Such companies like Bonobos and Warby Parker were born as digital natives that aimed to build a better customer experience for online shopping. Bonobos is now the largest clothing brand ever built on the web in the United States, and the retailer is growing it retail locations (currently at more than 60). Warby Parker dominated the online eyewear category, and now has a retail presence in the United States and Canada at 64 retail locations and growing.

Layered on top of these demanding expectations are new types of accompanying technology. Consumer demands are now calling for a CX that features an experiential or entertainment component. For example, Neighborhood Goods brands itself as a new type of grocery store that strives to be a place for community. It accomplishes this through exclusive events where consumers can RSVP to ‘run the riverside with Fossil & Electric Flight Crew’ or ‘get in the ring with combo boxing.’ Neighborhood Goods has figured out how to tie in its brands with memorable experiences such as blind dates, workouts, happy hours and more. 

Immersive shopping can also be achieved through augmented reality (AR), dining and cooking classes, e-commerce moving to physical (Amazon Go), holographic mirrors, voice commerce, and even virtual agents.

“Twenty-five percent of customer service and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology across engagement channels by 2020, up from less than 2% in 2017,” according to Gartner, Inc.

“As more customers engage on digital channels, VCAs are being implemented for handling customer requests on websites, mobile apps, consumer messaging apps and social networks,” said Gene Alvarez, managing vice president at the Gartner Customer Experience Summit in Tokyo. “This is underpinned by improvements in natural-language processing, machine learning and intent-matching capabilities.”

For retailers to respond effectively to these changes and accelerate the time to value, they must look at the business challenges to address before investing in the accompanying technology ― then leverage data, analytics and AI, to create actionable insights.

CONFRONTING THE ROADBLOCKS TO CX SUCCESS

Retailers need to stay close to the consumer to create a great CX that is based on purpose, trust and care. Once a bad CX is apparent, shopper loyalty is lost, and trust must be regained (costing retailers valuable time and resources). In fact, PwC research shows that globally one in three consumers (32%) say they will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience. A widely surveyed topic, customers have disclosed some of the most important friction points that create barriers to establishing purpose, trust and care in their commerce relationships. These include shipping and delivery expectations, speed and accuracy, and relevancy and transparency of the interactions.