In a world where the luxury industry experiences steady annual growth, France stands out as the global leader with 600,000 jobs and a turnover of 154 billion euros. At the heart of this success, logistics play a crucial role, facing challenges in security, complex inventory management, and delivering an exceptional customer experience. Innovative robotics, like SCALLOG’s solutions, emerge as essential tools to meet these demands and anticipate the evolving expectations of the ever-changing luxury market.
Worldwide, luxury is growing at an average rate of 8 to 10% per year, and more particularly luxury personal goods, which represent 355 billion euros in 2023 according to the latest report by Fondazione Altagamma, Bain & Company. In this sector, France is positioned as the world's leading player – more than 600,000 jobs and 154 billion euros in turnover, from large renowned groups to designer brands, which represent 25% of global sales. The supply chain plays a central role in this; Intelligent inventory management, predictive sales analytics, and automation in the warehouse are key to operational efficiency. Indeed, luxury logistics must meet three challenges: the security of products and flows, the complex management of references in the face of increasingly unpredictable demand, and the high-end customer experience. Automation with complete safety and integrity of products is key to increasing efficiency and agility, such as SCALLOG's "Goods to person" robotics. And this is just the beginning, innovation must meet the new challenges of luxury logistics, sustainability and hyper-personalization, demanded by the new generation of buyers. By 2050, Generation Y will account for up to 50% of sales worldwide!
Luxury is a coveted and high-value product. They must be stored safely in their formats, special features and requirements. A designer garment should be stored on a hanger, a leather bag with the right temperature and light. In a central warehouse or a specialized distribution center, the Goods to Person robotic solution like SCALLOG "hands down" meets the challenges of flow security and product integrity in the luxury sector. Totally secure and meshed, the SCALLOG area, made up of shelves moved by robots to operators, optimises the storage of a wide variety of fragile products in heterogeneous formats. The products go to the operator, smoothly, without shocks and falls. In addition, there is the management of product serial numbers, a guarantee of "flawless" traceability of flows, to fight against the grey market – goods bought in areas where products are cheaper and resold on other markets at prices 20 to 30% lower than those of the brand. In addition to optimising the space and number of SKUs in storage, the SCALLOG solution allows for increased product management and traceability during order picking, with non-visible RFID or NFC chips. Each product is thus traced and above all unique, a guarantee of authenticity and consumer confidence.
The rise of e-commerce and social networks is also impacting luxury players. Omnichannel is the order of the day when it comes to reinventing the customer experience. This translates into a multitude of flows in the warehouse, to be managed and synchronized in real time according to the channels. In addition, the number of SKUs (Stock Management Units) is increasing, beyond the standardised lines, driven by the multiplication of capsule collections and other collaborations. Social networks, including influencers, convey trends more quickly to consumers, and can generate unpredictable peaks in activity. In the world of luxury, there are also sales highlights to manage, from the traditional end-of-year celebrations with gift boxes to Paris Fashion Week. In order to best absorb peaks in activity, faced with the increase in the frequency of launches followed by unpredictable volumes, the SCALLOG robotic solution is resolutely scalable and agile, robots and shelves can be added according to the rapid evolution of order flows.
In the warehouse, logistics must also ensure that the customer has the best possible experience. The products must be checked as soon as they are picked, the order preparation must be "flawless" and the packaging must be neat in the image of the luxury brand. As such, the SCALLOG solution allows the operator to select the "right" product in the "right quantity", while ensuring the necessary quality control. It also provides delayed differentiation order picking to ensure an increasing degree of customization. For example, the famous cosmetics brand CLARINS, with the support of the SCALLOG solution, adds the samples desired by its customers to orders "at the last moment" of the supply chain, before packaging. The latter is also crucial, it must offer an "unboxing experience" like the in-store experience, while being in an anonymized box. The same applies to delivery, throughout the journey, which must be controlled, secure and sustainable, for a "high-end" customer experience. Hyper-personalization, from order to delivery, is developing in luxury logistics.
In the age of the circular economy, more and more luxury houses are entering the second-hand or vintage market. This meets the expectations of customers, the younger generations, to be eco-responsible, to access classics at affordable prices or even to acquire limited editions. Just like the longevity or even the timelessness of luxury, brands will have to support the second life of their products with the same level of requirement and quality – authentication, repair, restoration and even personalization – in order to guarantee their integrity and value. Once again, innovation in logistics appears to be essential, the blockchain to authenticate products and the SCALLOG robotic solution in the warehouse to manage its new flows – second-hand, vintage, repairs, restorations. Figures speak for themselves on the growth of this market: 76% of European second-hand enthusiasts (on average 46% of citizens) have opted for a luxury product, including a large majority of 18-24 year olds. Circularity and sustainability will be inseparable from the luxury sector in the coming years, just like craftsmanship, which is its essence!