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On 4 June, Vogue Business teamed up with Shopify, a leading global commerce company, and international e-commerce hub Diana Corp, to present the ‘Channelling the future of luxury’ event in Milan. Held at the Armani Hotel’s Bamboo Bar in the city’s historic centre, the evening explored state-of-the-art strategies in the current world of digital commerce and the innovative solutions for reaching customers globally through both digital and physical channels.
Vogue Business contributing editor Paolo Armelli was in conversation with Giorgia Santinami, chief digital business officer at Diana Corp, and Paolo Picazio, country lead for Italy at Shopify. Other guests included Marco Neroni, chief brand officer at Golden Goose; Nicole Baum, chief marketing officer at Moschino; and Sofia Broggini, head of e-commerce at Antonia, who each shared insight into the e-commerce strategies and experiences of their brands, through various lenses.
Santinami emphasised how, via the different digital spaces and experiences offered by Diana Corp, it is possible to go beyond already outdated omnichannel concepts and reach a new era of unified customer interaction. There are two parts to this: firstly, stronger connections with consumers must be developed via matching a brand’s values with those of shoppers, and secondly, customer experiences should feel both human and meaningful. New frontiers like multi-sensory digital experience, cross-industry or cross-channel collaborations, and new trends such as the pre-loved economy can offer fruitful examples of ever-changing communication with users and consumers, especially those of Gen Z or Gen Alpha.
Quoting an upcoming study by Shopify, Picazio explained how the majority of users consider it important for brands to integrate their online and offline channels, creating a fluid, efficient and consistent shopping experience. Unified commerce operations can be understood as the successful integration of both online and bricks-and-mortar stores, offering advantages in real-time inventories, centralised data and synchronised sales operations. A crucial component is to customise user platforms on both the data side and the design side to better manage customers insights and create engaging experiences.
For Diana Corp and Shopify — as well as all other brands in the panel discussion — innovation is the most important consideration; it’s not just a buzzword, but a customer-centred and challenge-driven approach. Golden Goose’s Neroni, for instance, explained that by listening to the brand’s customers online, it launched a sneakers-repair platform that is open to non-Golden Goose customers, too. Broggini spoke about Antonia’s digital store relaunch, in partnership with Diana Corp and powered by Shopify, which aims to recreate the visual and tailored experience of physical boutiques. Moschino’s Baum, meanwhile, stressed the importance for smaller scale brands with definite and historic identities (such as Moschino) to remain innovative and groundbreaking while observing competitors and avoiding the dilution of brand DNA.
Before the evening concluded with cocktails and canapés, all panellists came to a consensus: newer business opportunities — such as the pre-loved economy — must be top of mind for brands not only looking to gauge the interests of a new kind of public and source new revenue streams, but to diversify and personalise their presence in online commerce. The key? Putting customers, their values and their passions at the centre of the e-commerce experience.
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