When it comes to retailers that sell high-end or luxury goods, data gathering and customer information is important for omnichannel retail success. . Sellers hoping to appeal to affluent individuals need to ensure they are offering a quality shopping experience because they are likely dealing with a smaller audience than normal. Having a finger on the pulse of customers’ needs and interests is paramount, as it enables retailers to offer the right products, bolster loyalty, garner more sales and improve the overall shopping experience. The happiness of customers is vital to the long-term success of luxury sellers.

Fortunately, with the shift to omnichannel retailing and the evolution of omnichannel tools that allow merchants to track their customers across all sales avenues and consolidate this information, retailers are more in tune with their customers’ needs and desires than ever before. They can use information to identify trends and improve inventory selection, pinpoint parts of the shopping experience that may annoy customers, provide personalized customer service and offer pertinent product recommendations.

When dealing in luxury goods, shoppers often have higher expectations, which is why it is so important that merchants show customers they actually know their target audience on an individual basis. Getting something wrong – such as making an irrelevant recommendation or being unable to complete simple tasks such as looking up order information – can be even worse for high-end retailers, since customers have these greater expectations. If customers are going to spend a lot of money, they at least want to do so with a merchant that can provide them with a high level of personalized, quality service.

Bluemercury leverages customer information to deliver a quality experience

Luxury beauty retailer Bluemercury is one of the many high-end retailers that has expanded to omnichannel retail operations. While collecting consumer data was initially a concern, Bluemercury quickly found out that many customers were actually willing to self-identify at the point of sale, which makes collecting information much easier.

“More than 80 percent of our customers self-identify at the register, and that’s contributed to the more than 2 million customer records in our system,” Barry Beck, chief operating officer at Bluemercury, told Retail Solutions Online. “Those records tell us who’s buying which products, when they’re buying them, why they love them, where they live, when they’re celebrating a birthday and more.”

While many retailers use customer data for features such as product recommendations, Bluemercury takes this information one step further and shows what high-end merchants can do to set themselves apart and really pamper their customers. The cosmetics retailer may send “sneak peeks” of new products to customers who like a particular manufacturer or use purchase patterns and order dates to coordinate replenishment orders.

Bluemercury is not done either – the company wants to invest even more into technology to further improve customer-centric initiatives.

“That’s another step toward the dream of using technology to immediately recognize our customers and their preferences right when they walk into our stores, to send relevant product suggestions directly to their devices automatically, then allow them to check out online … or bring their devices to the register for in-store checkout,” Beck added.

Making customer management and information a priority

For retailers looking to implement an omnichannel retail shopping experience, it is pivotal to make customer data a priority. Managing customer information across all channels and putting it at the finger tips of anyone who needs it is pivotal and can go a long way toward improving the overall shopping experience.