Hermès considers sales on
mobile phones
At the same time as the deployment
of online shopping, Hermès is considering
necessary technology adaptations to sell on internet capable “smart
phones”. “The technology is developing very quickly. We must take
advantage. Demonstrating items on mobile telephones needs, for
example, the enlargement of the format of the photos”, explained
Charles Henri Leroy, director of client relations who oversees
marketing, services offered in stores and personal
services.
Hermès Sandals available on
Hermes.com
The epitome of French luxury and
defendant of artisanal know-how, Hermès has nonetheless been
pioneering, selling ties, handkerchiefs and perfumes on the
Internet since 2002 in the USA. It was not until March 2008 that
the fashion house opened its institution’s own site though. A
“reverse path” compared to other luxury brands, observed Charles
Henri Leroy, “adhering to the strategy of Jean-Louis Dumas and his
son Pierre Alexis, who, from the start, saw the Net as a means of
supplying a supplementary service to clients and a tool to recruit
new ones who, without which, would not have access to the products,
the brand not being present in their country”.
As for the institutional site, Hermès has waited until
technology permitted, through the quality of photos and videos, to
show all the facets of the label and its history. After America,
sales sites have been opened in the principal countries of Europe,
Switzerland and since last year in Australia and Japan. The price
is based on current market prices and available products that are
sold has been gradually enlarged, with differences by country: the
American site is the richest in leather products and offers
watches, whereas the French sells jewellery.
Coming soon, ready-to-wear men’s wear and, why not, ladies’
fashion. “We have no taboos. It’s like in our real boutiques, each
director has his own selection”, though always with “multi-channel
continuity” between what is available on the web and in
stores.