Delivering a Seamless Guest Experience
By focusing on enhancing the guest experience – with the help of technology – This retailer is revolutionizing the beauty products and service industry.
Retailer at a Glance:
- Focus: Superior guest experience, branded and private-label beauty products and salon services
- Revenues: $4.9B in annual sales
- Channels: More than 974 retail locations in the U.S., plus e-commerce and mobile
- Systems: Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service, Oracle ATG Web Commerce, SAP ERP
- Differentiators: 23MM plus-member loyalty program, salon in every store, distinctive products
Facilitating Change with Technology
In business for nearly 30 years, The beauty retailer delights its guests by promising all your beauty supply needs under one roof. With distinctive branded and private-label merchandise, strong CRM and loyalty programs, a full-service salon in every store and annual revenues set to break the $5B mark, the company has rapidly emerged as one of the nation’s leading specialty retailers.
The Retailer’s growth is guided by core strategic imperatives set by the company’s leadership. Among these imperatives are the need to:
- Acquire new guests and deepen loyalty with existing guests
- Differentiate by delivering a distinctive and personalized guest experience across all channels
- Grow stores and eCommerce to reach and serve more guests
From a technology standpoint, achieving these goals meant investing in current in-store infrastructure, both hardware and software.
“We needed systems that would enable our associates to build strong relationships with guests, offer a seamless checkout experience, and link the store experience with our growing e-commerce and mobile channels,” says the Chief Information Officer at the retailer.
Partnering with the experts
The first step was choosing a state-of-the-art POS system. Using a thorough evaluation process, the brands’ stores team selected and implemented Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service for its built-in best practice processes, flexibility, and ease of use.
“After completing our initial Oracle Retail Xstore implementation, it became clear that many of the important guest-facing business processes on our roadmap would be driven by the POS system. We decided to bring in an expert partner as our ‘go-to’ for enhancing and supporting our Xstore POS,” says the Senior Director of Store Systems and Mobility at the industry leader.
To help turn their vision into reality, the company selected Logic as the systems integration partner to lead ongoing enhancement efforts around the POS system.
“We had aggressive timelines and high expectations. The Logic team has a track record of delivering on requirements on time and on budget – so Logic and [our] brand were a good fit,” says the CIO. “In addition to their retail technology expertise, Logic understood our business goals, and made it their mission to help us achieve them.”
On the docket for the beauty brand– and its new partner – were two mission-critical projects. The first would be enhancing the POS system to meet the EMV card compliance mandate, while simultaneously implementing a new payment gateway. Second would be one of the most significant initiatives in the company’s history – a private label credit card linked to the company’s exceedingly popular Rewards® loyalty program.
Seamless Checkout Experience
The beauty brand is committed to a smooth and seamless checkout process for in-store guests. In meeting the nationwide mandate for EMV standards, the company sought to do so while maintaining its effortless checkout experience for guests.
“It was close to mid-year, and our goal was to have EMV live prior to the fourth quarter,” says the VP of Guest Facing Systems at [the retailer]. “We also wanted to add support for contactless payment. The timeline was challenging, but Logic was the right partner to help us succeed.”
Working with Logic, the retailer executed a robust implementation of EMV technology, including an all-new Verifone® FIPay payment gateway.
Logic ensured that the new system accepted all manners of tender including credit, debit, checks and gift cards – as well as Apple Pay®, Android Pay® and other forms of contactless payment. Logic also helped lead the effort to obtain the required industry certifications. All on time and on budget.
“Logic’s expertise and hard work were key to the successful rollout of EMV, contactless payment and the new payment gateway in advance of our fourth quarter,” adds the VP of Guest Facing Systems.
With the upgrade of The retailer’s payment processing capabilities, the stage was set for an ambitious new addition to the company’s Rewards loyalty program – the Rewards credit card.
Rolling Out a Superior Private Label Credit Card
More than 85% of the Midwest based retailer’s sales are attributed to the company’s exceedingly popular Rewards loyalty program, making the program an important area of strategic focus.
When the decision was made to enhance the program with private label and co-branded credit cards, the retailer knew it needed to deliver a distinctive experience. Especially where it came to applying for and making first use of the private label credit card.
One key feature would be the ability for guests to apply for the card online, before their next trip to a retail location. This would allow guests to receive program benefits, promotions and incentives either online or immediately on their next store visit.
A second – and even more sophisticated capability – would be to pre-authorize shoppers for the card based on the Rewards card purchase history. This would enable store associates to say to guests “you’re pre-approved for a loyalty credit card – would you like to use it for this transaction?”
“This kind of integration is key to differentiating our loyalty program, strengthening the relationship with our guests, growing membership and driving the success of our private label credit card,” says the Senior Director of Store Systems and Mobility, “Again, we challenged Logic with tight timeframes and high standards. Logic came through beautifully, helping make our new credit card launch a success.”
Delivering Success
Soon after working with Logic to implement the Rewards credit card, EMV and the new payment gateway, the retailer proudly reported the best annual performance in its history as a public company, with comparable sales rising 15.8%. The retailer also reported a record $4.9B in sales along with earnings per share (EPS) growth of 30.9%.
“With the majority of the company’s sales coming through the in-store POS, Logic’s partnership in enhancing and supporting our POS systems has served as a foundation for our company’s continued growth,” says VP of Guest Facing Systems.
“With Logic’s help, we were able to successfully launch the Rewards credit card, and we have a POS that completely manages our distinctive in-store guest experience,” says Senior Director of Store Systems and Mobility. “Our POS also has the integration points we need to continue building the ultimate omnichannel experience for our guests.”
In addition to their record business performance, the brand was also named “Innovator of the Year” in Multichannel Merchant’s Excellence in Customer Experience Awards. The company’s outstanding loyalty program and leadership in in-store experience were cited as a key reason for this special recognition.
Looking to the Future
The retailer continues to partner with Logic to improve and evolve the customer experience. This includes ongoing enhancement of the loyalty program, private label credit card and capabilities of the POS system. The company also engaged Logic for a POS support contract to ensure the health and maintenance of the POS system.
“Logic is our partner for evolving the in-store experience and helping execute the strategic roadmap,” says VP of Guest Facing Systems.
“We’re impressed with the quality of Logic’s work, their responsiveness, and their ability to deliver robust solutions to our retail technology challenges,” adds the CIO. “As a trusted partner, we look forward to working with Logic as the company continues to grow.”
About Logic
Global retailers trust Logic to achieve their vision of success. Dedicated exclusively to Oracle Retail, Logic blends technology and retail business expertise to implement, experience. Logic has offices in the USA, Latin America, Europe, India, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.