E-commerce internationalization and omnichannel orientation: some strategic issues emerging from the top luxury fashion brands

The aim of the paper is to propose insights on the issue of internationalization through e-commerce. The strategy to penetrate international markets through Internet has emerged as an important option for companies during the last decade (Yasmin and Sinkovics, 2006; Guercini and Runfola, 2015). However, it seems to have received minor attention from the academic literature dealing with internationalization and there is still the need to deeply investigate this relevant topic. Internet for internationalization in fact shows some specificities that should be addressed further. This paper tries to make an additional step on the internationalization through Internet by analysing it in relation with the need for integration between online and offline channels. In fact, recent literature has stressed the relevance of the orientation toward omnichannel strategies as new relevant strategies for companies. The orientation has been considered independently from the internationalization process of the company in recent literature. However, due to the huge investment of some companies in the offline channels in international markets, there is the need to integrate the online channel, both to guarantee a holistic experience to consumers and not to cannibalize previous investments. The paper specifically addressed the integration between online and offline channels in the internationalization process of top luxury fashion brands. In fact, the luxury can be considered emblematic for the issues of internationalization and the search for an integration of physical and online channels. In fact, the luxury companies analysed in this research are large, internationalized and managerially complex. Luxury brands made significant investments over the last decades on the physical channels, with the opening of retail outlets in all major international markets. The paper starts from this evidence to discuss the online internationalization process of luxury brands.