Luxury e-services at the pre- and after-sales stages of the decision making process: Watch, car, art and travel blogs analysis

Needs and expectations of customers in pre- and after-sales stages in the e-commerce purchase process in the luxury product field are not well known and identified. We were interested in discovering the opinions of customers concerning the role of internet in the pre- and after-sales stages of the purchasing process in this industry. As we are just at the early stages of the e-commerce era in the luxury sector, we chose to focus on blogs content. After-sales service on the Internet in the luxury sector is considered with circumspection. Practitioners feel that consumers are still very much attached to the 'physical' experience. On the contrary, we assumed that Netsurfers belonging to net communities are also luxury goods and services consumers. According to the netnography methodology [1,4], we analyzed the Netsurfers comments about pre- and after-sales services. We identified and selected blogs that are specific to the Web 2.0 generation; these blogs are discussing about luxury watches, cars, travels and art objects. The results allowed us to identify three categories of services needs: 1) the need for the service in broad terms, especially the service that should be linked to a product 2) the need for a specific or a very specific service, and 3) specific complaint about service experiences. These insights were discussed to be fully integrated in the e-commerce strategy in general.