French luxury goods group Kering said on Monday it would develop its own online shopping sites by 2020 and work with Apple to enhance the customer experience.
According to a new report from Reuters, Kering announced new measures to step up its digital and e-commerce presence, which is among its fastest growing areas, including new partnerships with Apple.
The move deals a blow to Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP), which currently manage online sales for most of the French conglomerate’s brands, including Saint Laurent and Balenciaga.
Kering called its YNAP partnership “highly successful and fruitful,” and said it would continue to work with the online retailer after internalizing its e-commerce activities. Kering will form partnerships with third-party e-tailers when it makes strategic sense, it said.
Kering said it is working with Apple on apps to enhance customer service and exploring ways to enhance the customer experience on Apple devices, such as applications for use by sales assistants to scan inventories.
The move is all part of the company’s desire to develop its own shopping sites for a range of its luxury brands, due to go live by 2020.
“After a slow start shifting sales onto the web, wary that it would dilute their brands’ image,” reads the report, “high-end fashion and jewelry labels are piling resources into this channel and building up their own tech teams.”
