brands are also often better at providing customers with good after-sales service.

Rolfe says: “Retailers can make their post-sales communication apparent during the sales process and flag up useful content or product add-ons after the sale.”

Luxury brands also focus hard on the retail experience - Dunhill, for example, provides whisky evenings and cigar rolling for clients.

Rolfe says: “Some fashion brands are catching on, but elsewhere it’s still fairly neglected. You could see cycle shops offering test rides for families on the local common, or a homewares store hosting a cookery demonstration. They’re simple ways of making shopping into more of a living retail experience.”

He adds another challenge is to develop an emotional connection with consumers. Luxury goods are rarely rational purchases, but customers can be more rational and ruthless about other purchases.

Rolfe says: “John Lewis does this brilliantly by pulling on heartstrings through its advertising.”