A bride can tell a wedding planner her date, budget, venue and preferences, then find herself repeating the same information to every florist, photographer and caterer she contacts.
The businesses she needs aren’t necessarily any better connected. Inquiries can arrive through email, texts, contact forms and social media, while appointments and follow-up sit in separate systems. The happy couple is planning one event, but much of the commerce surrounding it remains divided among independent local businesses and disconnected technology.
David’s Bridal is tackling that problem with Wednesday’s (Sept. 16) launch of Pearl Connect, an artificial intelligence-powered platform connected to Pearl Planner, its consumer wedding-planning platform.
“We couldn’t solve the problem from just the bride side,” Elina Vilk, president and chief business officer of David’s Bridal, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in tandem with the launch. “To really solve this problem, we had to solve it from both sides of the house.”
David’s Bridal already had local businesses participating around its stores and an earlier platform where they could list themselves. Vilk said those businesses wanted customers, but also needed help with the work surrounding customer acquisition.
“They want leads, they want to connect with the brides,” Vilk added. Existing options often amount to mass marketing, including lead lists and print or digital advertising.
At the same time, the customer those businesses are trying to reach is becoming more individualized.
Vilk described a “tale of two brides.” Some couples are extending planning from roughly 18 months toward 24 months to give themselves more time to afford the wedding they want. Others are cutting costs, including with backyard weddings.
“The thing they don’t compromise on is individuality,” Vilk observed.
That puts more weight on information about the individual couple. A photographer needs more than the name of someone getting married. Location, budget, date, style and where the couple stands in the planning process can determine whether the inquiry is relevant.
Pearl Planner already collects some of that information. Pearl Connect is designed to carry it into the business side of the transaction.
“This is more than just a connection to a bride,” Webster noted. “It is contextual, personalized lead.”
When Customer Acquisition Meets the Inbox
Getting the right inquiry to a business doesn’t solve what happens after it arrives.
Many of the companies serving weddings are small operations whose owners are also handling sales, marketing, scheduling and customer communications.
“You are a florist. You love flowers. You go into the business because you love flowers,” Vilk said. Ask about payments, loyalty, advertising or software, she added, and “they don’t want to deal with that.”
Some businesses don’t have their own websites and rely on a Facebook page or other online presence. Vilk said businesses testing Pearl Connect also described receiving hundreds of emails a week and struggling to determine which customers required a response.
Pearl Connect puts those communications into a common hub. Its AI can identify whether an inquiry concerns pricing or timing, flag conversations requiring attention and draft responses. It can also turn commitments made in a conversation into tasks and synchronize them with calendars. Customers can schedule consultations against available times.
The platform is also intended to give businesses an online profile and provide another way for couples to discover them. Vilk said participating companies must establish that they’re legitimate businesses, beginning with a business license. Profiles can include photographs, while reviews are also planned.
Pearl Connect will have a free option and paid subscriptions at $49 and $119 per month. David’s Bridal isn’t charging businesses for each lead, a model Vilk said would be difficult because demand can vary sharply by location and month.
The model still depends on having enough businesses where couples are planning weddings. A national consumer platform isn’t particularly useful if a bride in a given market can’t find enough local photographers, florists, caterers or venues from which to choose.
That local density will be one of the early go-to-market issues. Vilk said David’s Bridal plans to use promotions, free trials and demonstrations to bring businesses onto Pearl Connect, particularly because small business owners can be reluctant to pay for new technology before seeing whether it produces results.
There is also a potential use beyond weddings because many of the businesses on Pearl Connect don’t depend exclusively on wedding customers. Florists sell for other occasions. Photographers handle other events. Venues and caterers do the same.
Webster raised the possibility that the communications, scheduling and customer-management tools could become an “operating system for the business,” extending beyond the wedding customer.
Vilk agreed with the direction while describing it as an expansion rather than what Pearl Connect is today.
“I see this as a much broader platform than for weddings,” she said.
Watch the full interview with Elina Vilk, president and chief business officer of David’s Bridal, and PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, to discover:
- How wedding spending and planning are changing.
- Where technology gaps create problems for local wedding businesses.
- How Pearl Connect uses AI and planning data to manage leads and communications.
