The thesis argues that the distribution formats can be significant strategic communication and differentiation tools for luxury brand and that the intangible determinants within the space can provide balancing link between company trying to manage its brand expression and consumers search for the meaningful experiences. The dissertation uses a luxury retail setting, as the highest in distribution hierarchy to analyze these relations. This ensures a level of diversification from mass retail approach. In addition, this brings back to the store as source of value creation and experiences that one should expect from a luxury brand. The aim: To explore conceptually the nature of value creation and how the relationship gets between a retailer and customer translated and communicated by a means of store, also to identify the key determinants for the value creation within the formats while looking at which levels it brings to ability to co - create the experiential value with consumer. Method: The two primary methods used are: in-depth, semi-structured interview with professionals or key informants and field notes in ethnographic context with a sample of 52 international marketing students. The secondary data collection draws upon extensive, relevant and significant academic literature review including books, professional journals, online resources, etc. Findings: The work identified two value drivers: Symbolic Desire and Exclusive Excitement. Excitement and Desire were found to be the main emotions to trigger the consumer within the luxury setting and to translate a product into service or experience of a kind. Second, research identified the two experiential prospects of: Become and Belong. These show all the way the interaction builds and develops to immerse the customers in a branded world and experiences. As a result the thesis suggests two new approaches; Experiential Value Co-Creation and In - Store Typology. Such orientation offers an outline for adjusting the service and mapping the generic groups of luxury consumers. Moreover, in-store experiential typology offers four types of spaces and/or segments within the setting: Expertise, Exclusivize, Aspirational and Popularize.

This thesis explores the role of curation in the design and development of brand experience in the luxury retail environment. Three research objectives seek firstly, to gain an understanding of the meaning of curation in luxury retailing and identify the role, purpose and value to luxury retailers; secondly, to explore the different ways in which curation manifests itself in the luxury retail environment by examining sole brand and multi brand luxury retailers, and lastly, to identify how curation is brought to life through the curatorial roles within luxury retailers. In light of increasing global competitive pressures and fast-paced technology advances associated with mobile devices, the rise of omnichannel retailing has led luxury brands to be ubiquitous, with the resulting challenge for luxury retailers to develop seamless and experiential omnichannel brand experiences in order to continue to differentiate and grow. However, there is a paucity of literature regarding the design and development of luxury brand experiences, suggesting a gap in the literature. In addition, ‘curation’, a term traditionally associated with museology, is being increasingly used in the business environment in terms of creating differentiated experiences or collection of products both online and in-store. Little attention has been paid to curation in the literature, with the result of limited understanding of the role of curation in the design and development of brand experience, suggesting a second gap to be addressed in the research. The research was an investigative, qualitative and thematic analysis-based study. The data collection focused on face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 17 senior professionals from the luxury retail and cultural environments in the UK. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) Six Stages of Thematic Analysis and NVivo software were utilised to analyse the data, resulting in 9 key themes. My original contribution to the literature is this research is one of the first empirical studies to explore the role of curation in the design and development of brand experience in the luxury retail environment, resulting in three key contributions. Firstly, the role of curation is an influential one in the design and development of brand experience in the luxury retail environment and is manifested in four forms of curation across sole brand and multi brand luxury retailers. Secondly, curation in luxury retail has evolved from the traditional art-historian discipline of curation and is emerging as a new discipline and modus operandi in its own right, creating strategic, organisational, financial and experiential value. Thirdly, a strategic curation management toolkit consisting of three strategic frameworks was developed that contributes to both the brand literature and management practice. The toolkit provides managers with a common vernacular to develop their curatorial capabilities and identify strategic opportunities where they can harness curation as a strategy to design and develop omnichannel luxury brand experiences as a route to competitive advantage and build a platform for future growth.

This thesis focuses on the issue of staffing in retail, specifically focusing on the retail of luxury goods. The main aim is to map the process of staffing itself and then to create optimization measures in order to increase the efficiency of recruitment. By analyzing the staffing process there will be developed optimization measures, which are based on existing processes used in international companies and also on recommendations of the personnel department group LVMH. An important part of this thesis is the analysis of the labor market and human capital from a demographic perspective and analysis of changes in population structure. The contribution is to create the necessary recommendations to streamline the staffing process, including providing more detailed information about these processes in luxury retail and summary of theoretical knowledge in the field of personnel management.

A global strategic financial analysis of the luxury retail industry was conducted. The research entailed comprehensive analyses and forecasts of the global economy, the luxury retail industry and four of the most prominent, multi-national luxury goods firms in the world. These companies included: Coach, Michael Kors, Tiffany & Co., and LVMH Moet Hennessy, whom market among the world's finest personal luxury goods from handbags, clothing and accessories to diamonds, jewelry, watches, fragrances, cosmetics and wines. The macroeconomic analysis focused on factors pertinent to the luxury goods industry such as: (1) the lasting effects of the global financial crisis, our gradual emergence from the Great Recession and the impact these conditions have had on consumer spending and confidence; (2) the generational shift of consumers from the retiring baby boomers to the technologically savvy Generation Z and their unique demands for products as well as experiences; and (3) the growth and demand from emerging economies, especially China which is the globe's top luxury nationality accounting for 25% of all luxury purchases worldwide. Comprehensive financial ratio analyses, SWOT assessments, technical trends and forecasts of revenues, earnings and share prices for the four companies, resulted in recommendations to investors and advice to top management of the four firms. Luxury retail is a fascinating, recession resilient industry and it is expected to reach €1 trillion within the next 5 years. However, regardless of how successful firms in this industry have been in the past, to survive and continue to succeed, it is imperative that they remain flexible and adaptable in this ever-changing world.

Providing personalized and exclusive services to customers has traditionally relied on in-person interactions between employees and customers. This paper explores video commerce supported by virtual try-On (VTO) technology for personalized and exclusive shopping experiences in the digital environment. The purpose of this study is to identify the affordances and limitations of online luxury beauty consultations supported by VTO. The research methodology primarily involved exploration of the field, market- and UX research. From the results, a set of personas were created, to serve as a heuristic for further research and future development of the technology. Furthermore, the study reveals that the level of decision comfort and satisfaction with the service varies depending on the type of targeted customer. In conclusion, despite a number of technical limitations within the current solution, the perspectives and experiences provided by luxury beauty partners and participants indicate that there is a large potential in online consultations to bring the luxury personalized in-store experience to the digital environment. / Att tillhandahålla personliga och exklusiva tjänster till kunder har traditionellt förlitat sig på personliga interaktioner mellan anställda och kunder. Denna artikel utforskar videohandel med stöd av virtuell prova-på-teknik (VTO) för personliga och exklusiva shoppingupplevelser i den digitala miljön. Syftet med den här studien är att identifiera fördelarna och begränsningarna för online lyxkonsultationer som stöds av VTO. Forskningsmetodiken innebar främst utforskning av fältet, marknads- och UX-forskning. Utifrån resultaten skapades en uppsättning personas, för att fungera som en heuristik för vidare forskning och framtida utveckling av tekniken. Vidare visar studien att nivån på beslutskomfort och tillfredsställelse med tjänsten varierar beroende på vilken typ av riktad kund. Sammanfattningsvis, trots ett antal tekniska begränsningar inom den nuvarande lösningen, indikerar perspektiven och erfarenheterna från lyxiga skönhetspartners och deltagare att det finns en stor potential i onlinekonsultationer för att föra den lyxiga personliga butiksupplevelsen till den digitala miljön.