LVMH loses Ian Rogers, must retouch its digital team

PARIS (Reuters) – The LVMH group will have to retouch the team responsible for its digital strategy after the departure of Ian Rogers, debauched in 2015 from Apple.

The digital director of the world number one in the luxury sector announced on Twitter on Monday that he was joining the French start-up Ledger, which specializes in the field of cryptocurrencies.

“I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished at LVMH over the past five years,” he wrote. “We have revolutionized buzzing words like ‘digital’, ‘data’, ‘social media’ or ‘omnichannel’ into practical applications focused on the future of the industry.”

According to an internal memo seen by the Reuters agency, LVMH should appoint Michael David, director in charge of online commerce for the Vuitton brand, to the newly created position of “omnichannel” director of the group, in charge of both in-store and platform sales digital.

Chris de Lapuente, for his part, becomes CEO of the Selective Retailing branch. In addition to Sephora and Bon Marché, in particular, already in his portfolio, he will take over the management of 24S, an online sales platform created under the leadership of Ian Rogers which offers a selection of different fashion and beauty brands. .

The big luxury houses, for a time reluctant to the idea of ​​a switch to digital for fear of losing their aura, have shifted into high gear to try to catch up. The pandemic due to the coronavirus, with the lockdowns that forced “physical stores” to close, accelerated the trend.

(Sarah White; French version Henri-Pierre André, edited by Jean-Philippe Lefief)