Sustainable growth is reliant on an exceptional customer experience. But how do you keep that level of customer focus as you expand your digital business?
Dutch department store HEMA has faced just that challenge over the last 18 months. In this blog, HEMA’s COO, Richard Flint, shares his advice on scaling up digital capabilities quickly, from developing new customer journeys to building strong partnerships.
1. Think outside the box
If nothing else, the last year has taught us the value of agility. As stores were forced to close and online demand soared, retailers had to think fast to adapt to new customer needs.
HEMA, for example, experienced an increase in webshop sales by up to four or five times. In fact, demand was similar to Black Friday levels, but for eight consecutive weeks. “Agility was really top of mind for us when the implications of COVID kicked in,” explains Flint. “It accelerated trends that we were already seeing beyond all measure. How could we scale up our online order and fulfilment capacity? We had to think outside the box.”
Although it might be tempting to take multiple approaches, Flint recommends prioritising investments.
“We thought long and hard about what we wanted to achieve and what our customers needed, and eventually just settled on one or two areas on which to focus.”
2. Develop new customer journeys
Efficient digital customer journeys that maximise your existing resources are key to keeping up with demand. For example, to maximise distribution while making the most of its shops and employees, HEMA established ship-from-store capabilities, as well as extended click-and-collect to include time reservation slots.
“COVID-19 pushed omnichannel into a very different dimension. In response, we quickly created new customer journeys.”
Thanks to its new customer journeys, HEMA was able to grow its online order and delivery capacity by 50% within just a few months.
2. Choose the right partners
Reacting quickly to change is only possible with the right collaborations, however. Flint partly attributes HEMA’s agility to its careful choice of partners. “It’s only at times when you see a significant increase in velocity that you realise you have the right partners,” confirms Flint.
The retailer has been using Salesforce Commerce Cloud since 2018 to support its online sales. Thanks to the platform’s flexibility and its partnership with Salesforce, it was able to rapidly roll out the features it needed to support its new customer journeys.
“With Salesforce, we had a minimal viable proposition up and running very quickly.”
4. Consider what your customers actually want
While it’s vital to entice new customers to shop, always keep in mind the needs of existing regulars, especially if you value your NPS (Net Promoter Score). “I think when you look at new and returning customers, they value exactly the same criteria,” says Flint. “And for our customers, that’s the right balance of delivery speed and reliability.”
To ensure it could continue to keep its commitments as it scaled up, HEMA updated its delivery promise. “We recognised that it was more important to our customers to be assured of what they would receive their purchase – even if it was a day later,” explains Flint. “And it really improved our NPS score.”
5. Don’t forget your core company values
Lastly, Flint reminds us that it’s more crucial than ever to keep in touch with your company values as the business grows. “It’s really important to think about the values of the company to ensure that you continue to do the right thing,” he says. “It's not necessarily something that's planned in a great big sustainability agenda – sometimes it’s just about small acts of kindness.”
As HEMA shows us, rapid digital growth and a great customer experience are not mutually exclusive. By leveraging digital innovations while keeping the customer and company values at the centre of all your decisions, you can have your cake and eat it – and so can your customers.
Find out more about how HEMA and other retailers are maximising agility, scaling quickly, and optimising the customer experience with Commerce Cloud.
