When a customer walks into a luxury retail brick and mortar store, oftentimes, a positive experience needs to be created by the associates in order to generate a sale, according to Olivia Steele and Emily Leavitt.
To Steele and Leavitt, who are sisters, the in-store experience is often what drives such high sales in the luxury market. In fact, they say that an average of only 10-20 percent of luxury brand sales are conducted online. Most brands attribute that to the challenge of maintaining the customer relationship and brand consistency.
That’s why Steele, a former online enrollment counseling manager at eCornell, and Leavitt, an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Dallas College, decided to launch Conversation Couture, a new Dallas-based company that aims to drive additional luxury sales online—without sacrificing the customer-retail associate in-person connection.
Conversation Couture assists in creating a seamless, tailored online customer experience that is said to mirror the feeling of shopping in stores. Using a new eCommerce sales channel for the luxury market, Steele and Leavitt say they are able to help boost sales without sacrificing quality of service.
“Stores must develop tools for engaging high-end customers in online experiences,” Steele, who is the president and CEO, and Leavitt, who is COO and CFO, say. “This not only will benefit with an increase of sales, but will ensure the luxury brand remains relevant in the eCommerce space.”
The entrepreneurial duo also offers a training solution for existing sales associates and managers. They say this will allow employees to drive more sales within a virtual shopping experience, along with generating customer retention.
“By creating a similar relationship online, the sales associate is able to cultivate and retain that customer for future sales,” Steele says. The sisters plan to launch their Online Learning Center in February 2021.
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