In luxury retail, executives from Prada, Versace, and Zegna referred to the customer experience as a selling ceremony at Oracle Retail’s Industry Forum in Lisbon, Portugal. Luxury brands are compelled to design and execute a sophisticated yet simple selling ceremony that is much more than a series of transactions.
The pandemic accelerated the ongoing transformation of the customer experience and strengthened the need for a data-driven, cross-channel strategy. Enabling the customer experience through technology creates a competitive advantage for retailers. By automating the process and adding the power of artificial intelligence, sophisticated brands can nurture the relationship, add situational awareness to the purchase history, and create opportunities to interact with customers regularly.
“An evolving and compelling assortment allows retailers to interact regularly with an elevated personal touch with their most valuable customers. Beyond knowing that Mr. Smith is a 38 long, the sales associate can better understand and capture the context of his wardrobe requirements,” said Greg Flinn, Business Director and Fashion Expert for Oracle Retail. “The little black book of clienteling becomes much more powerful when we can bring that intelligence full circle to feed into product development.”
Iconic luxury brands command a loyalty of their own. But as the buyer's demographics change, business models must adjust to meet the needs of the customer base. Oracle provides an omnichannel platform that is integrated, scalable, and unique.
For example, the Italian fashion luxury menswear brand Zegna deployed Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning to accelerate planning cycles and optimize the merchandising, purchasing, and planning functions with a single integrated model. Recently Zegna adopted Oracle Retail Xstore Point of Service, Oracle Retail Customer Engagement Cloud Services, and Oracle Retail Order Broker Cloud Service to further drive efficiency, elevate personalized and timely services, and enhance in-store operations. Brands who embrace a mobile deployment of the retail POS can access real-time inventory and enable on-demand transactions, such as shipping articles from another warehouse or scheduling a store pickup.
Retailer Portabella taps Oracle Retail to improve the in-store experience
Another fashion retailer, Portabella, the largest privately-owned men’s specialty retailer in the United States, is upgrading in-store service with Oracle. At its 50+ stores in the Eastern US and online, Portabella offers the latest fashions in apparel, footwear, and accessories, with more than 600 vendors and suppliers. To better assist guests throughout their shopping journey, Portabella selected Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service (POS) and Oracle Retail Xstore Office cloud services. With the mobile retail POS, store associates will be able to help customers find fashion-forward trends at the best prices both online or in the store.
“Following our recent e-commerce modernization, we are replacing our legacy point-of-sale to provide a unified brand experience across all channels with consistency in pricing, service, and quality,” says George Mikhail, chief information officer and chief financial officer at Portabella. “Oracle Retail will set the foundation to expand our omnichannel model and enable us to leverage data science to better inform customer shopping journeys.”
Portabella also offers custom-fitting services such as tailoring, alterations, and measuring. With the new mobile systems, its retail associates will gain the flexibility to move about the store and deliver individualized service to meet customer’s needs and specific style preferences. By having inventory and customer information at their fingertips, associates can deliver a personalized shopping experience and better, faster service.
“Recent consumer research indicates consumers prefer to shop in-store for fashion and footwear items,” says Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager at Oracle Retail. “By adopting our platform for modern retail, Portabella can support a seamless omnichannel customer experience to strengthen the company’s motto of selection, price consciousness, and prime locations.”
To learn more, watch recorded retailer sessions today
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Rose Spicer, Khareem Sudlow
