In September of this year, House of Fraser announced that its ecommerce sales grew by 30.8% to represent 17.5% of sales, during a six month period that saw the store's multichannel innovation grow rapidly.
In September of this year, House of Fraser announced that its ecommerce sales grew by 30.8% to represent 17.5% of sales, during a six month period that saw the store’s multichannel innovation grow rapidly.
House of Fraser’s successes are largely down to a number of online and digital innovations, which cater to the increasingly complex journeys consumers are making across multiple devices.
We’ve complied our top 5:
1) AUGMENTED REALITY
House of Fraser constantly updates its app. The store introduced ‘Scan and Explore by HoF’ – an augmented reality feature – into its iPhone and iPad shopping apps this year.
Constructed through integrating Layar AR technology with the Poq app ecommerce platform (which powers all the HoF apps), it allows customers to access apps and shop from immersive content like videos, music, 3D product previews, recipes and shoppable lookbooks.
At the time of its release, House of Fraser’s Chief Customer Officer Andy Harding told Internet Retailing that it was a way for the store to digitise physical content and create innovative customer experiences – driving multichannel behaviour.
The digitalisation of the House of Fraser home brochure, which has an augmented reality feature, is a great example of using mobile technology to drive interactions.
“We’ve got the offline team producing the brochure thinking: how can I bring this content to life”, said Sarah Baillie, head of House of Fraser’s Multichannel Business Development.
2) SHOPPABLE WINDOWS
House of Fraser’s shoppable windows are another part of its strategy to turn the 70% of its customers who buy in-store into multichannel purchasers.
Following a successful trial during London Fashion Week at its Oxford Street store, House of Fraser’s Chief Customer Officer Andy Harding hopes to digitise its shop windows for the holiday period – enabling shoppers to buy from stores when closed.
The windows will be AG enabled, allowing window shoppers to interact with and buy the products they can see.
3) DIGITAL MANNEQUINS
Last summer, House of Fraser became one of the first retailers to use iBeacon mannequins, which generated 10,000 views of an app accessed via the mannequins themselves.
When a customer sees an outfit on a mannequin, iBeacon technology allows them to connect with it on their iPhones or iPads, and see what products there are available on that mannequin in-store. In addition, shop assistants (readied with iPads) can start upselling and cross-selling to those customers.
Digital mannequins, like shoppable windows, are examples of how House of Fraser is encouraging shoppers to use mobile phones in its stores as it looks to engage customers across all of its channels.
Why? According to HoF, they spend more this way. “The more we can move that customer into a multichannel environment the more we will move that £2.50 customer into a £6 or £8 customer,” said Harding.
HOUSE OF FRASER APP
The app itself was launched to encourage multichannel shopping, and gives customer a richer shopping experience.
It locates nearby stores for users.
It stores loyalty data:
It enables customers to scan barcodes for more information (this is my cat, but imagine it’s a barcode).
This opens up possibilities for comparison shopping, and to enrich the in-store experience – showing product videos, reviews etc.
It sends push notifications. A good way to alert customers with targeted offers and messages.
It uses AR:
…and all of this is paired with free wi-fi in-store, which means customers can use the app without having to rely on mobile internet.
BUY AND COLLECT
House of Fraser’s Buy and Collect service has drastically reduced queue times and increased customer satisfaction by 40% – meaning they are likely to spend more.
Buy and Collect, and similar offerings are now essentials for multichannel retailers, but the execution is essential. House of Fraser has one of the best in-store collection services on offer.
Multichannel retailers have some advantages over pure plays like Amazon thanks to their store networks, and they should seek to make the most of these.
This is something House of Fraser has done for the past few years, and it is reaping the rewards from this strategy.
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