Yahong Zhang

What is direct to consumer? Direct to consumer, also known as DTC or D2C, is an eCommerce strategy which enables manufacturers and brands to sell directly to consumers, without passing through the reseller or retailer. In traditional commerce, manufacturers have a B2B approach, where the flow goes wholesalers-distributors-retailers-consumers. In the DTC model, the manufacturer uses its own channels - website, social media -, as well as advertising and marketing techniques to communicate directly to the consumers and sell their products without intermediaries...

This article was updated in September 2024 by Sabrina KHADIVI. The retail ecosystem: a pre-pandemic perspective eCommerce is already gaining ground before the COVID 19 Ignore the future of retail for a minute. Way before the pandemic was declared, penetration of online retail was already quite high and on a growing trend, fostered by huge investments in apps and digital tools that aim to minimize consumers’ needs to interact with reps or try on each product...

The rise of sneaker culture: a billion dollar industry Ever since the XIXth century, sneakers have been more than just shoes. They represent a cultural statement, a way of communicating identity, class, race, principles and status. The movement is getting so much attention that the world developed a term for enthusiasts that collect and trade sneakers - sneakerheads...

This article was updated in October 2024 by Sabrina KHADIVI. Mass customization is a technique that makes manufacturing processes flexible enough to produce products according to precisely what the customer wants while keeping costs at a low level. This concept makes the most of both personalization and mass production, which leads to a cost-efficient manufacturing system...

Multibrand luxury stores have been focused on marketing innovation and creating new digital shopping experiences. One of the names that has made an impact on the landscape has been Farfetch, the British-Portuguese fashion retailer founded in 2007 by José Neves, an entrepreneur known for his activity with fashion start-ups. The concept behind Farfetch is to create a structure that would bridge the gap between physical and digital retail by supporting luxury brands worldwide...

E-commerce and online luxury shopping is growing rapidly Based on estimates from Internet retailers, worldwide online sales of luxury personal goods were projected to reach $33.9 billion in 2018, 21% more than in 2017, according to the Luxury Retailer Report. This meant that the increase in digital commerce was significantly higher than the 7% growth projected for the industry as a whole...

What is NFT? NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique digital assets like digital artworks and music, which is tracked through blockchain (a digital ledger) and thus cannot be reproduced or interchanged. NFTs are created by uploading a file to a specific auction market, such as Rarible, OpenSea, KnownOrigin. Once this is done, the piece may be bought with cryptocurrency and resold...

This article has been updated in May 2024 by Sabrina KHADIVI Gucci is reinventing itself by creating digital content and digital products Jean François Palus as new CEO and Sabato De Sarno as new Creative Director, Gucci has managed to implement a marketing strategy targeted at Generation Z, i.e., the group of consumers with apparently low buying powers but high influences...

This article has been updated in May 2024 by Sabrina KHADIVI Artificial intelligence in marketing According to research, global AI market size is said to reach $305.09 billion by 2024, while its market size is expected to reach $738.80 billion by 2030. In addition, the state of AI by McKinsey shows that 50% of companies interviewed have adopted AI in at least one business function, mainly in service operations, product or service development, and marketing and sales...

Virtual try-on catching on? Virtual try-on technology enables customers to try on products using their camera equipped devices such as mobile phones. With the help of Augmented Reality, users may contextually visualize the item in which they are interested, interacting and confirming the style, the size and the fit before making a purchase...

What is user-generated content? User-generated content (UGC), also known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content that is posted by netizens on digital platforms, such as social media and collective databases and websites. UGC has been an important tool for the online environment ever since the early 2000s, when Wikipedia, the most successful collaborative encyclopedia, was created...

This article has been updated in July 2024 by Sabrina KHADIVI. Many of the biggest companies in the world are using neuromarketing right now, to dive into consumers’ minds and to understand how they respond to external triggers and how instincts work. Names like Microsoft, Pepsi, Daimler, Mercedes Benz have been investing in the practice to test designs, products and advertisements, while luxury brands are looking for a new way to convey messages, pushing exclusivity, elegance and user experiences more and more innovative...

This article on “2D VS 3D” compares 2 most popular methods to showcase products in ecommerce websites- 2d images and 3d models, in terms of customer engagement and conversion rates. Ecommerce is gaining increasing popularity The estimate of people shopping online today is about 2 billion. This is roughly 25 per cent of the world’s population, and those numbers are still growing massively By the end of 2021, e-commerce is expected to take over 17...

A simple introduction to customization Customization is defined as the act of modifying the supply chain to deliver goods and services which are adapted to satisfy a specific customer’s needs. As the world’s largest supplier[1] of athletic shoes and apparel, Nike already had a worldwide reach, yet unfortunately they were losing touch with the end consumers...

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the way shopping is done, directing people towards digital channels. As McKinsey points out, in October 2020, more consumers worldwide confirmed that they expected to make a bigger portion of their purchases online, compared to periods before the COVID-19 crisis. This change spanned across all categories, from groceries, to jewelry, apparel, footwear, and accessories...

3D visualization definition and its estimated market size If you have been reading our blog, you might already have an interest in 3D visualization, an area about which we, at Hapticmedia, are very passionate. 3D visualization combines a series of technologies such as computer-generated imagery, 3D modelling, rendering and graphics to create three-dimensional imagery which resembles reality so closely that it might be hard to differentiate from a real photo or video...

What is digitalization? Digitalization is described by Gartner as “the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business.” For the past decades, businesses have been evolving towards digitalization and trying to shift into a more technological approach that adopts digital tools in everyday tasks, at both individual and organizational levels, to have more accessible and transparent data, faster processes and higher productivity...

While the COVID-19 crisis has impacted overall spending, it seems that the holidays aren’t canceled. As Deloitte’s 2020 Holiday Surveys show, consumers are resilient and will adapt their shopping behaviors to these new times, some directing even more money for at-home celebrations. How does this new Christmas shopping landscape look like?..

This article is aimed to discuss esports marketing, its genres and events, a big fan base, huge marketing potential, and very importantly, the opportunities and tools to make the most of it for the benefits of your marketing strategy. The esports marketing ecosystem: players, events and influencers According to McKinsey, the term “esports” is defined as “a specific subset of online gaming with a focus on the competition between human players – both amateurs and professionals – in a video or computer game with predefined rules”...

What is gamification and where is it used? In their 2012 paper “Defining Gamification - A Service Marketing Perspective”, Kai Huotari and Juho Hamari refer to gamification as “a process of enhancing a service with affordances for gameful experiences in order to support users’s overall value creation.” Indeed, gamification means using game related elements and principles in non-game situations to attract users and increase engagement and retention...

At Hapticmedia, we know our clients have a wide array of options when it comes to building their own online 3D product configurator for e-commerce. Indeed, making this choice might seem quite difficult and intimidating, especially if you don’t have the necessary information. What makes an excellent product configurator? A great product configurator showcases the outstanding features of your products from a 360 degree angle, creates an engaging and immersive digital shopping experience, with the help of online personalization, 3D modeling and visualization technology, Augmented Reality, virtual try on, omni channel strategy, engraving and so on, while ensuring safety, agility, light weight, web speed, excellent support and customer services...

A 3D product configurator offers an interactive and engaging online shopping experience that converts 3D product configurators are interactive digital marketing tools powered by live 3D models to allow customers to visualize and personalize products as they want, enabling users to watch their adjustments and receive estimates of the costs based on the customizations, which in the end leads to a more engaging client relationship...

Engraving is the world’s oldest and most popular technique to offer customized products. To take advantage of this technique as well as the trend of personalization, brands are now thinking about adopting engraving for eCommerce, supported by 3D Visualization or Augmented Reality technology to increase conversions and thus revenues. Consumers appreciate customized products The growing trends of purchasing a custom-made product can be reflected by increasing shopping demands towards it...

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, luxury brands were adopting new channels and tools to satisfy their ever-changing luxury consumers, who are becoming younger, more oriented towards a memorable shopping experience and in a constant quest for products that respect their unique values. And then the pandemic takes place with a series of repercussions, which is not only impacting our incomes and financial stability but also changing consumer behaviors and shopping patterns...

Introduction to digital marketing Digital marketing trends are consistently shaping the luxury industry, brands, consumers, influencers and so on. For the past decades, businesses have been evolving towards digitalization and trying to shift into a more technological approach that adopts digital tools in everyday tasks, at both individual and organizational levels, to have more accessible and transparent data, faster processes and higher productivity...

What is CPQ? If you are looking for a CPQ definition, you should know that CPQ stands for “configure, price, quote”. It is a technical solution that allow sales professionals to customize an offer and provide real time prices for clients. A simplified 3D CPQ demonstration provided by luxury brand Lolo Chatenay and tech startup Hapticmedia...

Large usage of social media in China We Are Social Digital 2020 issued in January, positions China as the second fastest growing market as far as Internet penetration is concerned, with a 23% increase compared to last year, namely an Internet population of 840 million as the largest online community...

A brief of this bankruptcy On May 7, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the luxury retailer behind brands like Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Mytheresa, Horchow and Last Call, Neiman Marcus Group filed for bankruptcy. This act invoked Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which means that the company will undergo reorganization of affairs, debts and assets and formulate a plan to overcome its financial issues, without necessarily closing stores...

This article is about 3D configurator, its mechanism, benefits, applications and successful users cases with testimonials. Click here to jump to the case studies of Guerlain, Baume and Schmidt. 3D is transforming the view of a wide range of fields globally. Interactive 3D is offering better ways to answer the key question every customer has: “Is this product going to be exactly what I want?..

It is a well known fact that companies are now trying to cooperate with influencers to have brands endorsed and get product placement on their communication channels, such as social networks, websites and blogs. Brands from certain sectors are especially interested in this strategy, namely luxury, lifestyle, beauty, travel, cooking, finance, health and wellbeing...

A huge market potential and accelerated adoption Live content has been appealing to audiences even since the age of television, as it creates the fear of missing out. Unsurprisingly, the live streaming market hit as high as $545 billion in 2018, according to Deloitte. As the online business has grown significantly in recent years with an increasing audience, live streaming is becoming one of the most sought after tools, especially in regions where e-commerce is a common practice...

Let’s start with Industry 4.0 Characterized by advanced technologies such as big data, smart factories, 3d technology, Artificial Intelligence, the internet of things, robots, advanced algorithms and machine learning, the 4th industrial revolution is happening as we speak and is triggering changes in industries and reshaping the way that companies manufacture products and the way that customers search for, engage with and shop for products...

Today’s consumers no longer buy a product or service, but an experience. This is even more true in the luxury sector, where 40% of consumers want more personalization. 57.2% of worldwide millennials interviewed replied “Yes, definitely!” to the question “Would you be willing to pay more for a high-end fashion or luxury item that was personalised to you?..

Impacts: Dramatic drop and late recover The coronavirus pandemic has strongly impacted the first quarter of 2020, affecting the luxury industry to its core. Signs of a huge influence started in January, when the virus was striking China, the country responsible for 90% of the 2019 global luxury market growth and 35% of overall luxury sales...

Up until about ten years ago, the designers of the illustrious crystal house Baccarat used to draw their incredible chandeliers by hand. Since then, 3D technology has replaced the pencil in design offices. Today, a new revolution is taking place in this institution born more than 150 years ago: 3D virtualization and configuration...

We all desire to have our individuality recognized and our aspirations taken into account. This is why brands are strongly committed to the personalization of their products and services. Now at the heart of marketing strategies, this approach is becoming a valuable asset for customer satisfaction and loyalty. In luxury boutiques this experience is already very successful, it is much more complex to recreate it on an e-commerce site...

This article has been updated in July 2024 by Sabrina KHADIVI. The luxury marketing landscape has been changing consistently for the past decade and the evolution continues at a fast pace. As the average age of luxury consumers is decreasing, their shopping patterns are changing as well and, for the first time in decades, brands are finding it necessary to reexamine their strategies and adjust to what Millennials and Generation Z members expect from them...

The in-store experience as the most influential factor of a luxury purchase We have all heard about the importance of e-commerce in today’s retail landscape due to the impacts of the digital generation. As seen in Deloitte’s 2019 Consumer Survey Report, interviewees expresses expectations to spend 36% of their budget in store, compared to 59% online, while more than half, i...

This article was updated in October 2024 by Sabrina KHADIVI. Luxury marketing is a series of concepts and acts based on the “dream value” as well as the traditional STP model and 6Ps, designed to promote pricey, unique and exclusive products or services to high end consumers. Overview of Luxury marketing and high end market trends Marketing strategy in the luxury business is constructed around the dream value and what customer experiences bring, the segmenting-targeting-positioning model and 7 pillars that most professionals know:..

This article has been updated in March 2024 by Sabrina KHADIVI. For ages, storytelling was an effective way to capture history. Over time, stories started to pass by word of mouth and then through the written word. Today, most of our modern storytelling happens through technology. It also has a different purpose...

The way that business is done around the world is changing rapidly. This is because technology is advancing so quickly that it is making things possible that have never before. For example, smart factories, the internet of things, robots, location detection technologies, advanced human-machine interfaces, 3D printing, augmented reality, big data, and 3D technology are reshaping the way that companies produce products and the way that customers search for, engage with, and shop for products...

The ever increasing luxury goods market and its competition in the digital age For the past years, the luxury goods market has been increasing both in sales and in opportunities. According to McKinsey research, in 2018 its value has been 330 billion Euros and it is expected to reach 430 billion Euros, in 2025...

What is UX and UI? In the digital age, the effectiveness of a product or service goes beyond bare minimum functionality. To satisfy technologically-empowered consumers, designers of products and services must employ user interface (UI) to offer them the highest possible user experience (UX). But what are UI and UX? In simple terms, the UI refers to the elements employed by users to interact with a product or service...

Today almost every customer-oriented and data- driven organization takes advantage of the customer journey to understand consumer demands and ultimately improve shopping experience. Understanding the newest trends that have been proven to deliver a seamless shopping experience will make life easier for both marketers and consumers. What is it? Customer journey is the complete shopping process that a customer needs to go through to make a purchase, from idea generation to payment and reorder...

3D technology is an emerging sector that is being embraced by business nowadays, to improve the shopping experience as well as to simplify the working process, applications of 3d technologies include 3D modeling, 3D printing, 3D visualization, 3D display and so on. This article is aimed to figure out how such technologies have integrated into business, especially the sector of luxury, while contemplating on its growing significance, trends and advantages...

What is omnichannel marketing? Source: Lowe location based computing app The concept: integration and synergy The marketing world defines omnichannel as “a cross-channel approach to sales that seeks to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience, whether they’re shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, by telephone, or in a brick-and-mortar store”...

What is Agile? The word “agile” signifies the capability to keep things in motion with ease and without any hurdles. It is meant to showcase the adaptiveness and response to change, which is an important concept in this approach. In software development process, for example, it indicates the smooth running of the process, which in this industry has presented a different working approach with some unique pivotal points...

Technology is constantly evolving, which means that, nowadays more than ever before marketers have a wide array of tools and tactics they can use to their advantage to create engaging and memorable customer experiences that convert and drive sales. One of the most talked about, in recent years has been the chatbot, a digitized invention meant to create a bridge between artificial intelligence and humans, with the purpose of contributing to a more interactive and efficient customer relationship...

Augmented Reality Marketing is a new technique where businesses integrate the advanced AR technology to marketing and sales activities. It is now embraced, in the luxury industry especially, as an efficient tool to enhance the connectivity with their customers and therefore increase online sales. While people used to walk around in the malls and select a shop that looked the most appealing to them, they are now roaming the webpages and searching the e-commerce sites where they expect to find the best experience...

This article was updated in March 2024 by Sabrina KHADIVI What is customer perception? In a highly competitive world, where differentiating your product or service through objective, functional attributes is becoming increasingly difficult, marketers are focusing their efforts on customer perception and more precisely on CX (customer experience), a topic of high interest that stands behind some of the greatest marcom campaigns of the past years, in all industries, both B2B and B2C...

Ecommerce Technology in this era is continuously growing, and with this evolution, it is altering the lives of people around the globe by enhancing their preferred lifestyle. Introduced in 1995, global E-commerce has grown quickly over the years and transformed the business processes, market dynamics, and consumer behaviors. E-commerce was an innovation of its own times that has brought convenience to our lives, and now, various emerging technologies are being incorporated into this system to enhance the services it provides and therefore to ensure a better customer experience...

This article was updated in October 2024 by Sabrina KHADIVI. What is 3D Visualization? 3D visualization refers to the process where graphical content is created using 3D software. Similar terms include: 3D rendering Excellent computer-generated imagery (CGI) 3D graphics and so on Over recent years, this technology has gained popularity and evolved into one of the most high-quality digital content to showcase products...