Burberry to use social data and RFID to build customer profiles in-store

by NMA Staff 20 September 2012 00:00 0 comments Print

Burberry is placing mobile at the centre of its “customer 360° model” as it also aims to digitise its in-store experience, according to its CEO Angela Ahrendts.

Speaking yesterday as part of the Dreamforce keynote presentation, Ahrendts said that any of its digital activity, either through commerce or marketing, had to be ‘mobile first’.

“It must be launched here first,” she told attendees at the conference referencing a mobile phone.

“I do totally believe that this [mobile device] is totally changing the way we behave,” she added.

Discussing how Burberry was using Salesforce’s suite of cloud-based marketing services, to launch tailored marketing communications, Ahrendts also said that it was looking to launch “fully immersive” digital experiences in its retail outlets.

Source: Burberry

Beginning with its Regent Street outlet, the brand aims to use such services, such as Radian6, to offer personalised experiences by building customer profiles in-store from early next year.

For instance, the company aimed to take RFID tags out of the stock room and put them on clothes themselves, this way they can build a profile of a customer based on what they’ve tried on in-store, she explained.

“We’ve been testing and pushing the boundaries,” she added speaking at the San Francisco event.

Meanwhile, the fashion label has been streaming events from London Fashion Week at its in-store events and on YouTube, an event that it is also promoting via promoted Tweets, see below.

This comes a week after the fashion label issued a profit warning citing challenging retail environtment and also unveiled a digitally integrated, 44,000-square-foot flagship store on Regent Street in London with in-store Burberry employees armed with iPads that can call up customers’ previous purchases