Luxury brands are embracing digital technologies in a bid to reach out to consumers, providing them with a virtual way of engaging with products before they purchase them.

Italian designer Ermenegildo Zegna has tackled one of the core problems of buying clothes online – inability to try them on – by creating a virtual fitting room where customers can input their measurements and see how the clothes will fit on their body shape using a virtual mannequin.

Zegna online fitting room

De Beers, the luxury jewelry makers, have also developed a digital tool. To aid the customers of their Forevermark diamond brand, they developed an augmented reality virtual try-on experience through users’ computer screens. This allows people to download an application which enables them to virtually try on different diamonds. The application also encourages sharing on different social media sites.

De Beers augmented reality application

Luxury commentary website Luxury Daily say of the application:

“Since buying expensive jewelry is usually an emotional purchase, consumers like to physically touch or hold pieces before buying. Therefore, ecommerce options are not typical in the luxury jewelry realm. Instead, quite a few upscale jewelry lines have been tapping augmented reality to bring an experience closer to consumers.”

Both of these luxury brands are demonstrating the growing need for innovation, digital technology and experience if they are to compete in an increasingly competitive space and in targeting consumers both in growing markets and established ones.