Helping Cartier develop a new in-store experience

Cartier make their luxury jewellery and watches using rare, and precious materials, including unique pieces that need to be kept in ultra-secure environments. These pieces cannot simply be moved from country to country or store to store when a client is interested and wishes to try them on. The cost of armoured trucks, guards and increased security and insurance, not to mention the environmental cost in carbon emissions, is a powerful disincentive. Yet a picture is unlikely to do a beautiful piece justice or clinch a sale. If only you could somehow beam them into the boutique… 

Using holographic technology to showcase luxury jewellery

The Cartier Retail Innovation Lab had created a prototype tool with the working title ‘the Aleph’. It could showcase beautiful, high-definition, rotating 3D holographic images of pieces of high jewellery that were not physically present in a boutique. Cartier wanted to explore if the concept had potential: Would it create meaningful and memorable experiences? How would it impact the behaviours of customers and boutique sales staff? How could it be improved? 

In-depth research involving staff and customers

We undertook ethnographic qualitative research, live in a boutique, to inform the Aleph’s development. Our researchers travelled to a test store in Chicago to understand the current boutique experience and how that was changed by the installation of the Aleph. The work involved observation both inside the boutique and behind the scenes, intercept interviews with visiting customers and staff, and in-depth 1:1 interviews with a range of valued Cartier clients. 

• 60 hours of in-boutique observation 
• 80+ in-boutique intercept interviews 
• 12 in-depth client interviews 
• Boutique staff interviews 

The Looking Glass 

The concept of the Aleph has evolved further. Working in partnership with software developers Jolibrain and Blue Trail Software, Cartier have renamed it the Looking Glass and are now testing it as a prototype in a select few stores. It allows customers to view digital rings that convincingly simulate real rings sat on a customer’s own hand. Currently only 13 rings are available to view in the $3,000 to $200,000 price range, but Cartier plan to expand this range to cuffs, bracelets and possibly watches.