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Hi, and welcome back, or if
you're new here, welcome.

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We're currently between seasons, and
while I'm away, I didn't want to just

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leave you with silence, so I wanted to
bring back a few of the most listened

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to conversations from season one.

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These are short extracts.

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Just a few minutes each from

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episodes that clearly resonated with you.

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Think of them as a taste of what's inside.

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And if you are new here, a
really good place to start.

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This episode is the Art of Luxury in
a Digital World with Theresa Austin.

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I picked this extract because it
touches on something I see coming

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up again and again on the surface.

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Digital in luxury looks like progress.

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More content, more
personalisation, more innovation.

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But underneath there's a
very different question.

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Is it actually making the experience
better or just more complicated?

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Theresa has spent her career building
digital experiences inside the

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world's most admired luxury groups,
from Net-a-Porter to strategy at

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group level inside LVMH headquarters
To running and being responsible

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commercially for the D to C online stores
within Moet Hennessy's Europe base.

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And what I love about Theresa is
that she has this wonderful way of

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cutting through the noise, not just
explaining what's happening, but giving

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you practical things you can actually
take back to your team right away.

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In this extract, she draws a really
clear line between what feels

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elevated online and what's just
getting in the customer's way.

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And then she goes on to talk about
what most don't on these episodes,

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money, what it actually costs to
get a product through the basket,

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and why that number should matter to
more people than it currently does.

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If it resonates, the full conversation
goes much deeper into desire, CRM, loyalty

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and how to design digital experiences that
feel both elevated and commercially sound.

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Search for episode one.

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Okay, I think you're
going to enjoy this one.

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What's one mistake you often
see brands make that weakens the

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journey or dilutes the brand?

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I think putting obstacles
in the customer's way.

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Um, a classic little bit of a
classic trap is wanting to overload

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the site with storytelling.

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Um, so sometimes you'll visit a
site and there's a big video you

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have to watch or navigate through
before you can get to a product page.

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Okay.

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Yes, we do.

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Have some interest in the footage from the
most recent show, but is that the right

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moment to put it in front of the customer?

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so I think sometimes we can err on
a little too much content, better to

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bring it in in an integrated way and
allow the customer to call for it

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and request it, rather than putting
it up in their face and making them

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wade through it before they can get
to what they're actually looking for.

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It's

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such a good point because it's almost like
we need to start from the end and the end

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is the consumer needs to feel the same
way they would in a store and in a store.

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We wouldn't bombard them.

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You wouldn't have 10 sales assistants turn
up with 10 different stories at the same

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time.

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That would be right.

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You'd never do that.

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So it's actually very simple.

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You think about what the in store physical
experiences like and you translate

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those values and principles into online

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So we have to touch on
personalization done well.

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Personalization elevates
the experience done poorly.

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It feels invasive or inauthentic,
especially in luxury where

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tone and restraint matter.

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You've worked across CRM and
content to spaces where this

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balance is tested constantly.

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So my question is, how do you design
personalization that feels curated

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and elevated without crossing the
line into invasive or inauthentic?

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sometimes we can have so much data
at our fingertips, we can be very

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tempted to overuse it and almost over
design a, a customer's experience.

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But it goes back to the point
we just mentioned about what

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would happen in a store.

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Your sales associate would never rush
up to you and go, oh, how was your

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50th birthday and how's your kids?

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And you know, is the cat eating its food?

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You, you would wait for the customer
to come to you and engage, and then you

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would have those types of conversations
in a slightly more subtle fashion.

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so it's really the same thing if a
customer has given us information and

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indicated that they would like us.

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To personalize on that information,
we'll take action on it.

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If it is peripheral information
that we have gathered through our

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interactions, we'll certainly use that
in building our understanding of the

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customer and all of our, our wonderful
analytic and profiling programs.

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But we won't rush out there with
the personalized experience.

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that would not the appropriate.

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So let's talk about profitability,
because scaling digital often

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brings silent pressures on margins,
and I can see you smiling, you

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know, you know this very well.

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So from media inefficiencies to
fulfillment and cost of promotions, you've

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led both the strategy and operation side.

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So you've seen the risk up close.

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What are the biggest traps you've
seen brands fall into when scaling

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e-commerce and how can teams stay alert?

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There's really two.

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One is on the operational side where
your software licensing, uh, can really.

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Put a huge weight on your p and
l, particularly if it's, um,

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commission or cost per sale driven.

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I like to calculate the cost of an
order when I'm setting up my p and

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l forecasting, and that's inclusive
of transaction costs as well as

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performance and shipping costs.

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That gives you a very realistic
and well-rounded figure and, uh,

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kind of leaves no stone unturned.

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Um, when you're looking at the
full picture of operational costs.

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And then on the flip side, it's looking
at the cost of marketing per sale.

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paid media costs have inflated
dramatically over the last four,

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four and a half years, and you
really need to understand where

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you're going to put your paid media
budget for, uh, discoverability,

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uh, versus, drive to purchase.

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almost need to see your paid
media as a promotional cost.

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Now, it, it has a big enough
impact on your margin for it to

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be taken seriously in that way.

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And can I just ask a little
follow up question on that?

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Who's paying attention to this?

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Is it the people executing and
coming up with their campaigns?

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Because it's probably not, is it?

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It depends how you

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design your team.

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Mm. Um, and this is
actually a great point.

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A well-designed team will have
collaborative connections, uh, so that

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your paid media team might indeed, uh,
be thinking this all the way through.

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Um, and discussing this number with the
CFO and with your merchandising team.

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I like to see a merchandiser
have a full understanding.

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Of a cost of operations
and a cost of sale.

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and connect those two dots to have a
really clear picture of what does it

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take, how many euros does it take to get
a product through the shopping basket?

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That was Theresa Austin,
if you enjoyed that.

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The full episode is episode one.

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The Art of Luxury in a Digital
World Linked in the show notes.

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See you soon.