Here’s How Consumer Brands Like Clarks Are Creating Innovative Digital Experiences
For retailers and consumer brands, providing a digital customer experience that is best-in-class is no longer an aspiration but a critical business imperative. Brands are in a perpetual quest to define and deliver digital experiences that resonate deeply with their audiences and capture customer loyalty.
According to a report by PwC, 73% of consumers consider their experience an important factor in their purchasing decisions, behind the price and product quality. Furthermore, 43% of consumers would pay more for greater convenience, 42% would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience and 65% of U.S. customers find a positive experience with a brand to be more influential than great advertising.
The question is, how has the digital experience changed, and what changes do brands need to make to meet customer expectations? Here, we'll explore how to craft a next-generation digital experience. We'll also explore how shoe brand Clarks leveraged digital to drive loyalty and sales.
The Essence of a Best-in-Class Digital Customer Experience
A best-in-class customer experience has always been seamless and personalized. It should anticipate the needs and desires of the consumer. It is built on trust and is consistent across all touchpoints.
However, consumers have much higher expectations for digital than they did even five years ago. Customers expect their digital experiences to be frictionless, and they expect brands to recognize them without sacrificing their privacy.
An Ideal Digital Experience Today
Today's ideal digital experience is characterized by immediacy and convenience. This translates to lightning-fast load times, intuitive navigation, and frictionless transactions. The new benchmark is customer journeys that are so integrated and smooth that they feel like part of the consumer's natural digital habitat.
Ideally, a customer should be able to access an online property or app and seamlessly move between product discovery, research, comparison, purchase, and post-purchase support without even realizing they have left the brand's ecosystem.
The Role of Data in Crafting a Best-in-Class Experience
The key to delivering such an experience lies in data. Brands must collect and analyze relevant customer data from all touchpoints to understand individual behaviors and preferences. This allows them to personalize and tailor their digital experience to meet customer expectations.
Data can also be utilized to predict future needs and desires, allowing brands to provide proactive and relevant recommendations. This level of personalized service creates a seamless user experience, making the brand stand out from competitors.
Omnichannel and Personalization
Omnichannel strategies, where the customer experience is consistent across all channels, online and offline, are now an integral part of best-in-class service. Personalization, driven by data insights, tailors the experience to the individual, making it more relevant and engaging.
Many brands say they have an omnichannel experience, but they are still dependent on siloed data. This can lead to roadblocks in the customer experience and a lack of personalization on some channels.
Building Uniquely Differentiated Experiences
Beyond seamlessness and personalization, differentiation is key in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Brands that stand out are those that have a deep understanding of their customers and can cater to their unique wants and needs.
However, stand-out brands can also take advantage of the latest trends and innovations to harness shifts in consumer habits.
Leveraging emerging tools like AI and emerging experiential technologies like the metaverse can be challenging, but doing so can lead to innovative breakthroughs and real staying power in the minds of consumers. For example, a brand that creates a virtual reality shopping experience that immerses customers in its products will have a significant competitive advantage over those who are still using traditional e-commerce methods.
Similarly, a brand that leverages AI and machine learning to provide personalized product recommendations, based on individual customer data, will create an experience that truly stands out.
A New Digital Experience at Clarks
Shoe brand Clarks provides an excellent example of how a brand can rely on standard customer experience practices like data analysis and personalization while also tapping into the latest technology.
According to a report by Little Black Book, this "storied footwear brand is now readying itself for a web3 future."
In 2023, Clarks partnered with Empire Music for a collaboration that featured Nigerian megastar, Fireboy DML, with support from Nigerian singer, Nissi and Cape Verdean-American singer-songwriter, June Freedom. The brand sponsored a gig that took place in the metaverse and was streamed live to Fireboy DML's YouTube Channel.
At the time of the report, the stream had 731,000 over four days. The experience took viewers to various virtual locales, including a cosmic space station and a futuristic jungle city.
"We predict the metaverse as becoming a permanent fixture in brands toolkits – the possibilities are endless from live gigs to online games, immersive multimedia experiences, digital showrooms and limited edition NFTs,” said Tara McRae, chief marketing and digital officer at Clarks. "We believe it really is a window into the future of fashion and immensely exciting!"
A Long-Term Plan for Clarks' Digital Presence
Beyond the metaverse, Clarks has a long-term plan for its digital presence that involves new technology and eCommerce initiatives.
"Currently we are going through a tech overhaul within digital commerce,” said McRae. "This will enable consumers to shop at Clarks with greater ease, whilst also allowing us to move faster as a marketing organization globally in the sharing of content.”
Embedded in the brands' marketing strategy is experimentation and innovation. Moving forward, the brand will create more unique experiences for customers while also building on its core digital foundation.
Build a Better Digital Experience
The pursuit of a best-in-class digital customer experience requires an unwavering commitment to understanding your customers, an innovative approach to designing customer interactions, and a laser focus on creating and sustaining meaningful relationships. By following the example set forth by Clarks, brands and retail leaders can provide experiences that are not only best-in-class but also uniquely theirs.
To learn more about how you can improve your brand's digital experience, don't miss the next eTail event. It's happening in Boston, Massachusetts at the Boston Marriott Copley Place from August 12th to 15th.
Download the agenda and register for the event today.