The rise and rise of global e-commerce
In 2020, as the pandemic swept rapidly across the globe, most of our physical stores were required to close their doors – some for a short time, others for much longer. Suddenly, customers’ access to the worlds of BOSS and HUGO was purely digital – and their shopping experience moved entirely online. However, our objective is, and has always been, to provide a best-in-class customer experience: anytime, anywhere. Whether in person in our stores or via live chat in the online store, we always aim to provide our customers with the best-possible service.
Ongoing expansion
The unpredictability of the pandemic had an overwhelming impact on our daily lives. However, the fact that our e-commerce expansion was already in full swing allowed us to continue to serve our customers, even when everything around us was changing. In fact, our online store hugoboss.com was rolled out as planned to millions more potential customers around the world in 2020, building on strong double-digit growth for the past three consecutive years.
While in 2019 HUGO BOSS had a digital flagship store in 15 countries, including the UK, Germany, France, the United States, and China, by the end of 2020 – just one year later – this number had grown to 47. More countries will follow in the years ahead, as we seek to make hugoboss.com available in virtually every market around the globe.
Further intensifying our relationships with multi-brand platforms in different markets is also a part of our growth model, as is social commerce. Our millions of followers and fans of our brands on social media can now simply tap to shop our products on many channels. With the Instagram shopping feature, our social community can already use the platform every day as a virtual shop window, making the step from pure inspiration to buying a product on the platform easy. In mainland China, BOSS stores successfully implemented WeChat Work in 2020, thereby offering sales advisors additional cross-selling opportunities by enabling them to connect more frequently with the brand’s customers
Seamless digitalization
In parallel, we continue to develop comprehensive omnichannel services, to make the interaction between online and offline as seamless as possible. Fully utilizing the great potential of digital in the years to come will ensure a first-class experience with our brand at all customer touchpoints.
As we navigate these changes, our focus is clear: offering best-in-class products and services to our customers around the globe. Wherever they are, and however they prefer to shop, we will provide a personal, elevated, and memorable shopping experience that makes us proud to say: We are HUGO BOSS.
