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The purpose of buying fashion and luxury is to grant oneselves a moment in which to feel special: the seductive presentation by an expert who illustrates the product with love and competence emphasizes the sweetness of this self-gratifying indulgence.
Luxury is dream and dream is desire; but a cheap desire does not make people dream enough. Luxury is perceived as such only if it entails sacrifice: retailers who offer discounts on luxury goods, do it because they are not able to communicate and transmit anything else to the customer.
If the offer is the same, it is logical that the customer will address to the cheapest price, but the luxury-seller’s duty is to grant incomparable dreams, services and feelings. The more this is done, the less customers will care about price. To show ability and competence during the interaction with the customer at the counter represents a huge opportunity to increase the shop revenue and competitiveness, especially in the offer of high-quality products.
To us this area is so important that we included such subject within a specific course in sales and communication which we called "Warm Up". Yes, you understood it rightly, warm-up, the preparation that aims to warm the retailers’ ability and enthusiasm and that could increase the business volume of 20-30%. To sell a luxury item means to offer the customer attention, time, competence, personalized information, a warm and cozy atmosphere and extreme care to make everything work at its best, with efficiency and punctuality.
This is not easy but, according to our experience, if one succeeds in doing so, he will get extremely successful results year after year, in spite of the several crises which are often used as an alibi for those who have little fantasy.<BR>

Edited by Ercole Renzi, B2eyes Magazine number 20 November/December 2007

The duty of those who sell luxury is to provide the customers with dreams, as well as incomparable services and feelings.

Interbrand and Business Week have published a table showing the 12 major luxury brands in the world. The most interesting datum is that only 3 brands among these 12 do not deal with eyewear lines; they are: Tiffany, Moet & Chandon and Rolex.
The remaining 9 brands complete their presence in the international markets with prestigious ophthalmic glasses and sunglasses collections. This datum leads to an important reflection: glasses represent a “passe-par-tout” for possible luxury, it allows millions of people to accede to luxury products with a reduced expense. A style bag, which can cost 6.000 euros, is a less accessible luxury than a pair of glasses of the same style, which costs 250 instead.
Nevertheless, this, too, is a genuine and true luxury, with all the experiential content it comprises for those who enjoy it. The question which follows is: “The optician knows how to illustrate, propose or sell luxury goods?” Or rather professional deformations, which in many cases combine with a discount anxiety, depotentiate the customer’s luxury experience in the shop, which is different from his experience of the product itself?
From the customer’s point of view, luxury is a consumption experience which concerns its communication with itself and with the world around; it has self-gratifying values of compensation and of emotional integration related to seduction, self-affirmation and social visibility, as well as the desire for uniqueness and the love of yourselves and the others. A content of expectations and desires that deserves -and demands to those who sell luxury goods- a proper offer, corresponding at least at the expectations of the person who yearn for it. This is what is rightly called “excellence set”, and which is what should characterize the retail shop which lodges and sells luxury brands.
First of all, the general location and exhibition of luxury items are often inappropriate and depersonalize the luxury product among minor and less important ones; not to mention hidden temples and clumped fronts, with even a “20% off” tag on show. Then the sensitivity and accuracy of the seller, an expert professional who knows the latest trends and can become a precious adviser able to suggest the more suitable “mix and match” solution even to the customer who cannot afford a huge expense.
Finally, the elegance and care of the packaging of the product on delivery, together with the attentions of the one who proposes and give suggestions, which help to communicate the preciousness of the product.

Edited by Ercole Renzi, B2eyes Magazine number20 November/December 2007