Luxury e-services at the pre- and after-sales stages of the decision making process: Watch, car, art and travel blogs analysis

Abstract

Needs and expectations of customers in pre-and after-sales stages in the e-commerce purchase process in the luxury products sector are not well known and defined. We were interested in discovering the opinions of customers concerning the role of internet in the pre-and after-sales stages of the purchasing process in this industry. As we are just at the beginning of the e-commerce area in the luxury sector, we decided to focus on blogs' content. After-sales service in the luxury sector is considered with circumspection. Practitioners feel that consumers are still very much attached to the 'physical' experience. On the contrary, we assumed that Netsurfers belonging to net communities are also luxury goods and services consumers. According to the netnography methodology (Kozinets, 1998), we analyzed the Netsufers comments about pre-and after-sales services. We identified and selected blogs that are specific to the Web 2.0 generation; these blogs are discussing about luxury watches, cars, travels and art objects. The results permitted us to identify three categories of services needs: 1) the need for the service in broad terms, especially the service that should be linked to a product 2) the need for a specific information or a very specific service, and 3) specific complaint about service experiences. These insights were discussed to be fully integrated in the e-commerce strategy in general.

E-commerce: Who is the international consumer of luxury goods? A cross study of e-consumer customization (an empirical approach)

“…1 Concerning the young international e-consumers, we found very small difference in results in regard to our two scenarios. The second age group is inclined to buy more luxury goods on-line in comparison to the first age group (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). We demonstrate the details in the following two figures: Therefore, H2 is false and H3 is true.…”

Service design needs for luxury e-commerce: An empirical study

“…Taking into account the economic and commercial issues of the existing physical distribution at stake, the e-commerce issues and challenges would be reflected very difficult on ecommerce strategies of the various goods companies. From our research, consumers are really concerned about service offer in general and pre-and after sales services [1]. In most cases they were discussing about negatives experiences or needs which are still ignored from the company's side.…”

“…We do know that physical human relations can be replaced by divers Web 2.0 interactive solutions [1] with the luxury consumer in the e-commerce. Examples like http://www.thewatchavenue.comlsite/#/gclid/frrst/wa , or the last game version of Home coming from Sony, show the latest technology evolution in this sector.…”

“…If luxury consumers' do not like the behavior of personnel in luxury shops and if they have real Web 2.0 interaction facilities, 70% do avoid a physical shop during their e-shopping luxury operation [1].…”

“…We underlined it because this is one of the pleasures luxury consumers' do really like, get their luxury good for the lowest price [1]. So, only 16% of luxury consumers do want to negotiate the final price in a physical shop.…”