The best merchandise, the greatest prestige, and wonderful in-store experiences were once associated with the word luxury. That term is still accurate, and for many buyers, luxury will always mean that and only that. However, consumers—especially younger ones—are evolving, as is the retail industry, and many are redefining luxury in its purest form. Although they don’t match the conventional definition of luxury, there are additional qualities that customers associate with the term.
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A futurist from The Future Hunters named Jared Weiner spoke at a recent conference in Los Angeles called Innocos (an acronym for Innovation in Cosmetics), discussing the “Three T’s” and a broader notion of luxury. It’s not that the previous definitions are irrelevant; rather, many customers today find value in alternative interpretations of what constitutes luxury. The key point of this new definition is that companies delivering this new manner of marketing may effectively compete with companies providing the conventional meaning of luxury. Effective luxury brands understand that when done well, there’s no need for a discount. For this reason, brands and retailers should find the enlarged definition of luxury significant and influential.
According to Weiner, the “three T’s” of luxury today are: trust, truth, and time. Naturally, time is the most valuable resource that we will never have more of. Weiner thinks that after the epidemic, people could wish to spend their time differently since they had a chance to reassess their objectives when they were confined or shut down. For merchants, making efficient use of customers’ time has always been a challenge. The most important resource of all is the time spent by luxury shoppers, thus making their shopping experience simple and pleasant increases the likelihood that they will return.
Truth and Trust, on the other hand, are brand-new. According to Weiner, they are quite pertinent to what merchants and brands currently need to provide to consumers. Truth in relation to brands is about personalization, making a company’s products more relevant, or true, to each consumer and the truth they believe, their personal values, and how they want to present themselves. Of course, he talks about truth in a political sense, emphasizing how each person’s truth is now more varied than ever. Perfect Corp.’s SVP Wayne Liu, who also gave a presentation at the Innocos conference, demonstrated that customers were 20% more likely to make a purchase and spent 50% longer on tailored websites from shops. Liu claims that relevant personalization—what Weiner would refer to as their particular truth—causes customers to stop using Amazon for product searches and instead browse and explore, acting more as they would at an intriguing shop. Investors understand this, as seen by the 146 acquisitions in the cosmetics industry so far in 2021, over two thirds of which involved customization. Every day, the significance of that specific truth—personalization—increases.
And have faith. Although it’s a political topic as well, who you trust has to do with businesses, merchants, and influencers in particular. Whether they are megastars or close pals, true influencers are now vital to the way companies are promoted.
Regardless of where or what you’re selling, Weiner claims that you’ve created a luxury experience for customers when you save them time, offer them what they want that’s specific to them, and provide them with information that they trust from a source they want to associate with. That’s the extension and reinterpretation of luxury that he discusses; for the proper buyer, it serves as a strong inducement to make more purchases.
There is a greater shortage of time, truth, and trust than there has ever been. A luxury experience that is unmatched may be provided by companies if they can help their customers make better use of their time, offer more individualized goods and services, and provide relevant personal suggestions from individuals whose values align with their own. That type of retail is crucial to the success of retail in the future since it does not need to offer price reductions to sell its goods.