Luxury fashion retail: “Today, customers want to be the protagonists of the shopping experience”

As a retail expert in the fashion and luxury goods industry, Renato Mosca has many years of experience. Born in Italy, he has spent more than thirty years abroad, during which time he has trained more than 15,000 employees from leading fashion companies. In the last fifteen years, the retail expert has increasingly devoted himself to the topics of training, coaching and headhunting. With the creation of his consulting company Training Luxury, he wanted to support professionals in the fashion and luxury industries who need very specific professional support that differs from that of the mass market.

What is the current status of fashion retail and what role does stationary business play?

I think fashion retail has changed radically since the pandemic. Digital interactions are much more important today than before.

Customers need more motivation to go to a store. They no longer expect to get product information when they go to a store because they can get that information online. What they want is personal experience and advice on trends and style. They expect sellers to guide them through the buying process and really understand their tastes.

The new generations have different ideas and values ​​than the companies, right?

It is clear that the new generations that grew up with digital technology have changed the traditional codes of brands. Customers today want to be the protagonists of the shopping experience. One speaks of customer engagement.

Buying fashion and luxury products is experienced as an event. I was in Paris a few weeks ago and people were taking selfies after leaving Dior, Hermès or Cartier boutiques. These photos are eventually published on social networks, where the customers are the “heroes” of the story and get their “superpowers” ​​from the creations they buy. This is modern storytelling. There was a time when the product had to be high quality. Today it must be Instagramable. The fashion business must be the framework for a story in which customers have unforgettable experiences. So, the faster the mindset of fashion stores shifts from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric approach, the better.

How would you define the role of the salesperson today?

Salespeople today have two very important roles to play. The first is what I call the GPS of purchase: in addition to the basic questions that any website could answer you when purchasing a product, they must involve the clientele, establish a connection with the fashion product and the brand.

Second, they need to build a relationship of trust with customers. The fact that most sales during the pandemic have come from loyal and local customers has forced fashion brands to work more on relationships and customer loyalty management. Of course, this means that the specific skills required are different from those that defined the role of a salesperson in the past.

Image: Pexels (Alexandra Maria)

How do you recruit and retain new talent today?

The pandemic has also changed the role people play in businesses, especially among the new generations. Many people are still able to work from home at least a few days a week.

Ultimately, this also has an impact on people who were more attracted to work in the fashion industry or in luxury goods retail.

Today, attracting talent is becoming very difficult due to the amount of technical and interpersonal skills that fashion and retail companies seek. In addition, the new generations are less patient and want to improve their positions and salaries much faster than previous generations. That makes it difficult to retain talent.

Many companies are still working with parameters from the past. Today it is not only a higher salary that attracts applicants or the opportunity to work in a trendy and fashionable company. It’s important to understand how much the company invests in training and mentoring these new talents so they can advance within the organization and receive the mentoring they expect.

At Training Luxury we work closely with fashion groups to develop more specific programs that address the needs of the fashion or luxury industry. In addition to attracting talent through intensive “seduction work”, it is crucial to sell them the project. That’s why we work with fashion and luxury companies on onboarding programs for new talent and programs to support the executives responsible for managing the new talent. We design performance management programs, individual feedback programs, and emotional intelligence and coaching programs that can help develop people while strengthening the managerial skills of new business leaders.

Today some fashion stores have teams of 300 to 400 people who are really complex business units with rules and processes. It is evident that management and leadership skills are becoming an essential element in running such a large company with such a large workforce.

To achieve this, we provide brands with tangible tools that can help them solve their day-to-day problems by supporting a more creative approach with a stronger entrepreneurial mindset.

This article was published on FashionUnited.fr. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ

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