Digital is happening fast and forcefully, whether brands are ready for it or not. It enables new products and services. It opens up opportunities to create personalized offers and provide bespoke services to many more customers. Its distribution channels widen the playing field for luxury brands, allowing them to reach consumers not reached before and to engage with customers online in markets where a brand has no stores. In the U.S. alone, consumers anticipate spending 20 percent to 35 percent of their total outlays online in the next few years, according to research by The Boston Consulting Group.

But not all brands are there yet. In fact, luxury lags other consumer sectors when it comes to understanding and applying digital technologies. Disney, Nike, Nordstrom—these are just a handful of the household names that have mastered digital. For more than a few luxury brands, then, the issue really is do or die: the speed of technology development is endangering their current business models faster than you can say “celebrity-chef-catered safari.”

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