Tech-driven retail

The evolution of Varner is in constant development, a goal Sonat and Varner set early on in their alliance. It was clear, finding strength in being a group as opposed to a series of independent brands, saves resources and builds competence and skills. The initiative to design a customer service at group level enabled a better customer journey and secured clarity, ahead of technological leaps in flexibility, meeting needs and desires for a store where the digital and physical shops finally meet.

Things were different when Sonat and Varner began developing customer service together. All the brands in the group had siloed services and no central structure was in place. But with Sonat’s ability to tailor-made and collect service solutions, Varner was equipped with an integrated digital platform. With the significant tools, the group was able to identify customer needs across all brands, in real-time. ‘We accumulate findings of the journey such as navigation, ease of purchase, clarity in return procedures, payment solutions and how customer perceive sustainability, this is all data we analyse and build developments around, says Pernilla Johansson, head of business solutions at Sonat for Varner.

Two brands at Varner committed to the centralised platform, to begin with, but it did not take long before all the brands realised the immense benefit of gathering collected data. Although, it took Sonat and Varner a fair share of change management to get everyone on board, the result is a needs-driven, intelligent and nimble retail group. ‘Today, Varner operates in a collective structure, with for instance, one group for social media and one for payment systems across all brands. With these specific groups, we can address the analysis of data appropriately and deliver insights for more effective results. The opportunity with a clear group target, is a tighter dialogue and more measurable progress,’ says Johansson.

The way technology is moving fashion today is remarkable but puts pressure on the larger players to find the right use for the big data gathered. With one customer service channel across the entire group, challenges in communication and design become apparent instantly. The ability to bring the platforms closer to the end-user has been Sonat’s and Varner’s joint ambition, minimising the number of calls and requests to customer service. ‘Today, there is a significant improvement in the way Varner can quality assess all external communication. This is visible across all measurements,’ says Johansson.

Quality and efficiency across the group have improved the customer journey ahead of the next great leap, introducing greater flexibility in purchase, orders and deliveries. The capabilities to offer customers seamless ways to order online, pick-up in-store, return remotely, purchase again online and at the same time choose from an array of different delivery options, is vital in the customer journey of tomorrow. This puts pressure on Varner and Sonat, but with first-class customer service across the group, the team can change the dialogue in a quick and agile way, simplifying the process and bringing the customer closer.

The strength ahead is accumulated in intelligence that continues to improve the infrastructure and better the customer journey every day. ‘This tells the story of a real effort to change customer service, a beautiful turning point, that enabled the organisation to reach new flexible heights,’ Johansson concludes.