When the pandemic rocked the global supply chain, sports brand New Balance turned to leading analytics company, Contentsquare to better understand customer expectations, prioritise transparency, and keep the digital experience in motion.
New Balance international retail director, Jonathan Clark oversees online and offline retail and has a good eye into how digital experience complements the overall customer journey. He has been leveraging customer experience insights to build digital trust.
“We made sure to maintain transparency with our customers by monitoring their alternative product selections, how much time they spent around the website, how much they were spending, and search volume changes, which all greatly helped us identify what our customers look for,” he said.
“We’re improving and streamlining the customer experience; that’s the heart and soul of our goals. It’s about understanding how consumers are interacting with us in a way that is visual, data led, and immediate, and eliminating some frustrations.”
With Contentsquare, New Balance has been able to access highly visual, actionable insights into purchase habits and customer priorities. Even though customer searches did not change during the pandemic, and people were still browsing for products that they liked, when New Balance received a new supply of products, the brand had to pivot and substitute new products in for their existing customers.
Transparency about shipping times was crucial. For example, rather than a customer initially seeing shipping information in their checkout basket, they would be alerted to it on the New Balance homepage.
“There are plenty of businesses that just take your dollar without any transparency at the front. We looked to be completely transparent and make it clear what their experience would look like, making sure to support everyone during a tumultuous time. If we had established a price point for a consumer, we would not change that mid-season,” Clark said.
“Simple things like understanding engagement with homepage tiles, the filters customers are using, and how to best document where customers are with their journey are incredibly useful. We’re delighted to have Contentsquare and we can see that there is significant value. We can’t wait to operationalise it and take it forward.”