Secure, Reliable and Seamless Shouldn’t Be a Luxury

By Marie Hattar | January 20, 2011 at 5:00 am PST

I had the luxury of keynoting at a seminar last week on the topic of “Borderless Luxury.” Yes, you heard right. Borderless Luxury.

Being borderless is about connecting to information anytime on any device, from anywhere. And, as I’ve explained here before, doing so securely, reliably, and seamlessly. So what does that have to do with the high-end retail world? The retail luxury sector has watched as the internet has moved from being a single channel of information to a multi-channel of commerce, client services, social media and multi- media communications along with virtual and augmented reality. Is there a way to bring all stakeholders together to have access to critical information on the network in a secure and reliable way? How can companies meet the newly enacted PCI regulations with a seamless, secure infrastructure?

Today’s luxury brands are discovering that they need to evolve to cater to both online and on-premises customers. And in the process, they are tackling some provocative issues. As an avid shopper, in the ether and on the ground, I was thrilled to lead this discussion as the CEOs and CIOs from the top luxury retail brands of the world gathered for the annual e-Luxe Club Breakfast seminar in Paris. The top takeaway was that being Borderless and having a strategic and robust network architecture to support the business is a key imperative to address the future of luxury shopping from anywhere, any device.

Retailers and brands must identify fresh ways to differentiate themselves through technological innovation. One video that recently caught my eye was the Tiffany video, Blue is the Color of Dreams, a 4-D extravaganza to celebrate the opening of its Beijing store. Certainly that’s an arresting use of technology, but beyond that, we need to also look at new ways to change the way customers experience the shopping process and their relationships with the brands, themselves.

To see what some are doing, check out this article on The Next Web. As for my predictions of what we can expect even further down the road? I’m certain the luxury brands will be finding even newer ways to deliver that je-ne-sais-quoi à-la-mode experience—sans borders.