Latest news with #UnifiedCommerce
Forbes
13 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Beyond CRM: How Clienteling Builds Personal Relationships At Scale
Zornitza Stefanova is the Founder and CEO of BSPK, a leading Unified Commerce AI company for retail. Clienteling was once the exclusive domain of luxury brands, where personal relationships and bespoke service set the standard. Today, technology is helping to shatter these barriers. With capabilities like AI, integrated data sources and instant communication tools as part of a broader strategy, brands of any size can bring high-touch, empathetic service to customer relationships. Personalized, relationship-driven engagement is no longer a luxury—it's becoming a key strategy for brands aiming to build meaningful, long-term relationships with their customers. What Clienteling Is At its core, clienteling is a customer relationship technique where retail sales associates use data-driven insights to build lasting, one-on-one connections. Associates track each customer's preferences, past purchases and interests, capturing meaningful details and using them to deliver outreach and recommendations that feel tailored, relevant and timely. Key elements include: • Gathering Rich Customer Insights: This includes purchase history, preferences, special occasions and feedback. • Personalized Communication: Messaging via SMS, messenger apps like WhatsApp or direct outreach—not just mass marketing blasts. • Proactive Service: Reaching out at key moments, such as birthdays, season launches or new arrivals. Rather than treating each visitor as a transaction, clienteling is about treating every customer as a valued client. But as brands connect the dots across online and offline channels, it's crucial to break down the silos between these experiences. After all, your customer doesn't see channels; they simply see your brand. In McKinsey & Company's 'The State of Fashion 2025' study, they estimate that roughly 70% of retail sales are digitally influenced, yet over half of shoppers (54%) still prefer to buy in-store. Additionally, 75% of shoppers who receive high-quality, personalized service are likely to spend more. This data underscores how critical experience and personalization have become as drivers of sales success. What Clienteling Is Not • Not Just CRM: Traditional customer relationship management (CRM) tools focus on data storage and mass communications. Clienteling is about individualized, relationship-driven engagement, not volume-driven messaging. • Not Just Marketing Automation: While automated campaigns can drive awareness, they lack the high-touch, responsive element that builds trust and loyalty. • Not A 'Set It And Forget It' Approach: Effective clienteling requires both smart tools and empowered teams. CRM tells you what your customers bought. Clienteling helps you understand why they buy and how to keep them coming back. Personalization's Last Mile In crowded markets, brands must offer more than discounts and generic automation. Personalization creates memorable moments that inspire loyalty, and clienteling helps close the gap between digital engagement and the in-store experience. While marketing automation casts a wide net, it's clienteling—powered by AI and unified customer data—that delivers personal, one-on-one interactions, turning browsers into buyers and first-time shoppers into devoted brand fans. Think of clienteling as the last mile of personalization. Marketing automation and data-driven campaigns may bring shoppers into your world, but it's the personal attention through clienteling that closes the sale and keeps them coming back. Steps To Adopt Clienteling In Your Retail Strategy Getting into clienteling doesn't require a massive overhaul or a months-long tech rollout. Start by considering how your brand operates, both online and offline. Does your sales team have access to up-to-date customer information, whether someone is shopping in-store or browsing on their phone? Are the tools designed to be intuitive and useful for front-line staff, not just created with corporate objectives in mind? It pays to involve your sales associates early. They're the ones building these relationships. Train them, encourage idea-sharing and celebrate early wins so others see the impact. Don't wait for a 'perfect' rollout. Start small, learn quickly and let results drive broader adoption. Here are some practical steps: By connecting online and offline touchpoints in the cloud, you create a more complete view of each customer. Breaking down data silos ensures your associates can quickly access past interactions, preferences and insights that help them build stronger relationships. Include front-line staff in evaluating new tools, and focus on usability over complexity. Solutions should integrate seamlessly into everyday workflows and empower—not encumber—your staff. Training and motivation are equally important. Educate associates on the principles of relationship-driven selling, and show them how to use the technology effectively. Offer incentives that recognize their efforts and encourage ownership of the customer experience. Start small with a pilot, learn from early outcomes and expand gradually. Sharing stories of success can help create a culture of innovation and encourage other teams to adopt the same approach. Clienteling For The New Era Retailers face stiff headwinds—economic shifts, global uncertainty and demanding customers. But with strategic clienteling, brands can deliver personalized experiences, foster genuine connections and build lasting trust. The most successful brands will be those that put relationships—not just products or promotions—at the center of the customer journey. When you elevate the human touch, your customers will notice. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
FF News
18-07-2025
- Business
- FF News
Worldwide Golf Selects Adyen to Power Unified Commerce Payments
Worldwide Golf Adyen partnership brings unified payment innovation to retail. Adyen has been chosen by Worldwide Golf, a well-known name in golf equipment since 1963, to handle all of its stores' and online sales' payments. This partnership for retail payments uses Adyen's single platform and SFO1 terminals to make things easier and faster. 'As we looked to modernize and streamline our payment process, it was essential to find a partner that could unify our transactions across in-store and digital touchpoints,' said Dan Appell , CFO & Chief Strategy Officer at Worldwide Golf. 'Adyen's technology provides the flexibility, scalability, and reliability we need to elevate and further personalize the shopping experience for our customers while optimizing our payment operations.' With Adyen's single platform, Worldwide Golf can consolidate payments across its e-commerce channels and nearly 100 physical stores, gaining deeper insights into customer preferences and enhancing operational efficiency. Adyen's SFO1 and its all-in-one design, provides real-time transaction insights, multiple connectivity options, and reliable checkout experiences across all store environments. Its customizable interface and dynamic customer engagement features help retailers personalize shopping experiences while strengthening brand loyalty. 'We're thrilled to partner with Worldwide Golf as they take the next step in their payments evolution,' said Alex Rhodes , Senior Vice President of Unified Commerce at Adyen. 'Our unified commerce solution empowers merchants to deliver frictionless transactions while unlocking valuable data to drive business growth. We look forward to supporting Worldwide Golf in their journey to create a seamless, modern payment experience.' Through the Worldwide Golf Adyen partnership, the brand strengthens its commitment to new ways of paying in stores, making sure that customers have no problems. People In This Post Alex Rhodes Adyen
Fast Company
09-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Moms know best: What retailers can learn from the ultimate experience orchestrators
With Mother's Day recently passed, it's a good time to remember the thoughtful orchestration mothers provide all year long. There are certainly lessons that retailers can learn from mothers: creating experiences that make life special, adapting to unexpected changes, handling details invisibly, and bringing everyone together seamlessly. They do all this so family members can simply show up and enjoy moments together. Retail excellence can draw inspiration from the heart of what mothers do best: creating space for genuine connection. A mother doesn't need to be reminded that her daughter prefers silver jewelry while her daughter-in-law loves gold. She tracks preferences, sizes, allergies, and history across family members without missing a beat. She maintains this knowledge across contexts; whether shopping online, in stores, or through catalogs—and family members don't have to repeat themselves unnecessarily. Retailers should strive for the same deep connection with their customers. When a customer shops, they shouldn't need to explain their different preferences repeatedly—the retailer should remember each relationship's context across every touchpoint. Whether checking wishlists from the phone or visiting a physical store, the store associate should already know their customers' preferences, past purchases, style preference, and even preferred payment methods. This maternal-like connection remains surprisingly rare in retail. As per the 2025 Unified Commerce Benchmark, only 26% of retailers rate their unified customer profiles and mobile capabilities as mature, which limits their ability to recall preferences across touchpoints. Meanwhile, 73% of unified commerce leaders excel in this area and equip their store teams with clienteling tools that extend their influence across channels, compared to just 23% of others. By eliminating the burden of re-explanation, these retailers create space for more meaningful connections. Like a good mother, they remember the details so no one else has to, allowing everyone to focus on the relationship instead of the transaction. ADAPTING ON THE FLY (BECAUSE PLANS ALWAYS CHANGE) Ask any mother about her day, and you'll likely hear about at least one unexpected pivot. The sudden fever that canceled dinner plans. The forgotten permission slip that required a mid-morning delivery to school. The last-minute ingredient swap when the store was out of what she needed for dinner. Mothers don't just anticipate these changes—they seamlessly adapt to them, often without anyone noticing the behind-the-scenes adjustments. Retailers need to develop this level of adaptability. When a customer changes their gift from store pickup to home delivery because they unexpectedly can't leave the house, they should not have to start the purchase journey over. When a gift is running late, proactive communication provides options before the recipient ever knows there was an issue. When a customer realizes they picked the wrong size or color, exchanges should happen without friction. An astonishing 93% of retailers lack mature order modification capabilities—like changing delivery location or timing after purchase. Even among retail leaders, only about half have developed these capabilities to maturity, underscoring a major opportunity to offer greater flexibility. This flexibility isn't just convenient—it's respectful of the reality of a consumer. When commerce bends to life's realities rather than forcing rigid processes, celebrations can unfold naturally. Behind every seemingly effortless family gathering is a mother who handled countless details invisible to everyone else. She did this not because of her love for logistics, but because handling these details creates space for what actually matters: genuine connection. Retailers who truly honor their customer relationships understand this principle. They recognize that the gift is the experience, not the transaction. Consider the beauty retailer that transforms shopping into an in-store event where consumers can experience products, with digital records that make future replenishment effortless. This experiential approach represents retail's future, with 57% of retailers acknowledging that interactive digital elements are essential for creating compelling in-store experiences. Yet most haven't bridged this gap—only 16% of retailers have fully developed digital touchpoints that encourage exploration and engagement or offer personalized experiences based on customer behavior and preferences. The gap between knowing what should be done and actually doing it remains substantial. ORCHESTRATING MULTIPLE PLAYERS (WHILE MAKING IT LOOK EFFORTLESS) Perhaps a mother's most impressive skill is coordinating multiple people's efforts, often without them realizing the complexity involved. Family members with different schedules, budgets, and ideas coming together in harmony. Somehow, moms make this complex choreography appear effortless. Retailers need to bring this same invisible orchestration to shopping. Imagine a shared cart that family members can contribute to from different devices, with synchronized updates and no duplicate items, or a gift registry that works seamlessly whether accessed in-store, online, or through a mobile app. This coordination pays dividends: Retailers who master this orchestration achieve 14% higher average order values, in part by enabling cross-device, cross-channel coordination and frictionless discovery. Like a mother's careful planning that makes family gatherings appear effortless, these sophisticated systems create value precisely because their complexity remains invisible to shoppers enjoying the experience. THE BEST TRIBUTE TO A MOM? BECOMING MORE LIKE HER Retailers have a chance to reflect on the qualities that make mothers extraordinary—empathy, connection, adaptability—and apply them to the way they serve their customers. These very traits are the foundation of successful unified commerce: knowing what customers need before they ask, meeting them wherever they are, and delivering with care and consistency. In a fast-moving, omnichannel world, the retailers who win will be those who think—and act—with a mother's instinct.
