The latest news in the world of customer experience and customer loyalty.
Eight Retailers Ranked Great in Customer Experience by Mystery Shopping Company
For retailers, there’s no telling who’s going to walk through the doors and do a little shopping. Last week, more than 30 retailers in New York got visits from shoppers from SeeLevel HX, a mystery shopping and customer experience agency, who were conducting a study to see which stores offered the best customer experience. “We wanted to understand how globally recognized brands are really addressing, understanding and tackling what has become the experience economy,” SeeLevel HX Chief Client Officer Steven Maskell told Retail Touch Points. The company, which conducts more than 250,000 mystery shopping experiences a year, revealed its results at the Retail Innovation Conference. If found eight retailers it ranked as having great experience were: Superdry, Sephora, Sunglass Hut, Adidas, Rebecca Minkoff, La Maison du Chocolat, Bloomingdale’s and Tiffany & Co.
Artistic Sneaker Brand Six Hundred Four Creates a Virtual Store
Sneakers have come a long way since Chuck Taylor introduced his canvas high-tops as a means of preventing sprained ankles while playing basketball. Today, the canvas on the high-tops is often used as a place to create art—at least at the Canadian sneaker brand Six Hundred Four, which creates 604 limited edition shoes based on commissioned art pieces and its flagship store in Vancouver is deemed a “Sneaker Gallery” and looks more like an art gallery than shoe store. Now, in addition to pushing the boundaries on shoe styles, the brand is also pushing the boundaries on the shopping experience. It just released a Virtual Reality store that uses 360-degree photography to blend e-commerce and VR, allowing customers to virtually stroll through the store and do everything except try on shoes. There’s even a hidden “Easter egg” that gives visitors an exclusive discount. “Our plan is to open up real galleries all over the world,” brand founder James Lepp said in a release, “but depending on where VR goes, maybe it will be more virtual galleries instead of physical ones.”