Luxury brands were right to be skeptical of influencer marketing. For years, the practice meant gifting suites, discount codes, and a rotating cast of creators promoting a protein powder one day and a five-star resort the next. None of it looked like luxury, and most brands that valued their image kept a careful distance. That distance is now costing them. Nearly 80 percent of luxury buyers engage with content from social personalities before making a purchase, and the influencer marketing...

For years, every luxury brand on Instagram lived with the same quiet frustration. Your profile grid, the single most viewed page of your brand's social presence, was arranged by posting date and nothing else. A stunning campaign image slid down the grid the moment you posted a routine announcement. The only fix was to delete and repost, a workaround so common it became an industry habit. That era is over. In June, Instagram finished rolling out grid reordering globally, a feature reportedly...

Why luxury retail requires a fundamentally different social media approach from ordinary retail, and what that means for brands online.