Steve Johnson, co founder, HOLM
Co founder of HOLM. Personalisation software for Fashion brands and retailers. Matching clothes to customers. In-store and online.
www.myHOLM.com
18 comments By Steve Johnson, co founder, HOLM
"Service and advice will be the key areas of differentiation in technology retailing in the future, coupled with good old retail-tainment – people like going shopping and, therefore, omnichannel – rather than pure clicks – will ultimately win through.”
Good insight. However this is not only just true for tech retail. It will be the same for all retail, particularly fashion.Digitally empowering sales assistants with the right tools goes beyond customer engagement.
The future is customer service that delights and surprises. Store teams becoming significantly more productive. Linking with other clever tech to create that wow factor (that drives footfall) and creates a new level of store loyalty. Loyalty that migrates seamlessly online.
Exciting times.I agree Graham. Beacons are an example of new tech roll-out that mostly irritated consumers rather than gave benefit. There were exceptions, but bad experiences close doors for ones that work. Similarly, there is a risk for AI trying to be too clever, too quickly. Over promising and under delivering to customers does not trigger loyalty.
Human intelligence stills has a massive part to play to ensure consumers see benefits early. Machine learning will be really helpful for human decision making. Let's hope we don't put off the public along the way.The scary bit is Amazon will know where best to locate their stores (or alliances), using their Prime data. A great use of data, assuming the tech works. Good sense to test amongst own staff first.
Returns will remain high until brands and retailers create trust with their customers. By getting to know them. Less via electronic stealth and more by simply asking them and adopting methods that actually help customers make the right purchase decision at the beginning. This can even include buying for others.
It's great (for the customer) that retail is investing in slick returns systems, however this doesn't hide the growing expense or motivate consumers to do anything differently.Shoppers we speak with want great customer service. That's an experience that never ceases to retain custom.
Our research says shoppers want:
- Convenience
- Efficiency
- Added Value (think 'nice surprise')
All of the above 'delivered simply'. Whichever the channel.
It's far from rocket science (and a lot less than 400 words).According to my co-founder, BR has failed by not providing clothing that complemented more body shapes. The product quality is good for the price point.
The learning has to be to better understand the customer and retail clothes that look great on her, not just on the website model.Our research suggests customers don't really know what they want. 30-40% clothing returns online supports this (if we knew what we wanted, why return well over a third?)
The real opportunity is helping shoppers find what they look great wearing, by understanding them.
Doing so in a way that's convenient, efficient and adds value to their shopping experience. Loyalty is the result and used right, the individual shopper's data can be used to continuously improve service and efficiencies; keep shoppers loyal and stay ahead (however competitive the market).Jack's a good guy. With a good mind. I'm sure he will do well. Best of luck to him.
Fully agree with Richard.
My only added comment is to highlight the Amazon impact to fashion retailing in the UK is coming fast on the rails to add to this challenge. (Certainly if US data is fair guidance of what to expect).Great use of tech in retail. Plus lots of opportunity to extend capabilities.
For example, why not show 'allergens' when products are scanned? (or calories etc)
And as a future vehicle for personalised offers...Once done right, the true power of personalisation (for fashion at least) will be created in-store. Traditional bricks and mortar have a great opportunity to win back share from pure etailers. At the front end, personalisation will be used to dramatically improve customer service in the future. Back of house, it will drive out inefficiencies (like high returns) and give omnichannel-channel retailers the commercial edge.
Marks are also trialling Try Tuesday.
It's brilliant to see Shop Direct effectively use personalisation in fashion and reference it's a major success factor for this progressive etailer.
The exciting development is effective personalisation is now coming to physical fashion stores. Meaning lots of opportunity for first adopters (and a big risk for those in fashion that delay).
The best bit... is for the clothes shopper. Customer service is about step change.Re-engineering online digital personalisation into stores is not the future for fashion retail.
However personalisation that's been designed to start in store is much more effective. It also quickly and dramatically improves online personalisation.
HOLM is at RetailWeek BUZZ to showcase how we do just that.Personalisation, when done right, is going to fundamentally change the fashion industry. It's why we're bringing HOLM to market.
Shoppers deserve far better service.
There's good news for retailers too... it will increase their margins (dramatically if they use the data right), retain loyalty (like never before) and it works in store (where 80% of clothes are bought) as well as online.Tom is right. However it's surprising how little investment has been put into reducing returns.
This is about to change and there is significant advantage for those that do so. Even more so, those that are first.It's well documented that Boards need more women. M and S is no exception - even more so in fact.
From personal experience, as a potential supplier, senior management at M and S are inaccessible. However, I'm not sure this is all down to over complication. By example, they speak at conferences and disappear before you can 1:1 with any. This appears to have filtered down and become cultural.
I hope Steve Rowe changes this. Pace will appear when digital suppliers like ourselves, are given quick opportunities to help, rather than waste all our energies simply trying to get in contact.
So many of us want to see M and S clothing succeed it's frustrating. Yet like others, we need to stay in business, so we approach competitors that do engage.
From one Steve to another:
"Please be more accessible and see how others can help. Lead on this and your business will follow." In my opinion, only then will the pace of results evidence.
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In terms of context, I represent a digital startup that provides personalisation for womenswear customers, used in the hands of store associates to give outstanding customer service. We're 100% customer focused and precisely what M and S needs (based on what our shoppers tell us!)
With 8yrs 1:1 shopper research (more than 10,000 hrs), you would hope we'd be worth speaking with.Thanks for the quote / reference.
My point was that current digital solutions are not designed to help the store perform to their optimal. For example, stores managing returns from online sales... as this goes against many store sales figures (so their performance appears worse to the benefit of online sales) and in terms of store staff managing the return - when they could be helping sell. I should add, my comments are specific to clothing fashion as this is HOLM's area of expertise.
Commented on: 4 February 2017
Blog: 40% of retailers not seeing omnichannel ROI