Digital channels like WhatsApp, Instagram, and even LinkedIn have become common tools for luxury retail brands to communicate with clients. With nearly 80% of luxury sales now “digitally influenced” by online touchpoints​, it’s no surprise that high-end retailers flock to social media and messaging apps to reach customers. 

However, relying on these third-party platforms comes at a cost. Luxury brands risk losing brand ownership of the experience and missing out on valuable customer insights when their client interactions live on external apps. Below, we explore how third-party channels dilute luxury branding and data, with real examples and industry stats illustrating the stakes.

Missing Customer Insights and Data Ownership in luxury retail

Communicating via WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, or LinkedIn means forfeiting direct access to customer data. Interactions that happen on these platforms live in walled gardens – the platform owns or restricts the data, not the brand. For example, if a sales associate chats with a VIP client over WhatsApp on her personal phone, those conversations aren’t captured in the brand’s CRM. Important client preferences or feedback may be siloed in a chat thread, invisible to the broader business​. Should that associate leave the company, the client relationship could leave with them since the brand has no record of those WhatsApp exchanges. As Alexander Kayser (CEO of retail tech firm eyos.one) put it, private messaging leads to “silos [that] develop with each customer,” fragmenting a brand’s customer knowledge base​.

Third-party reliance also limits the analytics and insights luxury brands can glean. On Instagram or LinkedIn, for instance, you get surface metrics (likes, clicks) but not the full picture of a customer’s journey or sentiment. In contrast, communications on a brand-owned channel could be tracked and analyzed to understand client interests, response times, or buying signals. The difference is akin to renting a storefront versus owning it – with third-party platforms, you’re operating in someone else’s space with their analytics, their rules, and sometimes their oversight (or lack thereof) on data security.

Data privacy is another critical concern. Luxury clientele expect discretion. When high-profile data leaks happen on social networks, that trust is jeopardized. Remember the Facebook leak that exposed info from 533 million users​? Incidents like that have repercussions: 87% of consumers say they would refuse to do business with a company if they have concerns about its data security practices​. If a luxury brand’s client engagement is primarily through platforms notorious for privacy issues, savvy customers may grow wary. The last thing a luxury house wants is clients hesitating to share information or engage due to fear that their messages or personal details aren’t safe on a third-party app.

Furthermore, focusing on social media can deprioritize direct customer relationships. Angela Benton, CEO of Streamlytics, observes that over the past decade, brands became so social-centric that they “deprioritised the relationship they have with their customers and communities”​. In chasing likes and followers, some luxury labels lost one-to-one connection – effectively renting audiences from Big Tech instead of owning their client list.

If Instagram disappeared tomorrow, would a brand have the data to reach those followers elsewhere? This isn’t far-fetched; when Facebook’s family of apps (Instagram, WhatsApp included) suffered a global outage in 2021, many businesses were cut off from their customers for six hours​. The outage was a wake-up call that depending solely on third-party channels is a risky strategy.

Impact on Engagement and Loyalty

All these issues directly affect customer engagement and retention. Luxury retail is built on loyalty and lifetime value – think of the client who returns each season for the latest collection or who expects a personal call about exclusive pieces. If brands rely on impersonal algorithms or fragmented WhatsApp chats to maintain that loyalty, they’re at a disadvantage. 

Studies show that companies with weak omnichannel strategies (often the case when relying on disjointed third-party channels) only retain ~33% of customers, versus 89% retention for companies with strong omnichannel engagement​. In other words, when communication is consistent and integrated, customers stick around; when it’s not, they drift.

Third-party platforms are, by nature, omnichannel silos – they don’t seamlessly connect to a brand’s other touchpoints. A client might get an Instagram DM from one store associate, an email from another, and see unrelated ads on Facebook – with no unified view. This fragmented outreach makes it hard to maintain a coherent, high-touch journey. Luxury shoppers now engage with up to 15 touchpoints on a purchase journey​, and they expect a “seamless, coherent relationship” across all of them​. That’s nearly impossible if most of those touchpoints funnel through third parties that don’t talk to each other or to your internal systems.

Perhaps the clearest testament to the drawbacks of third-party dependence is the movement by some brands to build direct channels or even cut back on social media. Aside from Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga’s social media blackout, consider Lush Cosmetics, Lush quit social media and redirected customers to engage via its own website, events, and community apps, preferring to “take a dip into the Lush world” on its terms​. These examples underline a growing realization in the luxury industry – to preserve brand integrity and customer intimacy, you must own the platform where that relationship lives.

In summary, third-party communication channels pose a double-edged sword for luxury retail. They offer reach and convenience, but they also strip away some control of brand image, limit access to data, and insert a middleman in the client relationship. Luxury brands that once prided themselves on couture experiences now find themselves at the mercy of consumer tech algorithms. The result can be an erosion of the very qualities that set luxury apart: personalized service, privacy, and exclusivity. Recognizing these pitfalls is the first step. The next is finding a way to reconnect with customers on brand-owned channels.

Reclaim Your Brand Experience

Luxury leaders worldwide are rethinking their reliance on external platforms, recognising that true brand excellence requires complete ownership of every client interaction. Doorway provides the ideal platform for brands seeking to preserve exclusivity, deepen client relationships, and maintain full control over their brand narrative. With Doorway’s digital business cards, every touchpoint—, from initial introduction to ongoing engagement—, is seamlessly branded, personalised, and secure. This ensures your luxury experience remains undiluted, distinctive, and wholly reflective of your standards. Your clients expect exceptional experiences; Doorway empowers you to consistently deliver them.