Gucci stores partner with Farfetch to speed goods to big-city customers

Thanks to a partnership with London-based fashion technology company Farfetch, consumers can soon get Gucci clothing and accessories whisked to their doors within 90 minutes.

Farfetch announced the partnership last week as the company showcases what it’s calling “The Store of the Future” — software and devices that aim to help luxury brands gather more information on customers in stores and online.

Customers will be able to shop for select items of Kering-owned Gucci goods via Farfetch’s app and website and have those orders fulfilled within 90 minutes from Gucci stores in London, New York, Los Angeles, Madrid, Miami, Milan, Paris, Sao Paulo, Tokyo and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The Gucci collaboration with Farfetch comes as competition heats up in online luxury. In a call with investors last week, LVMH’s chief financial officer, Jean-Jacques Guiony, said the world’s largest luxury group would be the latest to ramp up multibrand e-commerce as it considers a new site for its luxury department store Le Bon Marche.

“Retailers need a way to collect information about their customers while they are browsing in-store, just as they collect data from online searches,” Jose Neves, Farfetch’s founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Founded in 2008 as an ecommerce platform for luxury boutiques, Farfetch has positioned itself as a technology provider working directly with high-end brands. In March, it launched the e-commerce portal for high-end shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, pushing into a space where competitor Yoox Net-A-Porter Group SpA has been a leader.

Among the in-store technologies being showcased by Farfetch is a scanner that will enable customers to check in with a smartphone when they enter a store, allowing a sales assistant to view the customer’s profile, including what items they have bought previously or saved to a wish list in the brand’s online store.

A clothing rack has been designed to record what items the customer picks up, storing the item in an app on the customers’ phone as well as for the retailer. The customer can later swipe left or swipe right to move items to a wish list. A smart mirror in stores will enable shoppers to move between browsing the online and in-store selections, Gavin Williams, a Farfetch director of product development, said in an interview.

The company is also showcasing a holographic display that will enable customers to create and order customized shoes — experimenting with different leathers, skins and colors — from luxury brand Nicholas Kirkwood.

The technology will be rolled out later this year at luxury boutique Browns in London, which Farfetch bought in 2015, and the flagship Thom Browne store in New York.