By Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief
Each year at Retail TouchPoints we recognize retailers that go the extra mile in engaging with customers. This year’s Customer Engagement Awards features 14 different retail companies that implemented innovative and successful customer engagement strategies.
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Our winners include both large and small retailers, national and international. There’s something for every retailer to learn in the examples highlighted in the report.
Here’s the list of the 2013 winners:
Aéropostale
Coastal.com
Famous Footwear/Brown Shoe
Free People
Kroger
Longo’s Brothers Fruit Markets
Pier 1 Imports
Rebel Sports
Reeds Jewelers
Sears Hometown
Sigma
Smartfurniture.com
TOMS
Vans
And here are a few highlights…
Kroger has combined the old with the new. The $97 billion supermarket retailer is using personalization to update its direct mail program. Quarterly mailers, totaling 11 million pieces of direct mail, contain coupons specifically targeted to individuals and households.
Sears Hometown and Outlet has incorporate interactive touchscreens into stores, to offer a hybrid in-store/online shopping experience, and help shoppers find products and information in its warehouse-style facilities. The delivery platform also collects shopper data to identify shopping patterns and demographics.
Rebel Sports is tapping mobile technology and social capabilities to re-engage with female shoppers, in order to compete with more specialized retail competitors. Social media monitoring is helping the retailer better understand female customers. Rebel also has been able to identify key influencers via social channels.
Smartfurniture.com is using live chat to augment customer service initiatives. This feature has boosted conversion by at least 20% month-over-month. The online furniture seller also has incorporated an interactive quiz to provide a more personalized shopping experience on the e-Commerce site.
These are just a few examples of the ways retailers are becoming more dedicated to the shopper experience. We received a record number of nominations this year, which tells me that customer engagement continues to increase in importance.
What are your thoughts on our 2013 winners? How are you improving customer engagement for your business?
We’ll be looking forward to learning more from these and other leading retailers moving into 2014. I am sure it will be an exciting year in retail!
