Craig Ash

Speaker A: Foreign. And welcome back to the Retail Maverick show, Uncut. And you can probably hear in the background, uh, Fieldworks, uh, who do the PR for the show. Having a great time.

Speaker B: Thank you, Sarah.

Speaker A: Uh, anyway, quick shout out to our sponsors, uh, the Industrious. Uh, thank you so much for your support, the Industrious. We elevate your brand. And actually, um, along with my special guest, who I'll introduce in a second, we've also got, uh, the president of the Industrious here, Andy Austin. Just say hi briefly, Andy.

Speaker C: Well, very happy to be here at the Retail Technology show in London, taking a look at, uh, how technology can enhance customers conversations with retail brands. But I'm excited about who's sitting here next to us.

Speaker A: Yes. So, without further ado, so we've just, uh, actually come out of his session. He's the MD for UK and, um, Ireland for, uh, Swarovski.

Speaker B: It's Craig Ash.

Speaker A: Craig, welcome.

Speaker B: Hi. It's, uh, yeah, great. Great to be here. Great to see you again, um, Andrew. And yeah, uh, privilege to come and talk about all things omnichannel, customer experience and come into this melting pot of ideas and vendors and retailers. So, yeah, it was.

Speaker A: It was a great session. Um, let's talk about maybe Omnichannel and, um, what it means for you, what it means for Swarovski. Because you're talking about online offline. It's not that it's channel agnostic. Um, what. What does omnichannel mean for you guys?

Speaker B: I think it's. It's not really a new topic about, you know, brands needing to deliver a channel agnostic experience. I think for ourselves, it's about our customer just sees the brand. They just see Swarovski regardless of the channel. And we need to make it as easy as possible. I guess omnichannel is about making it as easy as possible for your customer to be able to purchase what they want, when they want and how they want. Really. Um, and I think omnichannel, you know, we. 10 years ago, it was literally about just online and offline. I think that the meaning of omnichannel is also evolving. You know, there's obviously social commerce now we're moving into the world of the metaverse. And, um, you know, I think actually the definition of omnichannel M will continue to change, but it's ultimately about customers just having a frictionless experience regardless of the channel that they shop your brand in.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's a good. So talking about your brand is.

Speaker B: It's.

Speaker A: You're referring to it as a luxury. Absolutely. Everybody, I think, you know that Swarovski doesn't need any introduction for people. But let's talk a little bit about why it's so important. Um, you're talking about this when you're on stage earlier. Why is it so important for you to know your customers?

Speaker B: I think for us, it's absolutely critical because, you know, uh, our, uh, Omni Channel vision is to really be able to provide our customers with a personalized shopping experience. And the more that we can equip our sales consultants and our teams with knowledge of what the customer wants, the better equipped we are then to deliver on their expectations. Um, and, uh, our, uh, overriding global strategy is called looksignite. And one of the two of the key pillars on that probably need no explanation. Product is king and customer is queen. And I think whilst Omnichannel flows across all of our strategic pillars, the one that makes or breaks us is customer as queen. It really, really does.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Um, Andy, I don't know if you want to, uh.

Speaker C: I'd like to chase that a little bit because, uh, customers have individual desires. They have events where Swarovski product means something to them. They went to an evening event and they looked fantastic and they were wearing their product or they're looking forward to a life event and they want to have these conversations with your brand and you call them queens for a reason. You are taking a Persona, an actual human being, and bring them into Swarovski universe. And the Swarovski experience that you're going to provide. In this Omnichannel experience, how critical is arming the salesperson and how, how do you make the salesperson really understand this is a human being that wants to love the moments that Swarovski makes for you?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's a really, really important point because the technology piece is only part of the puzzle. And we've launched various Omnichannel initiatives over the last few years, you know, ranging from tablet assisted selling to Clion telling apps, etc. And if you launch something across 100 stores, you always find that, you know, you'll have 10 or 20 stores that knock it out the park on the metrics. You'll have 10 to 20 stores that don't do so well and everyone else in the middle. It's exactly the same technology, it's exactly the same concept. They're serving, by and large, the same customers. The biggest difference is the human. The biggest difference is the level of engagement and standing knowledge of the team within that. And I think ultimately the secret to success going forward is really how do we use technology, whether it be AI, whether it be um, any other innovations to equip the human better. Because it's ultimately the human that drives a brand forward. It's not the technology in itself, it's the human that makes that decision on what they adopt and what they don't adopt and the better. Ah, we can equip that 20 hour sales consultant to be able to advise and explain. And our product isn't straightforward. You know, we're proud of our product because it has remarkable complications. Um, you know it's beautiful, um, creative jewelry or myriad pieces. And to explain that to a gift buyer can be tricky. So you know, when we come up to Valentine's Day, when you come up to Christmas, which are massive peaks for us, a lot of people are buying it as self purchasers but there's a whole bunch of people buying it for other people too.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: So to say that our sales consultants have to be absolute experts both in the product but also very knowledgeable about their customer, um, I think is really, really important. I think I mentioned in my presentation when we clion tell a customer, the value per transaction is two and a half times greater than a non clientele customer. So when a staff member has that personal relationship, they know the customer's preferences, purchase history, interests, etc. Of course they can then deliver a much more personalized experience.

Speaker C: When you are able to off lift things like what you just mentioned. Also uh, product suite, uh, available skus inventory when you're available to off lift that from the soldier, the salesperson. Now you can smile, make eye contact and have a two way conversation. That's also part of why you're getting a two and a half better.

Speaker B: Oh totally, totally. And I think um, things like even using a tablet to support sales consultants in making recommendations to customers. Again, our people can't be computers. They can't store that in ordinance amounts of money. Well you don't want, we don't want that. We want them to be that human connection, you know, to bring the brand to life. That's what's really, really important. And yeah, that's, that's a key example I think of how technology can really enable that human connection to shine even, even brighter.

Speaker C: And remember when consumers are paying £4 a liter in petrol to come to your store, they're not coming to talk to a computer. Yeah, they're coming to talk to a human being. But the technology is enhancing that conversation, allowing the human to be a better human.

Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. And I think I'm a true believer that you know, people love coming shopping and most people like being served by other humans and that's what makes it special. You know we, we have a thriving online business and it's really, really important. But there's still 70% of our sales that are still generated from bricks and mortar stores. And bear in mind we operate relatively small stores so you can't always fit in our full ranges. So again the whole concept of omnichannel and how we can use things like tablet assisted selling to offer an endless aisle service effectively to a customer is really key because we're best known for our jewelry but ultimately we crystallize um, designer bags, designer clothes, anything you can mention, we can crystallize it. We have a fantastic sunglasses range but our stores aren't big enough to house all of that range. Um, so yeah, this concept of having a human bring that to life to a customer in a store, um, and enable online sales from a retail setting again is really, really successful for us.

Speaker A: I feel like um, I'm um, an imposter here, just eavesdropping on this conversation between Andy and Craig. So maybe we'll just let them both carry on. But one thing I was going to ask there Craig, about your customers. So they walk in store, they may think they know what they're going to buy, uh, for their partner or whoever it happens to be for birthday, Valentine's, etc. But perhaps they see something else that um, is that a typical scenario where somebody comes in and they think that they know but then you've got a sales associate who has a conversation with them and they end up buying something completely different and um, perhaps it's an upsell as well. Uh, does that sort of scenario happen?

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I think every customer needs to be treated as an individual. And you'll have people come into our stores, have done a lot of research online, they know exactly what they want, they'll come in with their phones, they'll show, I mean the intelligent ah, gift buyers will have actually got specific direction so they'll come in with a picture, um, and, and shows exactly what they want. But then equally you have the other side of the spectrum. You have, you have browsers come in, have no idea what jewelry they want to buy, um, their, you know, their, the person that they're buying a gift for. But then you know, equally we, we have a big um, home and figurine business as well where we have people who are avid Collectors, um, every year we release a limited edition piece that's only available for people who are members of our, uh, of our Swarovski, um, Swarovski club. So effectively these people are almost fanatical about and big, big, big collectors. So they have very specific needs. So I guess my point is that every customer has very, very different needs. And I think our team of sales consultants have to be so agile, um, to be able to cater for that. Versus a fanatical Swarovski crystal collector due to a husband buying a present that he's got no idea what he's going to buy his wife for Christmas. Right through to a cell purchaser, um, you know, a 25 year old who is into luxury brands, loves fashion and actually wants to treat herself. So there's a whole wide spectrum, but yeah, it just comes down to being able to offer as agile CX experience as possible.

Speaker C: You're absolutely right because this is the number one quandary of the salesperson. Every time you greet a customer, you have no idea where on the spectrum that customer is. And there are many instances if it's one of your Swarovski fans, fan queens, that um, she may know a lot more about what she's looking for than the salesperson. Knowing that there's a piece of technology there that's going to allow me to be more expert in front of every shopper no matter where they are on the spectrum is what you've enabled your salespeople to do.

Speaker B: Exactly. And again, I think there's a familiarity piece as well. It's around if you're coming into the store and you're being served by me, and then I'm then reaching out to you, um, to let you know that when product that you love comes back in the store, that triggers a conversation. And then you come in and we meet and you may have a glass of champagne, uh, and sit down and we do a whole styling appointment around that, around that product. And it's about making the customer feel really, really special. Um, but you can only do that if you know their preferences.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker A: We've got a couple of minutes left because as we know, the retail maverick goes just 15 minutes. Because let's face it, who's got time to listen to an hour long podcast these days? So in the last couple of minutes you, you talked in your session a, uh, little bit about store of the future. And it was quite an interesting point you made about the store of the Future back in 2014 versus the Store of the Future 2024, where do you see? And, uh, maybe we can go, I don't know, three to five years, not 10, because who knows, three to five? Where do you see or how do you see your, um, stores evolving over the coming years? What can you share, uh, with us about that?

Speaker B: Yes, I think Store of the Future is an interesting concept and I kind of said in my presentation, if you look at the general high streets in 2014 to now, it's relatively the same. M. You know, I think it's easy to sit here and think, oh, we're all going to be walking around showrooms with robots in virtual reality. But I think the changes are going to be more subtle than that. Um, I think if I'm looking in five years time, I think probably the changes again will still be relatively subtle because I think it takes time for new technologies to evolve. I can see augmented reality playing a greater role. Um, devices. We were chatting earlier about things like Apple Vision Pro, similar devices, as they become more mainstream. I can see that playing a larger role. Um, I think the Metaverse is a really interesting concept, I think in context to Omnichannel. And I think we've got to be careful that that is the glue that brings all of the channels together rather than goes off on tangents. M. If I'm looking five years into the future at our stores, I think you're going to walk in. I think they're still going to. People are still want to see exceptional physical products. I think they're going to want to interact, um, with warm, knowledgeable, friendly sales consultants. Um, and they're going to want to, I think that the red threads will be the same. Customers want to be excited by a brand. Right. You want to walk in and retail isn't rocket science. And if you can deliver exceptional product delivered by exceptional people and technology is moving the friction points of what that experience feels like, then I think, then I think you're going to win.

Speaker A: I think that is a brilliant, absolutely spot on time, uh, so brilliant way to end. So this has been, uh, the Retail Mavericks show at the Retail Technology Show. Thank you so much, Craig Ash. And thank you so much, Andy Austin.