When you look at online marketing around the world, various regional differences and strengths begin to emerge.  The U.S. is the clear winner when it comes to social media and big interactive experiences, but it's the U.K. that leads the pack with a clear focus on eCommerce from more than a few big players.

Marketing Magazine (UK) recently posted an intriguing article on how luxury brands such as Selfridges and Faberge are now starting to cultivate an online retail space. Their approach, however, was not just to sell products online, but to create an experience that is as close to being in a real store as possible.

Being luxury brands, their stores are designed, decorated and lit to show off just that - luxury. Their websites are intended to be no different, but great design is only a piece of the puzzle. These brands need to give their discerning customers great service as well, and that means live people, available 24 hours a day by video, phone and chat.  It means being able to see every product in painstaking detail.  After all, if you're buying a piece of jewellery worth more than a condo in Manhattan, you're probably going to want to give it a bit more than a passing glance.

Of course, if your clientele knows that if they have to ask how much something in your store is, they can't afford it, this move is a no-brainer.  But the thing is, great experience is no longer only for the biggest marketing budgets, so there's nothing stopping smaller shops from giving a luxury experience online. In fact, as more and more competition drives down the price to the lowest point it can go, the only thing we'll have left to compete on online is experience and service.

A fifteen million dollar diamond-encrusted egg is a luxury. A brilliant eCommerce experience is just the cost of doing business.

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Buying online has become a regular part of the shopping experience, but even though the larger percentage of us has bought something over the Internet, the experience has changed very little over the past 10 years.

The funny thing is, when you stop and think about how we shop online compared to how we shop in a store, it's surprising that online commerce is as popular as it is.

When you set out to buy a product in the brick-and-mortar realm, you start by walking into a store. Your experience of that store has a major impact on your perceptions of the quality of the product and service within. If it's cramped, dark and dusty, chances are you'll turn around before you even got to the section you were looking for.

The same is true of the staff.  Smiling, friendly, not-too-pushy-but-attentive staff make the shopping experience more positive, helping you to find what you're looking for, to make recommendations, to demonstrate and to answer questions. 

Now consider the online shopping experience.  For most sites, you're merely presented with a catalogue, which can be searched and browsed, but not really experienced.  Some sites offer live chat to answer questions, but most still rely on email or FAQs to answer questions about the product.  It's the real-life equivalent of walking into a store full of catalogues and filling out a form to requisition the product you want to buy.  You don't get to experience the product, ask questions or compare beyond the pictures on the page.

Things are looking brighter for the experience side of online shopping, though.  Social shopping allows you to see reviews from people who have already bought, and for you to follow friends' recommendations.  Video eCommerce (of which we're obviously quite fond) takes the experience to another level, allowing you experience video product demonstrations and user recommendations, interact with sales staff face-to-face. 

Now, instead of walking into a store filled with catalogues, you're walking into a store filled with information - delivered by real people, ranging from your friends to store staff to celebrities.  You still can't reach out and touch the physical products, but it's much closer to the real retail experience that we've spent decades perfecting.

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