American Eagle Exec Says Omni-Channel Less About Glamour, More About The Basics
By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA
Keynote at eTail West tells retailers how to “stop sucking” at omni-channel
Mastering omni-channel retailing is not something that comes easily for retailers, nor is it an act of magic. As an American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) executive emphasized during a keynote session at eTail West in Texas, achieving omni-channel is a lot less about the glam as it is mastering the basics. In fact, for AEO, it has been a long process, and one that currently requires a lot of fine-tuning before the company can achieve the seamlessness consumers are seeking. David McBride, senior director of omni-channel analytics said at eTail West, going back to the basics and building up a foundation “is where we need to stop sucking. This is not about a shiny object, fix the basics.” It is only through fixing up some of the basics that AEO expects it could hit its goals for digital sales. In 2013, the company raked in $3.5 billion in sales with only 13 percent of those sales coming from the digital channels. By 2016, the company hopes to reach $5 billion in sales with 25 percent of all sales coming from digital.
McBride spoke quite frankly about the areas that AEO has been fixing in order to usher in the age of omni-channel. Oddly enough, a lot of the problems standing in the way only required simple fixes. As mobile slowly becomes a key part of the omni-channel game, AEO has set its sights on making sure that the mobile experience is improving. According to McBride, the company has seen a lot of success from its email initiatives. Nearly 80 percent of the company’s emails are opened on a mobile device, up from 62 percent in 2012. However, the success of these campaigns depends, naturally, on the email links leading to the correct location. Email links have been a particular grievance for the company and its customers in the past. Despite the fact 30 percent of Web site visits were from mobile users, those that clicked on a link to leave feedback kept receiving an error message for over a year. It only took the company three weeks to fix this problem, leading to a 20 percent surge in the number of same-day reviews. Discount codes are another “area where it’s easy to suck,” McBride said. The company has since turned its attention to discount coding and has been tweaking its login process to ensure customers don’t get stuck in the midst of their shopping process.
Of course, there is still a long way to go. In fact, McBride is upfront about the fact the company is far from having it all figured out. To retailers, he says, “You need to look at your current process and say that sucks, we don’t want to suck. If you can take care of some of those, then you can get to a harvest stage where you can see growth and you can provide an experience innovating. We are eager to be innovating.”