Employees of True Religion use Apple watches to provide loyalty account members with truly customized service, any time they walk into a store.
Band by True Religion is the retailer’s latest advent in its Endless Aisle technology project. Band combines the True Religion app for shoppers with Apple watches worn by sales associates to provide highly personalized, concierge-style customer service.
When a loyalty account member who has opted into the app walks into a store, the Apple watches worn by the sales team use haptic technology to alert staff to the VIP’s presence. With one tap on the watch’s screen, a store associate can access a rich vein of customer data. Social media integration provides sales teams with the customer’s profile pictures, allowing the individual to be greeted by name.
Associates can see at a glance a customer’s buying history, their communication preferences (that is, email or text) and additional details like what silhouette of jean he or she tends to prefer. Once a customer has been engaged in conversation, the associate can access the label’s current inventory and project products on to the store’s digital sales floor – 42-inch LED touchscreens that allow team members to highlight new products and help customers find exactly what they are looking for.
The touchscreens also help customers find products that are available from the brand but not necessarily stocked in that particular store. Associates can use their handheld mobile point-of-sale checkout terminals to order the product and arrange for free delivery.
John Hazen, the brand’s head of omni-channel, says the company’s Endless Aisle technology project is designed to make staff more efficient and effective and provide new methods for engaging with customers. ‘With this,’ he says, ‘it’s a moment where we can actually look at things together. I can showcase and put on a show for you with this solution.’
The Band watches, combined with the mobile checkout terminals, free sales team members to interact with customers at any point in the store. And, something that is particularly important in Hazen’s opinion, for achieving buy-in from staff, is that the combination of technology allows each sale to be directly credited to the relevant associate. Noel Goggin, CEO and culture leader for Aptos, says that True Religion ‘clearly understands this opportunity to unite its digital and physical retail environments to support unified commerce and seamless experiences that inspire brand loyalty and customer engagement’.
Initial predictions were that 10 per cent of the brand’s loyalty customers would opt in to the app, and early reports show that the new combination of technologies is proving successful. Since introducing the app, True Religion says that ‘in-store customer engagement and conversion rates are higher and the number of Endless Aisle transactions has increased significantly’.
Additionally, through the Endless Aisle project, the brand’s buy-and-ship business has doubled, where customers pay in store and receive the product at home. Band was created in partnership with Aptos and Formula 3 Group and first uses of the watches were in the company’s flagship store in New York City’s SoHo neighbourhood and Los Angeles’ Beverly Center mall. They are now being extended to a further 30 retail spaces.
Further development of the Endless Aisle technologies includes incorporating text messages to customers alerting them to new products, and any responses, into the overall profile stored within the Band app. This will further enrich the options available to sales associates for improving individuals’ customer experiences.
Unifying on and offline shopping experiences with an added dose of customization is the retail industry’s current holy grail. From Cornershop’s on-demand personal grocery shoppers who deliver within 90 minutes to Sephora’s in-store YouTube make-up tutorials, brands are finding interesting, creative solutions to a complex challenge.
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Website: www.aptos.com
Contact: kmiller@aptos.com
Company name: Aptos
Innovation name: True Religion
Country: United States
Industries: Access exclusive / Retail & e-commerce