Mobile data capture allows retailers to advance clienteling by preparing a personalized shopping trip for each individual customer. Image credit: Anyline
Depending on the occasion, weather or season, fashion pieces have an appropriate time and place. Similarly, there are modes of shopping with a luxury retailer that are preferred at one time over another.
Even with the rise in online shopping due to COVID-19, there are still times at which consumers desire to engage with a luxury retailer in person.
It is one of the most beloved parts of luxury shopping: the well-curated and often elegant in-store experience.
With lockdowns and social distancing restrictions eliminating in-store shopping through last year, the industry experienced record low sales.
However, luxury sales growth in China offers a glimmer of hope for the industry. With this segment of customers making up a significant percentage of luxury shoppers worldwide, the trends we see there are likely to replicate across the world.
With this projected growth in mind, luxury brands ought to reimagine how they will service a luxury customer safely and still provide a curated and personalized experience. Mobile data capture and scanning technology are two simple ways to do this.
Benefits of mobile data capture
Mobile data capture allows retailers to advance clienteling by preparing a personalized shopping trip for each individual customer, whether they schedule a visit ahead of time or pop in unannounced.
With this touchless technology, a store associate can curate recommended items for each shopper based on past purchase history, while also expediting the time spent indoors for COVID-19-hesitant customers.
Not only does mobile data capture drive better customer interactions in a luxury setting, but it provides more efficient front-of-house performance and data-driven back-of-house management.
Profiles create elevated customer experiences
How does customer profiling work?
While the in-store experience itself might be unique to each retailer, the process for implementing touchless clienteling can be standardized, with the central focal point always being the customer.
The following steps describe what one French luxury retailer did with its mobile data capture strategy to find success.
For its customers, the journey began with a welcoming ceremony of sorts, regardless of their status as a new or returning customer.
If she was an existing customer with data already held by the company, the shopper scanned an ID upon store entry, enabling the sales associate to view a full purchase history and tailor an on-the-spot experience.
For example, if the shopper had a preference towards a particular style or product line, the associate could recommend complementary goods, or a newly released product.
If the shopper was new to the store, however, ID scanning created a profile for the customer that could be used in future visits.
Not only did having unique customer profiles benefit this luxury retailer as it incorporated advanced customer data into the decision-making process. Customer profiles also directly benefited customers.
With access to the company’s digital platform, customers received email- and app-based offerings, exclusive access to new products, and other loyalty perks.
Advanced inventory management helps satisfy customers
Clienteling relies on having the right items in the right store to reach the right customer, at the right time.
For the French luxury retailer, barcode scanning was used to manage inventory and measure store performance to ensure each customer left satisfied.
In addition, customer profiles were regularly compared to determine the most popular products and lines, and which were no longer preferred by the client base.
Barcode scanning also supported store associates, who could easily detect fraudulent products and track what had been sold from each store.
While every store may implement touchless clienteling technology differently, the French luxury retailer saw success through an elevated understanding of its customers and their needs.
RETAIL CUSTOMERS worldwide are prioritizing a safe and efficient in-store experience in today’s global landscape, but luxury customers are still yearning for the full experience associated with a designer purchase.
Touchless clienteling is the way of the future for retailers looking to recreate this desired customer journey, by facilitating a safe and personalized experience for the customer while building profitability for the brand.
Lukas Kinigadner
Lukas Kinigadner is cofounder/CEO of Anyline, Vienna, Austria. Reach him at lukas.kinigadner@anyline.com.