When it comes to reaching out to their customers, youth-oriented retail chains are particularly challenged in today’s omnichannel, consumer-dominated world.
But the likes of Abercrombie & Fitch, Urban Outfitters and American Eagle Outfitters and their many monikers are making extra efforts to connect, and it’s working.
At Urban Outfitters, chief financial officer Frank Conforti said the effort to connect with customers comes in many forms. For instance, Urban Outfitters has about 15 percent more choices online this year than last year and more size options.
Conforti said, “We are continuing to improve customer segmentation and personalization, so we get the right messages to the right people.”
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In recent months, Urban has also added more payment options like Apple Pay and Afterpay to improve convenience for customers, and has adjusted overall marketing to get the message out.
Trish Donnelly, Urban Outfitters Brand global CEO, noted that digital sales across all geographies have benefited from the UO Rewards loyalty program, which has expanded into France and Germany and now has more than 5 million customers participating globally.
“Enrollments have improved by double-digits over the past year, as our members continue to be our brand promoters by engaging with that frequently in our apps, visiting our stores and advocating UO on social media,” Donnelly said. “Customers in UO Rewards have proven to shop more frequently and have higher order values compared to the average. We are very encouraged by customer engagement with our UO Rewards program and will continue to build upon concurrent feature sets to attract even more loyalists.”
In the stores, one new initiative launched during the second quarter was self-checkout at the Herald Square store in New York City.
“The Urban Outfitters customer is clearly voting for self-checkouts, with the percentage of self-checkout transactions highly exceeding expectations,” Donnelly said. “Not only is this a convenient way for our customers to transact, but it also allows us to reposition labor to further service customers and drive conversion on the selling floor. Given its success, we are currently working on plans to rollout self-checkout to additional UO stores.
In addition, Donnelly stressed that the brand’s marketing and public relations teams continued to work on ways to connect with and engage customers in new and innovative ways. These include social media channels, brand partnerships, music initiatives, in-store events and influential press outlets.
“Within social, Instagram, our largest channel, once again saw double-digit growth during the quarter, with global followers now topping 8 million,” Donnelly said. “Shoppable Instagram, which we launched last quarter, continues to grow as our customers become comfortable with this platform as a means of purchasing.”
At American Eagle, executive chairman and CEO Jay Schottenstein said a key pillar of the retailer’s growth strategy is to “strengthen and deepen your connection with customers at both American Eagle and Aerie.”
“Our unique marketing campaign AEMA and aerieREAL are focused on promoting youth empowerment and diversity,” Schottenstein said. “Ongoing investments in digital capabilities, as well as our loyalty program, AEO Connected, are all geared toward elevating customer engagement.”
In addition to effective new ad campaigns and digital marketing investments, Schottenstein pointed to a “greater emphasis on a customer-focused selling culture and elevating our in-store experiences,” which have yielded “impressive” results, including higher customer conversion rates and a “healthy” growth in transactions.
Chad Kessler, global brand president at American Eagle, said, the AE brand is working on building a stronger emotional connection with consumers, and so far, the AEMA campaign has been helping to fuel that connection.
“Our customers are speaking out, engaging with the brand and feeling empowered to be themselves,” Kessler said. “Our new jeans campaign, ‘Makes Moves,’ highlights our next level jeans and the unique personalities of our real cast.”
For Abercrombie & Fitch, it’s been about taking a cue from targeted customers on what they want in order to tailor marketing efforts that will resonate. The retailer recently launched the A&F brand ambassador program called Team Abercrombie, with the first group of ambassadors going through brand immersion on campus last month.
“These ambassadors help connect us tightly to our customers and help spread the word to authentic, user-generated content in the places that our digitally-native customers spend their time,” Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Fran Horowitz, said. “We’ve also added partnership and launched campaigns to provide new avenues to reach our customers, as well as provide unique, engaging experiences in putting our partnership with lifestyle hospitality group, SBE and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.”
