After spending three days attending keynotes and track sessions at Shoptalk Fall 2024, I had a multitude of great content ideas in my head. I first delivered a blog focused on unified commerce, the main theme of the event. It featured examples from retailers to showcase how unifying data on the backend allows them to deliver tangible benefits to customers on the frontend.
Another big theme was customer experience (CX), and my biggest takeaway was that retailers are thinking about CX in new ways. They’re becoming more customer-centric, recognizing that it’s not enough to look at sales data and competitor intelligence. Maybe it’s the popularity of influencers, the rise of eCommerce chatbots, the growing power of online reviews or a combination of factors. Regardless, multiple retail leaders talked about balancing humanity with technology and the importance of customer feedback, offering examples of enhancements they’ve made after looking at the shopping experience from the customer's perspective.
Improving the post-purchase experience
According to eMarketer, a recent survey found that while 93% of consumers consider the post-purchase experience important, 83% feel there’s room for improvement in the post-purchase process.
In the session "Best-in-Class Post-purchase Experiences," Christine Sio, Vice President of Customer Experience at Ssense, a luxury eCommerce retailer, shared that the organization was focused on customer acquisition for years and didn’t pay any attention to the post-purchase experience.
However, in 2022, the team discovered that while Ssense’s customer acquisition rates were growing, its customer contact rates were growing faster. They also saw that 90% of the contacts were post-purchase related. The company was diagnosing the issues when an email from an unhappy customer, “Ken,” landed on Christine’s desk. He complained about a late delivery. She ended up having a conversation with Ken and finding out he works as a personal stylist. This is when she realized that “his livelihood was completely dependent on our delivery promise. Every day counted for him.”
It's really easy to get caught up in averages when you're dealing with millions or even thousands of customers. It's easy to think you're doing a good job if you deliver 80% of orders on time. Interactions with customers like “Ken” motivate us to prevent these types of problems and solve them at the root cause so that ultimately all customers can have an effortless post-purchase experience.
VICE PRESIDENT OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, SSENSE
Today, the company has four guiding principles that they follow in pursuit of delivering a seamless post-purchase experience.
An effortless experience is what underpins customer loyalty.
Delivering effortless experiences is an organization-wide commitment.
The best service is no service.
Customer service is as much a cost of retention as it is a cost partner.
Making a lasting first impression
In the same session, Mimi Swain, Chief Commercial Officer at Ring and Blink (Amazon), explained that the company’s view of the post-purchase experience starts with unboxing the products. She said the company spends a lot of time thinking about how to reduce friction in this experience, all the way down to “how sticky the stickers are on the box.”
Mimi pointed out that this first impression is critical because Ring and Blink customers are not just buying a single device; they’re signing up for ongoing service. This is also why customer service is important — and because the brands are Amazon-owned, customer expectations are high. While both have industry-leading attach rates on subscriptions, Mimi said her teams always think about what customers expect from their subscriptions. This translates into things like helping customers through installation, troubleshooting any Wi-Fi issues they might have and even engaging on social media to share content from “neighbors” (aka, customers) to foster a sense of community.
Delivering continuous value in the form of product and service improvements is part of the equation as well. For example, Ring just introduced smart video search, which uses AI to find specific activities or things, like a red truck in the driveway or a black dog, in a customer’s camera history.
Post-purchase is a big part of our customer journey because part of the promise of the products is that they’re going to continue to get better over time. We look at what customers call about and use it as a continuous loop to think about things like, Where can we reduce friction? Where can we make things on our PDPs (product detail page) a little easier to understand?
CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER, RING AND BLINK (AMAZON)
Mimi shared that one thing Jeff Bezos always stressed to employees was that even with all the data Amazon has, the customer anecdotes are just as important. “That data can sometimes make us blind to some of the things that are actually real-world problems, like the stylist who didn't get his order.”
Taking customer experience to the next level
“Everybody thinks about personalization as showing customers the right product, but it's so much more,” Adam Goldenberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Fabletics, announced during the session,” Building Best-in-Class Unified Customer Experiences." He provided multiple examples to illustrate how his company is delivering hyper-personalized experiences.
We're tracking every item a consumer looks at on the website using algorithms to then recommend what we should show them that they might then purchase. These same algorithms are in the store so that store associates can see, 'Okay, online this customer has this in their shopping cart, they've looked at these nine items, they purchased these things, — then they can make better recommendations.
CO-FOUNDER & CEO, FABLETICS
Fabletics is also delivering more individualized content based on the data collected. For example, the brand can determine if the customer converts better when seeing extended-size models or regular-sized models, and then show those images as the default. They are currently testing images in real time to determine whether an individual customer is more attracted to brand-owned product images (often shot on models) or influencer-created images.
Influencers inspired the brand to start testing customer-created videos on the website, which customers see on the top of some product pages. Adam said they discovered the most popular Fabletics influencer videos were helping customers make purchasing decisions by identifying key aspects of the product, along with sizing information and ideas on how to wear items. While the feature is still being tested, the data shows that about 10% of visitors watch the videos and when they do, it almost doubles the conversion rate.
“We have one individual whose entire job is to look at all the video and image content created every day and help us figure out where it should go. They’re flagging thousands of pieces of content and saying, 'OK, this is a really great video. Let me pass this over to the growth marketing team, the CRM team or product development.' Before we had this dedicated role, we were saying, 'Wow, there is so much great content created that we're just wasting.'”
To enhance the in-store experience, Fabletics has integrated iPads into its fitting rooms to enable customers to request additional sizes and products. Adam explained the original goal was to solve the issue of customers needing a different size and not wanting to run around the store half-naked, as well as allow them to see recommended items. However, it has also benefited the brand on the backend. “One of the cool things we do is track every item that goes in the dressing room to see the conversion rate. So, if a style is converting at 35%, but the XXS is only converting at 20%, we immediately know it's an issue with the grading or fit and that data is forwarded to our technical design team. Returns are incredibly painful for every company, so we're very focused on fit and consistency.”
Conclusion
Shoptalk Fall 2024 underscored a pivotal shift in how retailers are approaching customer experience, moving beyond the transactional to deliver value throughout the entire customer journey. As brands continue to balance technology with human touchpoints, the lessons from Shoptalk make it clear: Winning in today’s experience economy requires a relentless commitment to understanding your customer and enhancing every moment of the shopping journey.
To explore additional quick wins and long-term strategies your business can adopt to build commerce success, read, Priorities for commerce success in 2024 and beyond: A strategic guide for brands and retailers.
Anita J. Temple is the Corporate Journalist at commercetools. She was a fashion editor at Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) and W Magazine before launching a career as a freelance writer and creative producer. She has written content and worked on a wide range of marketing projects for companies including Dreamworks, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Verizon, and Adidas.