Sustainability Through the “Nested” Luxury Retail Experience

Abstract

The sustainable luxury retailing debate remains in its infancy, with a gap concerning the modalities to integrate sustainability into the luxury retail brand experience. This paper aims to shed light on the sustainability implications for competitive luxury stores embedded in their hosting cities. It addressed the relationship between place and luxury retailing, discussing the research hypothesis of the store-hosting city connections as modalities to integrate sustainability into the luxury store experience. This study proposes two case studies, Favotell in Shanghai (China) and Luisaviaroma in Florence (Italy). A cross-case analysis supports the definition of a multi-level framework explaining the concept store experience. The three “nested” spatial levels are the store, the fashion city and the urban brandscape. Findings reveal drivers facilitating, differentiating, and innovating the luxury store experience and suggest research avenues on the social and territorial dimensions of sustainable retailing.