Strategies for centering the customer was the key theme of day one of the Shoptalk Spring event in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Running from March 25-27, the conference has drawn in big players in the retail industry, including Foot Locker’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer Frank Bracken, Gap Inc’s CEO Richard Dickson, Coach’s senior vice president of global visual experience Giovanni Zaccarello, Sweetgreen;s co-founder and CEO Jonathan Neman and Reformation’s CEO Hali Borenstein.

In spite of their different areas of expertise, these executives were all focused on the need to constantly seek out new ways to update and optimise the consumer shopping experience. Whether that is through the integration of developing technology, such as an automated kitchen, or with updated mobile offerings. 

Embracing retail hospitality

It’s no secret that Foot Locker has been having a difficult time in recent years with diminishing sales figures and multiple store closures.

However, the legacy footwear retailer has been staging a noteworthy attempt at a comeback with strategic steps, including an updated “store of the future” design, reimagined customer loyalty program and updated omnichannel operations, largely via the help of AI.

The footwear retailer has not only been using AI to help sort through heaps of customer data or create captivating product ads but also to remove friction between the retailer’s store associates – dubbed stripers – and the brand.  

“We just implemented a new AI-driven workforce management and scheduling system, which takes our sales forecasts, our promotional calendars, and then some of our competitive variables that we’re able to input, and it spits out a system that is smarter than the human would have otherwise developed,” Bracken told a rapt audience at Shoptalk.

“It allows us to be more efficient and get more stripers in the right stores at the right time to serve consumers, which drives conversion and productivity.” 

With 50 per cent cash-on-cash returns reported for 2024 and plans to open 80 new doors by the end of 2025, it would appear that Foot Locker’s investment in updating its customer service experience is working. 

Re-imagining Gap for a new golden age

All eyes were on retail’s comeback king Richard Dickson as he sat down with CNBC retail reporter Courtney Reagan to discuss several elements of Gap Inc’s revival strategy. 

The CEO elaborated on the role of ‘fashiontainment’ in retail and why he is “unabashedly pro-digital” but still wants to focus on the human element in retail service.

“We are, at heart, a human-centered company, but we also need to be digitally enabled, and the two need to work together in harmony to create. The digital and human workforce are now going to work together in harmony to create that compelling consumer experience,” Dickson said.

“Even though it’s a different experience and dynamic [between physical and digital retail], the brand still has to have familiar details like the font, the photography, the model, the pricing, the various different ways that you connect the online to the bricks-and-mortar experience. This is a continuously ongoing work in progress, but one that we’ve made a lot of progress in, and I think it’s an important part of the omnichannel experience. No matter who you are, whether or not you’re a smaller or larger commerce business, you need to create that one-branded experience for the consumer.”

Want fries with that salad?

The quick service restaurant (QSR) chain Sweetgreen caused quite a stir when it announced earlier this March its decision to include fries amongst its fresh veggie offerings. 

While several naysayers felt like the new offering didn’t mesh with Sweetgreen’s image, Jonathan Neman, the company’s CEO and co-founder, happily disagreed. 

Neman explained that people come to Sweetgreen to treat themselves to delicious, but healthier, alternatives to fast-food retailers. In the same vein that Sweetgreen offers customers a steak salad versus a full steak or burger, the founder explained that Sweetgreen’s fries are an opportunity for customers to grant themselves a “permissible indulgence”.

Be it through its implementation of and experimentation with “infinite kitchens” – an automated system designed to assemble customers’ warm bowls and salads – or the addition of a new type of treat on the menu, Sweetgreen is focused on continually innovating the QSR experience to fit consumers’ needs. 

Anticipating customer needs to deliver convenience, speed and delight

Speaking of continually innovating to meet consumers’ needs, few executives could provide as many concrete examples as Reformation’s CEO Hali Borenstein. 

In a discussion with CNBC reporter Gabrielle Fonrouge, Borenstein delved into the apparel retailer’s approach to anticipating and fulfilling customer expectations through new technological applications. 

Several years back, Reformation began introducing the next step in a tech-enabled bricks-and-mortar experience through “Retail X”, the brand’s high-tech retail concept that brings the best of its e-commerce experience to physical stores, including interactive displays and “magic wardrobes”, where shoppers can order items via a tablet in their dressing room. The items “magically” show up without any interaction with a sales associate.

More recently, Reformation introduced a new mobile offering that allows consumers to scan QR codes on items throughout the store via their phone and have them placed in a dressing room to try on. 

“What’s great about it is they’re having this really engaging, interactive experience and more easily finding what they’re looking for. So our net promotor scores and our average order values are higher because you’re not searching around trying to grab a size, you can actually find things much more easily,” Borenstein enthused.

Via these digital interactions in-store, Reformation is able to garner a lot of data about the shopping experience that would not have been possible via traditional venues, such as a customer survey.

“We’re monitoring every step of your shopping experience and that’s really powerful and it’s been a really fun evolution for us in the way we bring retail to our customer,” the CEO finished.