VISUAL MIX & MATCH AND MATCH-TO-ORDER PERSONALIZATION Helping Retailers Boost Engagement, Conversion Rates, and AOV

Fluid Product Customization Executive Briefing

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Retailers and brands take note: consumer demand for personalized shopping experiences isn’t coming, it’s here. latest research from Deloitte shows that 40% of consumers between the ages of 16 and 30 are attracted to personalized goods and services, and 71% of these stated they would be prepared to pay a premium price for them. This past year has witnessed a groundswell of product offerings and entire new businesses to meet the demand for commerce that is tailored to individual customer’s unique specifications. Sportswear giant PUMA, for example, now offers customizable jerseys from their Arsenal FC line, with custom orders accounting for more than half of total sales while commanding a 30% price premium compared to a standard jersey. NIKE has taken things to a whole other level with NIKEiD, their custom product program which has generated in excess of $600M of revenue in 2015, a number that is expected to exceed $1B by 2017.

“If businesses can successfully add a personalization process or personal touch that consumers are seeking,” the Deloitte report states, “they can simplify their range and benefit from more predictable levels of demand, and may even command a price premium.”

In a marketplace where Amazon has overwhelmingly won the price and selection battles, personalized shopping experiences are the future of brand differentiation. The need for these types of experiences is acute, with Forrester Research reporting that more than 30% of organizations list “making the customer experience as personalized and relevant as possible” as their number one priority. And for companies looking to take a first step in that direction, visual match-to-order personalization offers a solution that can have a massive impact on revenue and engagement.

Why Match-to-Order Personalization

Match-to-order personalization differs from build-to-order customization in that rather than manufacturing a one-off product to an individual consumer’s specifications, brands or retailers create a virtual shopping experience that allows shoppers to visualize and group stocked products

together in a way that shows them how these products compliment each other as they would in the real world. Successfully replicating this experience online can greatly enhance a shopper’s ability to discover and purchase their ideal products.

“In the end, it doesn’t matter if you produced a product just for me, or just matched it out of an existing assortment; the essential thing is that you’re able to give your customers exactly what they want,” said Professor Frank Piller, a leading expert on Mass Customization and member of MIT’s Smart Customization Group who teaches management at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. “If you can create an experience that gets your customers close to what they want, even if that’s from a lineup of the products you already offer, that will work.”

There is an important distinction between true match-to-order personalization and product recommendation algorithms, which display additional options with similar properties but lack the all-important aspect of a truly personal shopping experience: context. True personalization helps shoppers discover exactly the combination of products they are looking for.

“There’s a huge difference between recommendations, like what you’d find on Amazon, and actual personalization,” said Larry Bernstein, the vice president of product development at Fluid. “Rather than just showing someone something they might like but weren’t looking for, a good personalization system allows your online customers to experience the way products work and interact together.”

A well designed match-to-order experience, such as those offered by brands like eSalon, Matouk, Dollar Shave Club and JCPenney, makes mass personalization readily adoptable across a broad spectrum of business models. They enable brands and retailers to more effectively sell groups of stocked products while still offering the personalized touch consumers are hungry for, opening the door to potentially massive revenue and engagement benefits.

Visual Mix & Match and Match-to-Order Personalization

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Luxury bedding retailers Serena & Lily and Matouk both leveraged visual match-to-order personalization experiences after searching for a solution to help them drive revenue and engagement, create a unique online presence, and strengthen their relationships with their customers. Serena & Lily’s Make Your Bed bedding configurator delivered huge results; conversion rates doubled, AOV increased by 88%, time on site was boosted by 115%, and bounce rate decreased by 79%. Matouk launched uMatouk, an online custom bedding visualizer that allows customers to mix and match photorealistic combinations of duvets, pillows, and sheets to create their ideal bedding set. In addition to driving major

business results, Matouk’s tool also helped them overcome some key difficulties inherent to marketing bedding products online.

“Our category is a tricky one to merchandise, both in an online and offline world, as beds are big and it’s prohibitively expensive and time consuming to stage photographs of every style and color combination,” said Stuart Kiely, Matouk’s senior director of technology and marketing. “We wanted to build an online experience where customers are able to create their own personalized bedding combinations that align perfectly with their needs and tastes by allowing them to mix and match across our entire product line in a way that was previously impossible, even in store.”

Visual Mix & Match and Match-to-Order Personalization

Since launching uMatouk in 2014, Matouk has seen a 700% increase in time on site for people who interact with the tool. The platform is also used in-store to help their retail partners sell Matouk’s products more effectively; brick and mortar retail associates use the tool to visualize bed configurations while standing side by side with their customers, while interior designers can use Matouk’s tablet app to review style coordinates in their clients’ homes.

“The feedback from our retail and interior design partners has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Kiely. “And it’s driving engagement between us and our trade partners, as they think of Matouk first more so than they did before because we offer them these tools. We occupy more mind share.”

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A successful match-to-order experience will enable your customers to visualize in as realistic a way possible the look and feel of the group of products they are interested in, and how these products interact with each other. Historically, this was something brands could only achieve in-store, but if brands can bring that experience online the impact is potentially huge.

“Shoppers are already mixing and matching offline, and they increasingly expect to be able to do the same online,” said Kent Deverell, founder and CEO of Fluid, Inc. “Offering an experience that allows you to mix and match products in a contextual way online is one of the most forward looking ways brands can enhance their customer’s experience of their products.

This was exactly the thinking behind the personalization experience of Generation Tux, George Zimmer’s new e-commerce tuxedo rental business. They faced unique challenges in that formal wear is a difficult category to automate and scale online. Most formal wear takes days to rent, requires multiple store visits, and is often plagued by ill-fitting products that cost much more than renters anticipate and are often received the day before the event. Tuxedos combine multiple accessories, which have traditionally been difficult to curate online effectively because there was no way for a customer to see how the individual components they select will all look together.

“To address these challenges and create an online shopping experience that would engage a new generation of increasingly mobile consumers, Generation Tux partnered with us to create the GenTux Studio,” said Angela Flynn, VP of Customer Success at Fluid. “The studio is a state-of-the-art outfit builder that allows customers to mix and match components from jackets to cufflinks and everything in between, visualize their outfit in real-time and photorealistic quality, and then order their creation as a bundle,” added Flynn.

“The magic of the visualizer is that it’s a highly engaging tool for our customers that negates the need for them to go to a store by helping them visualize their look in a photo realistic way and save that look into an outfit,” said Matt Schow, executive vice president of Ecommerce and marketing at Generation Tux. “Strategically, GenTux Studio allows my customers to arrive at their desired look quickly, which in turn converts them quickly, ” added Schow.

The ability to visualize product groupings in a photorealistic way is very important, as it’s critical that your customers can see and know exactly what they’re getting. It’s also essential to make sure that your personalization experience only allows customers to assemble collections of in-stock items; if they can’t complete their transaction due to one of their choices being out of stock, their experience will be a negative one which can lead to cart abandonment.

Visual Mix & Match and Match-to-Order Personalization

Creating a Successful Personalization Experience

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FINAL THOUGHTSAs consumers increasingly demand more contextual and personal shopping experiences, match-to-order personalization offers a powerful solution. When executed thoughtfully, these experiences allow retailers and brands to bring the mix-and-match shopping behaviors that your customers rely on offline onto your digital properties, creating greatly enhanced conversion rates, engagement, and opportunities for revenue.

Visual Mix & Match and Match-to-Order Personalization

Following these principles will not only make the user’s shopping experience far more entertaining and engaging, but can boost sales and engagement while lowering return rates. Fluid’s Visual Mix & Match platform, is designed around these principles, and is the technology behind the personalization experiences of brands such as Matouk, Serena & Lily, Generation Tux and JCPenney. Visual Mix & Match was designed to scale infinitely, allowing shoppers to visually combine an unlimited number of products contextually both online and via in-store apps.

“It’s a breakthrough when Ecommerce customers feel that they are having an experience as rich as one they can get in a store,” said Stuart Spiegel, Principle at Spiegel Partners LLC, a consulting firm that helps brands create innovative digital

experiences. “Bridging the gap between the analog and digital world is the holy grail, and Fluid’s Mix & Match technology has proven that a digital experience can rival an in-store experience. It enables designers, retailers and consumers alike to play with outfits or complex product choices to their heart’s content, using their own design sensibilities and aesthetic.”

Finally, you want to ensure your visual mix and match experience is seamless, simple and fun for your customers to engage with. Regardless of device, platform or location, the golden rule is to make personalization fun and easy, guiding your customers from inspiration to creation by presenting them with a range of customizable attributes while not overwhelming them with too many options.

About Fluid

Fluid creates commerce experiences and software that transform how people shop, driving conversion, satisfaction and brand loyalty. These results are delivered through Fluid’s integrated suite of software solutions and their services team, made up of digital shopping experts in user experience, design, and strategy. Founded in 1999 with offices in San Francisco and New York, Fluid’s customers include Airbnb, Google, Harman Kardon, Keen, Nautica, Target, The North Face, Oakley, PUMA, Reebok, Timberland, UGG and Vans. To learn more, please reach us at hello@fluid.com.