Farfetch Seeks Tech That Enriches, Evolves the Digital Luxury Experience
Amid the maelstrom of tech development, Farfetch is keeping its cool and focusing on finding solutions for just one person: the luxury customer.
The company’s innovation team spends its time sifting through myriad start-ups and early-stage companies to find tech suitable for its business-to-consumer and business-to-business customer base, whether that’s a shopper browsing from a yacht docked off the Costa Smeralda or a brand client such as Chanel, Ferragamo or Neiman Marcus.
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The platform’s one criteria is that, whatever the technology is, it has to make the client’s experience faster, easier and as pleasant as shopping in a luxury boutique.
Carol Hilsum, senior director, open innovation and new venture at Farfetch, said one of the company’s challenges is finding the right technology for the needs of today, tomorrow — and far into the future.
“It can be a busy, noisy system, to navigate,” she said during a question-and-answer session with WWD’s deputy managing editor Evan Clark. She added that Farfetch cuts through the noise by keeping the customer top of mind.
She said her team’s job is to find the tech that “enhances and evolves” luxury products and experiences, and anticipates what the customers’ needs will be.
“We really think about what the customer problem is first, and then we match it up with different start-ups and opportunities,” she said.
Farfetch is researching and developing 3D assets and experiences, such as virtual try-on, which has been working well so far with categories such as watches and sneakers.
For clothing, however, the service is “not up to the standards of real-life try-on — and it really needs to be on a par with it,” said Hilsum, adding that the ultimate aim is for customers to be so engaged with virtual services that they end up buying the products.
Hilsum said Farfetch is also seeking tech that can “underwrite” new legislation, companies’ and customers’ sustainability needs and innovations such as product IDs and passports.
She said tech innovation should be in a position to support the creation of digital tags recording a product’s raw materials, method of manufacture and after-life potential with details such as recycling, future repairs and resale service options.
Asked about the future uses of AI, she said the technology will be useful for creating new customer experiences and efficiencies for companies. She referred to AI as an “enhancer” rather than a replacement for human interaction in the luxury space.
“We don’t want full automation or to replace human experiences with a chatbot,” she said, adding that what Farfetch would like to see is “a fusion of humans and automation.”
She used the example of styling services, where AI could potentially offer clients the opportunity to be dressed by “a range of well-known stylists.”
Hilsum also touted Farfetch’s Dream Assembly accelerator program, which launched in 2018 and through which the e-commerce platform supports and mentors early-stage tech talent.
She described Dream Assembly as “the perfect place for early-stage companies find their footing and emerge and grow.”
With Dream Assembly, Farfetch is constantly looking at “where there’s traction? Where there’s opportunity for scale? Where there’s real life use?”
She added that the current cohort of businesses was giving the Farfetch team insights into the behavior of the Web3 community and the “new, different types of experiences” they’re developing.
“We’ve always said that Web3 is about technology, but it’s also about culture and community — and the community is very much flourishing. We’re learning about tooling and infrastructure, how communities interact and how they are valued. That could very easily be transferred to the luxury sector,” added Hilsum.
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