Complete the form below and one of our experts will reach out with ways you can drive revenue, increase lifetime value and gain market intel with smart products.
Alexander McQueen is challenging the linear economy to create a more sustainable future. The luxury brand is also challenging other fashion houses to do the same to spur real change.
Blue Bite helps make this change happen.
Product
Luxury
NFC
Luxury brand items have been a primary driver of secondary clothing markets. And now the brands themselves are getting involved in a direct way.
Alexander McQueen saw the advantage of encouraging consumers to enter items into the circular economy via the secondary market, and how this could be a driver for larger scale change in the industry.
“We are confident that our customers will be equally excited to take part in an initiative that challenges a linear economy and sets a new and more sustainable standard for the future. We hope many houses will follow because to have impact at scale, we need to act collectively.”
Instead of an item being used by one consumer and then being taken to a landfill, it receives a second life with another consumer. Ideally, this circuitous path will continue until the item is no longer usable and is then recycled or upcycled.
Alexander McQueen worked with the Vestiaire Collective to create the “Brand Approved” collection. McQueen boutiques offer their best clients store credit for returning items from previous collections, which are then inspected and authenticated. Then, the items are put for sales on the Vestiaire site with a special emblem showing they are “Brand Approved.”
While third party authentication can be great, there’s nothing better than knowing you are getting a brand-authenticated item. And this also gives the brand far more control over secondary market sales and presentation. Additionally, this often leads to increasing speed on the secondary market — by offering faster authentication and faster sales.
When the sold items are shipped, they include a hang tag equipped with an NFC tag that consumer scan with their phone. The resulting experience — powered by Blue Bite — confirms that the specific item they have in hand is authenticated, and also opens up an additional world of content for the consumer. And this experience helps Alexander McQueen, as well.
In addition to helping enter more items into the circular economy and keeping them out of landfills, Alexander McQueen also gets to connect directly with secondary consumers via the Blue Bite experience, something that wasn’t possible before.
Beyond authenticating the item, Alexander McQueen can provide exclusive content to the consumer that tells them more about the specific item and the brand. In return, the brand can get real-time, first-party data of how and where these items are being used. They can also use the experience to stay connected with the secondary consumer — either in the experience directly or by collecting contact information to keep the conversation going on other channels — that can result in upselling related items through a long term relationship.
We know that luxury market counterfeits are an ever-growing concern. Blue Bite’s authentication services provide peace of mind for secondary market customers, ensuring the product they buy has been verified by experts directly at Alexander McQueen.
But the brand also realized that the Blue Bite experience powering Authentication was a gateway to entering the item into the circular economy.
