How Luxury Brands Turn Social Listening Into Product Wins and Customer Trust

Luxury brands love to talk about authenticity. At Shoptalk Luxe, Kate Hardcastle MBE reframed it more practically: "Dashboards show data. Listening shows intent, emotion and unmet need" - and the difference determines whether trust is built or lost.

In a market where trends can spike overnight, the brands that stay ahead aren't simply the loudest. They're the ones that can separate momentary noise from repeatable customer signals, then operationalize what they hear into product, content, commerce, and care.

Two leaders offered a clear, tactical playbook: Bettina Goesele, Chief Digital Officer at Victoria Beckham Beauty, and Elie Barnes, Chief Marketing & Digital Officer at Bremont Watch Company.

Repetition in Comments: The Signal Worth Building On

Victoria Beckham Beauty treats social not only as marketing, but as a "real time listening function" to understand customers, spot opportunities, and make decisions quickly.

Goesele shared a simple filter for separating "what's trending" from what's truly important: look for repetition.

When the team repeatedly saw customers asking which eyeliner shade works best for specific eye colors, they turned that into on-site functionality - adding website filters by eye color and supporting CRM journeys around the need. The result wasn't just helpful - it became the brand's top-performing content because it was "hyper relevant" to what customers were actively requesting.

What retail leaders can steal:

• Use comments as qualitative data, not "engagement fluff."
• Translate FAQs into on-site merchandising tools (filters, guided discovery), not just posts.
• Reinforce the insight through CRM, so the signal scales beyond social.

From Viral Moment to Hero Product: Scaling What Customers Share

Goesele also described how Victoria Beckham Beauty spotted that a product was becoming more than a spike.

Their Contour Stylus - a "very thin contouring stick" designed for precise technique - became unexpectedly viral as people shared videos of the product and technique across social.

Instead of treating it as a one-off moment, the team:

• Put more investment behind it,
• Created more content and messaging,
• Built more inventory, and
• Converted that attention into core product success, ultimately elevating it into their hero product strategy.

What retail leaders can steal:

• Virality is a signal, not a strategy - until you back it with supply, storytelling, and a role in your assortment.
• If engagement consistently shows the customer is learning/sharing a technique, invest in education content, not only glam creative.

Product Mix Shifts: Listening That Moves Real Revenue

In watches, product change cycles can be longer and more complex than beauty. Barnes explained how Bremont balances market trends with direct community feedback, especially as a younger brand in a category filled with century-old players.

A clear example: Bremont's product mix shifted from leather straps toward bracelet straps after listening to what customers wanted. Barnes shared that bracelet straps saw a 40% increase in sales over the last year and now account for over 60% of sales - a material business impact tied to both trend awareness and customer demand signals.

What retail leaders can steal:

• Even in "heritage" categories, listening can guide assortment architecture (not just campaigns).
• The win comes from treating social as early demand sensing, not "brand sentiment" alone.

Innovation Still Needs Translation - and Listening Helps You Decide What Becomes Core

Barnes shared how Bremont launched a novel "jumping hour" movement - and how the response exceeded expectations, making it successful enough to become part of the brand's core collection going forward.

He also explained the mechanism simply: when minutes meet the hour, the time "jumps forward" - a physical, literal jump to the next hour, distinct from typical continuous motion.

What retail leaders can steal:

• Listening doesn't replace expertise - it helps you pick which innovations are worth scaling into the core.
• If you introduce something unfamiliar, ensure your content answers "what is it?" in plain language - because education drives confidence.

Rebrand Feedback: When Customers Tell You the Logo Is Too Big

Barnes offered a candid rebrand lesson. After new ownership and a full identity refresh aimed at global expansion, Bremont heard consistent feedback that the logo appeared too large and "showed up too strongly" across products and touchpoints. Within the last "six, seven months," the brand reduced logo size as a direct response to community feedback - an example of listening influencing not just products, but brand codes.

What retail leaders can steal:

• "Brand" decisions aren't sacred if customers tell you the execution is getting in the way.
• Social listening is particularly powerful for design feedback, where sentiment is immediate and specific.

Turning Friction Into Trust: The Customer-Care Listening Loop

The session didn't gloss over operational friction. Barnes emphasized that negative feedback is an "important signal," sharing how Bremont handled Black Friday delivery delays in the UK by responding directly in comments, moving conversations to DMs, and empowering customer service to resolve issues quickly - aiming to "turn that friction into trust."

The team also avoids overly scripted replies, keeping responses personal and situational, supported by internal debriefs and coordination before communicating back to customers.

What retail leaders can steal:

• A "listening" strategy needs a playbook for failure states (delays, stock issues, service breakdowns).
• Public acknowledgment + private resolution (DM) is a trust-preserving pattern when emotions run high.

Leadership Buy-In Turns Listening Into a Business System

Both speakers described listening as cross-functional - not a social team side quest.

Barnes noted that ownership is highly engaged in seeking feedback and that the company actively tracks and acts on community comments to help the brand evolve quickly.

Goesele added that because so many people monitor social channels, insights about products and customer feedback are disseminated across the organization "to all levels," reinforcing product excellence and faster learning loops.

What retail leaders can steal:

• Social listening becomes strategic when it's routed into product, commerce, and service teams, not just marketing.
• Make "insight sharing" a ritual, not an ad-hoc forward of screenshots.

If the Data Disappeared Tomorrow, What's Left?

In the final rapid-fire question, the answer wasn't a tool - it was a human skill: transparency and the ability to maintain real two-way communication with customers.

That may be the most important takeaway: luxury's next competitive edge won't come from louder campaigns. It will come from better listening - then visibly acting on what you heard.