Luxury goods: How supply chain visibility and security boost brand value

If your business involves luxury goods – such as high-end fashion, jewelry, and beauty products – there’s a good chance business is pretty good. While the environment is challenging in some regions, the mid- to long-term outlook for the global luxury goods market is up. But it’s also a dynamic place, with rapidly changing consumer behavior, new market trends, and technology reshaping the landscape. Right now we’re seeing a clear shift toward online sales, which are projected to exceed 20% by 2029.

This evolving market brings challenges that many traditional luxury brands have never faced before – or have only dealt with at the local or regional level. But this evolution also means opportunity. Luxury brands can now leverage technology to rebalance inventories on a global scale in real time to meet changing local and regional demand – or to protect themselves – and their customers – against threats like e-commerce fraud.

This quick overview article highlights how you can boost your brand’s value through improved visibility and security in your supply chains. For deeper insights, dive directly into our new study, The Logistics of Luxury.

We can describe the key to unlocking better visibility and security in luxury goods supply chains in one word: technology. More specifically, we’re talking about advanced control tower solutions.

What’s a control tower in the world of logistics, you ask? Much like an airport’s control tower, these solutions offer centralized control of the supply chain, overseeing the safe and orderly flow of all parts. Control towers utilize the Internet of Things (IoT) to track assets in today’s order fulfillment and supply chain operations. Learn more on our Logistics of Things blog.

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits.

Enhanced visibility improves profit margins, sustainability, and brand value while delivering a superior customer experience. Here’s how:

• Accurate, up-to-the-minute inventory visibility better allocates supply to demand while optimizing inventory levels, cash flow, and profitability.
• Premium customer service through minimized stock shortages and maximized product availability (e.g., balancing stock shortages with overstock).
• Comprehensive track and trace across all inventories offers a holistic view, from raw materials to finished products.
• Bonus: End-to-end visibility reveals environmental impact and potential optimizations

By using control tower solutions, you can balance inventories globally across channels and markets, ensuring you're always stocked where demand is high. Your “available-to-sell” inventory becomes “available-to-promise” inventory – products you can guarantee will be there for future orders from high-value customers. 

• Physical threats: Robbery, break-ins, and rolling hits on transports.
• Insider threats: Theft or sabotage of deliveries enabled by insiders who misuse their access to secure areas and data.
• E-commerce fraud: Fake transport IDs, false delivery claims, phishing, and more designed to steal sensitive customer or company data.

Many of these risks are hard to detect and prosecute without the proper tools. State-of-the-art supply chains can leverage control tower solutions with end-to-end piece-level tracking to enhance security and product integrity.

Here are a few measures luxury brands can take:

Visibility

Technology is revolutionizing logistics, making end-to-end supply chain visibility a reality. Brands can consolidate and bridge visibility gaps by using the latest solutions.

But even the most sophisticated control tower solution can’t track and analyze what it doesn’t see. That’s why individual asset tracking is crucial – capturing and analyzing data like performance metrics, costs, and carbon footprint allows for targeted improvements.

Control tower solutions can help luxury brands unlock hidden value in their supply chains by optimizing inventories, safeguarding product integrity, minimizing carbon emissions, and improving customer experiences.

Security

These solutions can also help counter security threats, adding value and building trust. Key measures include:

• Tamper-evident packaging to detect compromised packages, reducing risk.
• Educating customers about how they can verify product authenticity.
• Streamlining claims processes for timely, accurate reporting.
• Thorough investigation before issuing refunds to prevent fraud.
• Encouraging theft or fraud reporting to law enforcement.

The right logistics partner can leverage control tower solutions to validate claims and prevent unnecessary losses.

As luxury sales increasingly move online, the challenges facing the luxury goods sector are evolving. But the good news is that with the tips above – and the right logistics partner – luxury brands and marketplaces can thrive. And ultimately deliver a premium experience for e-commerce customers.

To dive deeper into protecting your brand’s value across the supply chain, download our report: "The Logistics of Luxury.”