1:1 For AnyoneThree Reasons Why Clienteling

Isn’t a Luxury Anymore

Advancements in digital commerce have taken the idea of personalized customer experiences and expanded it well beyond the domain of luxury brands. This is especially true online where tailored product recommendations, promotional emails, retargeted ads and location-based mobile notifications are the norm.

But in the brick-and-mortar store—the place where personalized selling began—digital personalization has yet to expand beyond high-touch luxury retailers.

That’s now changing.

A recent study by Retail Systems Research (RSR) found that 94% of retailers saw, “clienteling/CRM solutions for store employees” as important.

Another study (RSR) found that, “when it comes to in-store, retailers report that their perceived highest value technology opportunity is with clienteling…”

And yet, 74% of retailers have not yet provided their store associates with clienteling capabilities.

Why is that?

Clienteling solutions improve in‑store personalization by making a broad array of customer information and customer‑focused capabilities available to the store associate. Clienteling benefits from interoperability with an enterprise order management system to provide real-time access to customer transactions, network inventory and full lifecycle fulfillment.

What is Clienteling?

Cross‑channel customer transaction history

Preferences such as sizes and colors

Wish list items Past returns and exchanges

Recommendations of products based on past

purchases

Appointment setting and wardrobe tracking

Direct messaging with customers

Customer account notes

Retailers with high-service experiences are headed [toward associate enablement vs. self‑service]... Thus the interest in assisted selling and clienteling.But I have a feeling this trend will reach pretty far down into general merchandise.”

- Nikki Baird Retail Systems Research

“

Myth

“It’s too expensive to implement.”

A few years ago, clienteling solutions were often sold as standalone modules that required:

• Separate software procurement processes with multiple vendors

• Separate integration with selling systems such as point of sale, e-commerce and order management

• Separate hardware, because the fixed lane POS wasn’t conducive to more informal, one-on-one interactions between store associates and customers

• Separate user interfaces, resulting in more training and a higher learning curve for store employees

That’s now changed.

Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS)Clears a Path

The popularization of mPOS solutions has opened the door to arming store associates in a wider variety of retail categories with affordable mobile devices. A recent survey1 found that 69% of all retailers plan to invest in mPOS technologies by 2018. Meanwhile, a handful of mPOS vendors now offer solutions that are fully integrated with clienteling and order management systems.Therefore, the cost of implementing mPOS is now likely not that different from the cost of implementing mPOS and clienteling together.

1 2016 POS/Customer Engagement Survey, Boston Retail Partners

Clienteling for AllAs the cost to implement certain clienteling capabilities has come down, retailers from more categories can incorporate aspects of clienteling intothe store experience.

LUXURY

MID-MARKETAPPAREL &

ACCESSORIES

BIG BOX,SPECIALTY &

DEPARTMENTSTORES

GROCERY

5-10 YEARS AGO

NOW

Personalized Store Experience

Com

plex

ity to

Impl

emen

t

Unified

Wish

lists

Algorithm

-Based

Produc

t Rec

ommen

dation

s

Cross-C

hann

el Cus

tomer

Trans

actio

n Hist

ory

Custom

er Acco

unt N

otes

Appointm

ent S

etting

Smile

& Sa

y “Hell

o”

mPOS

Associa

te Micr

o-Mark

eting

Knowled

geable

Associa

tes

Assiste

d Sellin

g

CLIENTELING CAPABILITIES

“Customers don’t want it.”

Myth

Early clienteling technology was defined by purpose-built applications for the needs of luxury retail customers who make high-value purchases and have high service demands. As a result, technology-driven clienteling experiences were only exposed to a limited subset of consumers.

Because digital commerce has now normalized the idea of personalized shopping among consumers, non-luxury stores are increasingly seen as lagging behind shopper expectations with regard to service and convenience.

45%of consumers have chosen, recommended or paid more for a brand that provides a personalized service or experience.

According to Forrester Research, shoppers and consumers:

• “expect associates to know their past purchases and preferences” (23%)

• have “chosen, recommended or paid more for a brand that provided a personalized service or experience” (45%)

One need only look at the personalization capabilities of their own e-commerce site to determine where the personalization gap may lie for store shoppers.

If your website or mobile app offers this levelof personalization…

Your store customers may already expect…

Access to purchase history (for returns and/or reference while shopping)

Store associates able to access and display cross-channel transaction history

Recommendations based on purchase or browsing history Store associates suggesting complementary items based on past purchases

Saved wish lists Ability to add in-store items to a unified wish list (or be informed that a wish list item is available in store)

Personalized promotions delivered via email Store associates with knowledge of active promotions and the ability to email customers

Saved shipping and account preferences To not be prompted for information stored in customer account

Personalized home page based on preferences and history Store associates with fast access to customer account information, such as sizes, product preferences, prior returns, etc.

Location-based notifications or mobile contextualization (e.g., "store mode" and barcode scanning)

Mobile device-equipped store associates able to engage, inform and transact with the customer anywhere on the store floor

“Personalization doesn’t fit our brand.”

Myth

Because one digital personalization is the product of automation and sophisticated algorithms, the idea of bringing clienteling capabilities to your stores may seem unintuitive and inconsistent with your brand at first blush. However, recent advancements in clienteling technology now allow for select capabilities to be adopted by a greater variety of retail categories.

By taking a closer look at what subset of clienteling capabilities make the most sense for a brand, nearly any retailer can leverage the technology to drive larger purchases, higher customer retention and more frequent visits. Further, clienteling capabilities offer a more consistent experience with what nearly any retailer’s e-commerce site already offers.

A customer of a mid-market apparel store has repeatedly returned blouses online. A store associate armed with this information could offer alternate styles and sizes to find a better fit. Once a better-fitting style is found, the associate could make notes in the customer account, available to associates at other stores in case the customer stops in while across town.

An associate at a sporting goods store notices that anin-store customer’s birthday is coming up, acknowledges this, and could point out that a golf accessory on his wish list happens to be on sale.

A shopper perusing the cosmetics section of a department store makes a larger purchase than planned because the associate points out that her favorite brand has just released a new line of brushes that works well with a kind of makeup she’s previously purchased.

An associate at a specialty footwear retailer sends an email to a loyal shopper to have the entire family come in for a shoe fitting appointment, timed to coincide with a seasonal promotion coming up in a few weeks.

A furniture retailer equips its salespeople with visibility into customers’ past purchases so that customers can receive advice on accessorizing existing décor as well as offers to furnish other rooms with a consistent aesthetic—all using product recommendation rules specified by the retailer’s merchandising experts and design partners.

“In order to facilitate engagement, eBusiness leaders, along with their store operations and CIO partners, must put enterprise knowledge into the associate’s hands at the point of the customer decision.”- Adam Silverman Forrester Research

In Person Is the New PersonalizationDigital commerce has primed consumers with a new baseline expectation for tailored, personalized experiences—across retail categories and price points. As a result, retailers of all kinds are seeking out ways of transforming the in-store experience to match these expectations.Modern, leading clienteling solutions have embraced a modular, configurable approach that allows stores to adopt select capabilities that were once luxury mainstays in a cost-effective, brand-consistent way. What’s more, because a majority of retailers are currently planning POS investments over the next two years, these clienteling capabilities may be available without significant additional investment and effort.

Some things just work better together.Manhattan Associates offers the industry’s most comprehensive omni-channel store solutions suite. Built on the industry’s leading enterprise order management system, our solutions include Point of Sale, Clienteling, Store Fulfillment, Store Inventory and Tablet Retailing. Working together, these solutions provide greater strategic outcomes—such as differentiated customer experience, revenue and profitability lift, and lower total cost of ownership.

Selling, Service and Fulfillment

Learn more about our Clienteling solution on our website >