Five Unique Retail Brands that Focus on Omnichannel Customer Experience
Retail has changed massively in recent years. Customers have more options and power than ever before. The brands that are successful in this world are the ones that provide a fantastic customer experience across all channels.
An omnichannel customer experience is one of the cornerstones of all ecommerce business models. The word omnichannel means a seamless shopping experience for a customer from beginning to end, across all channels. This experience is a beautiful combination of in-store, online and mobile shopping. This blog will look at five unique retail brands that have taken omnichannel customer experience to the next level.
1) Aquazzura
Aquazzura, an Italian luxury footwear brand, is available at over 300 luxury retailers in 58 countries and has its brand boutiques in Florence, London, New York, Miami, Doha, Dubai, Milan, Rome, São Paulo, Capri and Venice. It aims to focus on brand loyalty and make the shopping experience as personalized as possible.
Aquazzura Store Associates sought clever technologies that provided in-store appointments and information about cattle. The staff should quickly find and send in-store merchandise directly to the customer.
How does Aquazzura transform into an omnichannel retail brand?
Aquazzura adopted the new Cegid platform that aids in the company's international expansion by arming sales associates with mobile devices to assist customers in finding the most appropriate products and technology that personalizes service and range suitable for each store, region, and country.
1. Unified experience: Cegid offers a cohesive, customized & seamless experience to Aquazzura customers whether they are shopping on the web, in-store or from their smartphones.
2. Retail Live Store: Retail Live Store allows Aquazzura users to seamlessly navigate various apps and functions, such as Sales, CRM, Loyalty, and Digital Catalogues, on any device and operating system for a unique and enhanced user experience.
3. Simplifies customer journey: Manage and simplify all omnichannel shopping scenarios, such as Click & Collect, Ship from Store, Click & reserve, online returns, and digital catalogues for an infinite aisle, transforming the store into a unified commerce hub.
4. Agile Solution: The Solution gives you the agility to implement retail change at a rapid pace and deploy new features and capabilities more frequently and efficiently.
5. Inventory Management: Whether reserved in online shopping carts, shipped to affiliates, on consignment, in transit, or on hold in a store, your stock statuses are instantly updated, providing you with network-wide control of omnichannel inventory, allowing you to move product to another store, channel easily, or location-based on-demand.
6. Store Management: Streamline your retail operations and empower your sales associates in their new role to increase sales, service, and efficiency in-store, from checkout to customer service.
Read Now: 4 most impactful ways to enhance your omnichannel customer experience
2) Lulelemon
Lulelemon is a yoga-inspired Canadian athletic apparel company for yoga, running and training that creates transformational experiences to live happy, healthy, fun lives. It is a strong example of a company that has successfully marketed a lifestyle rather than a product.
The company has 521 stores worldwide, but its products are also available through eCommerce and digital sales and in health clubs, fitness centres, and yoga studios. Here are some outstanding features that transform Lulelemon into an Omnichannel brand:
Video chat feature
Lulelemon allows you to shop virtually with a product expert. Here is how experts help you shop:
1. Fit and size help: Consider Lulelemon as the next best thing to a fitting room as they answer all your fit and sizing questions.
2. Product recommendations: Get product recommendations whether you are shopping for a new sports bra or the perfect running tights.
3. Purchase ‘MIRROR’ – your home gym: This product is next level omnichannel retailing at its finest as it checks all the right boxes – memorable, shareable, repetitive & addictive. These days gyms and fitness studios are primarily closed, and many customers are nervous about returning to those that have reopened. The product is the steady answer to the question – What if fitness stores/gyms cease to exist in the future?
MIRROR is the smart home gym that streams workouts through a mirror-like device and provides its users with various live or on-demand fitness-related classes such as pilates, yoga, kickboxing, and cardio. Users can essentially see their instructor in the MIRROR device, allowing them to complete a specific set of exercises they have chosen for the class.
Fitness enthusiasts can also curate songs, get weekly curated workouts, 1-on-1 training sessions and daily live in-classes with feedback from fitness experts. The product is top-rated among people stuck at home, as working out at home is now more of a repeatable routine than ever.
3) Target
Target is one of the leading retailers in America that offers outstanding value, innovation and a shopping experience that no other retailer can deliver. Apparel and accessories, beauty and household essentials, food and beverage, electronic toys, home furnishings and decor are some of the attractive product categories offered by the company.
Target has spent more than $4 billion remodeling their stores in the last three years, completing hundreds of stores each year, transforming them into showrooms, fulfillment hubs and service centres.
Today’s customers need a compelling reason to come into a store and shop in the digital age. Stores play a pivotal role in Target's so-called "store-centric strategy", making the company stand out from competitors such as Amazon and Walmart, as stores' physical experience, discovery, inspiration, and service are combined with ease, convenience, and personalization made possible through digital.
Target services contributing to its omnichannel success
1. Target+ Marketplace
The Target+ Marketplace focuses predominantly on its first-party assortment, which can be fulfilled by its stores offering in-store pickup, free two-day shipping as well as same-day delivery.
Stores fulfilled nearly 80% of orders placed on Target+. In-store fulfillment options include pickup, where the customer enters the store to collect their order, and drive-up, where a Target worker meets the client curbside to hand over the delivery.
2. Drive-up / Order pickup service
The drive-up service allows consumers to leave the heavy lifting of bulky products such as bottled water and paper towels to the Target team, who will place them in the boot of the car. After this exceptional guest service, the customer can then head in-store to browse Target's more 'fun' aisles and exciting products, enjoying the in-store shopping experience.
Customers can order popular groceries such as milk, eggs and bananas, among others, and have the items brought to their car curbside (Drive-Up) or ready to be picked up inside a Target store (Order Pickup).
Target's online sales continue to expand due to its fulfilment strategy centred on stores and its omnichannel customer experience, enabling it to compete with eCommerce heavyweights such as Amazon. It will be an exciting marketplace to observe as it continues to differentiate itself and pursues long-term, profitable growth.
4) Superdry
Superdry is a dynamic modern brand specializing in high-quality items that incorporate old Americana and Japanese-inspired graphics into a British aesthetic. They are known for premium fabrics, authentic vintage washes, one-of-a-kind detailing, world-class hand-drawn graphics, and customized fits with various styling options.
This uniqueness has earned the brand both exclusivity and an international celebrity following. The brand has a substantial global presence, with 768 Superdry-branded shops in 65 countries. There are 245 owned locations around the United Kingdom and continental Europe, 497 franchised and licenced locations, and 26 concessions.
Superdry stores were having problems growing their in-store footfall and revenue. They viewed omnichannel retailing as the way forward to address these business challenges.
How did Superdry transform its sales with an omnichannel presence?
1. Increase in-store walk-ins
Superdry used Fynd Omnichannel Solutions to realize that there is a boundless world of customers outside the per square foot store, which they cannot serve, and they can quickly sell their goods to online customers from other states without any dependency on geographical boundaries.
Superdry worked out a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for pitching pan-India choices using Fynd to every consumer, regardless of their previous purchase from the company. This effective method significantly increased its conversions as the walk-in to sales conversion rate increased from 12%-13% to 18%-19% in a matter of weeks.
2. Effective solutions to curb in-store abandonment
The brand effectively utilized Fynd Store, endless aisle and assistive sales solution to sell products that aren’t available in-store. Suppose a customer comes to the Superdry store to look out for a jacket but couldn’t find one due to unavailability of colour and sizes.
In that case, the Superdry Fashion Consultant can immediately take the help of the Fynd store app on their tablet and showcase the latest fashion to customers. Due to the linkage of pan India store inventory, there is no limitation of Superdry products with size, colour and style.
The customer is pleased to find products on the Fynd Store and checkout with several flexible payment options like UPI, online payment or credit/debit card. Such flexible strategy wins more customers and increases online and in-store conversions.
Read Now: Check the Superdry Case Study to learn more about the success story by Omnichannel implementation
5) Red Chief
RED CHIEF is a market leader in the leather footwear industry and was introduced in 1997 to address the growing demand for branded, high-quality leather footwear. Additionally, the brand has caught the fashion world by storm with its foray into the apparel and accessories market.
They offer unique men's fashion and lifestyle needs with distinctive designs to distinguish themselves from the competition and stand unified in their commitment to producing nothing but the best. Its goal was to improve the in-store experience and optimize the sales of high-volume styles from stores.
How did Red Chief transform into an omnichannel brand?
Red Chief utilized these outstanding features from Fynd Omnichannel platform to counter these business issues effectively:
1. Save the sale: Fynd merged the inventory of all Red Chief stores across India and launched operations on Fynd Store. The goal for businesses was to save sales by ordering cut sizes of the top 40 core styles on the Fynd Store app. A retailer that ran out of size would call the fulfillment store nearest to them and place an order for the customer.
2. Fynd Store as a POS: Slow-moving inventory was the biggest problem of Red Chief, and as the target customers for the brand were price-conscious, the slightest variation in price could make the store lose a potential customer for life. Slow-moving styles had a new way to sell using the Fynd Store as a POS.
The store employee's primary goal was to sell from the store, but if the customer was price sensitive and would leave without making a purchase, the employee can offer the customer an additional 5%-10% discount to ensure he did not lose the sale.
Read Now: See the Red Chief Case Study understand more about Omnichannel implementation
Conclusion
We have explored five successful retail brands that are "omnichannel", meaning they provide their customers with seamless shopping experiences across all channels. As a customer, you want to shop however you want, whenever you want and not be limited to the business hours of a traditional brick-and-mortar store. These five brands have taken the initiative to provide their customers with a more direct shopping experience.
A brand with omnichannel customer experience means increased sales, customer satisfaction & brand loyalty. Fynd is trusted by over 600 brands for their magical transition as an omnichannel brand with tremendous growth opportunities. Are you ready to transform your retail brand into an omnichannel brand? Book a demo or Connect with us now to learn more.
