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EDITORIAL How retailers from JD Sports to Yoox Net-A-Porter are engaging with their customers

In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter we’re reporting on how retailers are keeping their customers loyal and engaged. JD Sports, which today reports a 47% rise in revenues, says that for it it’s about offering customers retail theatre and an “elevated multichannel proposition” that attracts top-drawer brands – and customers – to its stores. That appears to be standing the retailer in good stead at a time when in-store visitor numbers continue to fall, according to the latest figures from the BRC and Springboard. Those suggest that retail parks were the only location that saw visitor numbers increase in August, while footfall on the high street and at shopping centres fell once more.

At Yoox Net-A-Porter it’s all about service that the retailer offers to its luxury customers. It’s doubling the size of its personal shopping team, which it says is guided by AI in forming one-on-one relationships with top customers. It’s interesting to see this use of automation working in tandem with more staff, rather than fewer. At root, it seems, it’s the human element and the personal relationship that matters to the shoppers who have the most money to spend. 

We also look today at how Amazon is changing the way it offers its AmazonFresh service to Prime customers, who can now use it on demand rather than signing up for a monthly subscription – enabling them to engage in the way that best suits them.

The customer engagement and loyalty conference at IRC 2019 will be delving into this area in more depth, and we look ahead today at who the speakers in that conference will be. Finally, today’s guest comment comes from Tiffany Carpenter of SAS UK & Ireland, who looks at how retailers can go further in their customer engagement and make the most of their consumer data.

Image: Fotolia

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