AllSaint’s James Reid on Personalizing the Customer Journey
Posted by Alex Samuely on Feb 6, 2024
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As consumers enjoy a larger variety of shopping options thanks to the globalization of retail, brands must differentiate themselves from their competition by further personalizing the customer journey. Retailers can tap into more resources than ever to accomplish this, including leveraging omnichannel platforms to bridge the gap between physical and digital shopping experiences. The growth of artificial intelligence will also likely play a role in customizing the shopping journey.
James Reid, Chief Innovation Officer at fashion retailer AllSaints, recently sat down for an Endless Aisle podcast conversation with Marcus LaRobardiere, NewStore’s Vice President of Marketing. James and Marcus discussed strategies with which brands can bring omnichannel shopping to life. From finding ways to connect in-store and online experiences to leveraging bots to provide sizing information, retailers can transform each step of the customer journey to include more personalization.
Read on for more insights from Marcus and James’s discussion, and click here to listen to the full podcast episode.
Today’s digitally-savvy consumers might begin their customer journey on one platform – for instance, a mobile app – and end it on another, such as in a brick-and-mortar store. To best meet customers’ evolving needs, brands must bridge the gap between their digital and physical shopping platforms to create a true omnichannel experience. This results in retailers gaining greater omnichannel insights, including holistic views of customer profiles, past and current orders, and store performance.
“I know everybody’s talked about this principle for the last 10 years, but [we] very much want to blur the line between the in-store experience and the online experience,” James said. “One of the things that the retail platform will bring us is the principle of a common account across in-store and online. We need to do that in a way that’s adding value for the customer, even down to [tracking] your receipts.
“If you want to bring a return in, we can find that transaction and refund [it] to the original payment method, which then gives us value in terms of accuracy of tracking how that’s actually working. It’s an interesting area when you start getting into that level of data, because from my perspective, the capabilities are enormous and the service we can provide off the back of it is enormous.”
One way in which retailers can connect online and brick-and-mortar shopping experiences is by offering BOPIS (buy online pickup in store) and BORIS (buy online return in store) fulfillment options. This lets shoppers make purchases via mobile app or website and visit their nearest store to pick up the items or return them, if needed. The in-store visit offers opportunities for sales associates to recommend additional or alternative items that the shopper may not have initially considered.
“In terms of buy online and return in store, it’s a capability we’ve had for a little while now, and it is a footfall driver,” James said. “It’s an opportunity for cross-sell and upsell [opportunities] when the customer comes back in and maybe turning a return into an exchange if it’s a sizing challenge. So it’s always good to get an opportunity to put a customer in front of the stylists in store.”
Retailers can also opt to leverage bots to add further personalization to their customer experiences. These can include chatbots that field shoppers’ more basic questions or bots that offer product and sizing recommendations based on customer profiles.
“One of the things we are considering is whether to put a slightly more invasive step to the online customer journey,” James said. “To put a little bot in place that says, ‘I can see you’ve put two of these in two different sizes in your basket…would you like some guidance as to which one’s going to be the better fit?’
“We’re working through how we do that, what information we base it off, et cetera.”
While personalizing the customer experience will likely result in greater brand affinity among shoppers – and higher sales – retailers must keep transparency around the use of customer data top of mind. More shoppers are paying attention to the ethics around data collection as artificial intelligence continues gaining popularity.
“If a customer walks into [a] store and says, ‘I’ve seen one of your black leather jackets online; I’d love to see if you’ve got that in stock,’…now, we have a number of different options available,” James said. “The ability to look up that customer from a browsing history point of view, work through with them what it is they’ve seen and give them a better service to identify, ‘Oh, you mean that one,’ in theory is great.
“People understand and appreciate there’s a lot of information gathering and tracking that goes on in the background, but it becomes a different response when you put it in front of their face. It’s something we are very cognizant of – to make sure that we are not being overly invasive, but doing it in a way that’s win-win for the customer,” James continued.
“And that win-win works in a number of different ways because it helps get better accuracy; it will help with gathering customer feedback. For example, you’re trying a particular jacket on and maybe the sizing is slightly [off] in terms of the customer expectations, so you end up sizing up. We can feed that back into the design cycle and through the supply chain to [fine]tune what we are producing to better match those customer expectations.”
However retailers choose to revitalize their customer journeys, they must ensure they always maintain a clear vision and commitment to putting consumers’ needs first.
“You have to be very clear about what you’re looking to achieve and what’s driving you to achieve that,” James said. “The customer being the boss…having that as a guiding principle informs everything else.
“For me, the goal is to maximize access for the customer however they choose to deal with us, whether that’s online or in-store or through a concession or through a third party. We have to meet the customer wherever they are, and we have to provide the service they’re requiring. And that strategy is working very well.”
To learn more about how your business can further personalize your customer journey, speak to one of our experts today.
