It’s arguably the biggest deal in “Big Lingerie” since the breakup and spinoff of Victoria’s Secret last summer, as the mall-based physical store category leader has moved to acquire the digitally native prowess of its smaller rival, Adore Me.
In an interview with PYMNTS just prior to the announcement as part of our “Commerce Voices” series in collaboration with Checkout.com, Nicolas Capuono, chief customer officer at intimates brand Adore Me, shared insights on how the direct-to-consumer (D2C) retailer has used a customer-centric focus to compete with online rivals, marketplaces and physical stores.
What Victoria’s Secret will get for its $400+ million investment is a decade of product design expertise and a raft of digital innovations such as virtual reality try-on, which Capuono said is becoming an indispensable customer experience component, particularly for apparel retailers.
“As is the case for Adore Me, one of the main focuses is [on] product discovery, and to have software … where you can simulate how the product will display on you based on your body shape, your skin color, based on many features that you can customize,” he said.
Right up there with tech-forward features is how digital is improving the checkout experience, as PYMNTS research showed that 90% of consumers consider this a make-or-break moment.
Where he sees work needed is in buy now, pay later (BNPL) checkouts that take consumers out of the web checkout flow to pay. While he likes the option itself, he called BNPL “disruptive … and should be probably improved.”
A Balancing Act
With basket sizes averaging $100, BNPL isn’t right for Adore Me today, but there’s no debating its popularity as a payment method.
“I’m sure that this type of solution in two years will be very mainstream,” Capuono said. “We need to anticipate the development, the design and the experience because it will take time to make it seamless.”
More prosaic than installment payments perhaps, free shipping and free returns are critical components in customer experience, and an expectation among online shoppers.
“The customer is expecting free shipping,” he said. “We can see that when we’re doing A/B tests.”
Adore Me offers 100% free shipping, and he added that its next evolution will be marrying free shipping and returns with sustainability, which is a powerful motivator now.
Saying free shipping should be “embedded in the business model” of D2C companies, he added: “In the future, it would be better to combine free shipping with the sustainability message that many brands try to convey.”
“Shipping is an important part of the sustainability journey … and the customer should be aware of the impact in terms of sustainability and have the right, the choice, to select one option over another based on this preference,” he said.
When it comes to returns, Capuono said the Adore Me model of sending a selection of items based on customer insights and letting the consumer return anything they don’t want free of charge is “a very good answer right now to customer expectation because you remove the anxiety to the return, you give time to try the product during seven days, and you have the return process that is free as well. We see a lot of traction right now for this type of model.”
See also: Retailers Use Data to Get Back to Basics as Inflation, Competition Weigh Heavy
The Many Faces of CX
Under an expanded definition of customer experience (CX), subscriptions play an ever-larger role, and Adore Me has its own take on how that can improve CX and optimize retention.
Preferences learned in subscription relationships save “time for the customer … by shipping a box with our own recommendation based on key information that we get from the customer,” Capuono said. “We curate the box based on this information, the customer is saving time browsing the website, and this is valuable.”
Combined with the free shipping and returns policy, incorporating the most popular subscription features — account pause, skip a month, set delivery times based on preference — he said: “This type of flexibility is very important. It takes time to implement, [but] this flexibility is valued by the customer.”
When designing for new CX expectations, there’s also the concept of “super service” that goes beyond good experiences and makes the transaction delightful.
Relating the story of a coworker who bought a wedding dress and needed it stat, Capuono said: “She had a very good contact first with a chatbot, then it was a transferred to a human that understood her expectation, and they managed to upgrade shipping. Being able to deliver this type of experience” generated the goodwill and word-of-mouth that great CX rests on today.
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