How Tory Burch builds passionate customers

By JENNIFER OVERSTREET | Published: OCTOBER 1, 2013

Be the first to comment | This entry was posted in Events, Mobile, Retail Companies, Social Media

Nearly 10 years old, Tory Burch has become the darling of the digital retail community. With 100 stores globally and e-commerce sites all over the world, the brand skyrocketed to success in a short time, and (with the recent launch of a beauty line), shows no signs of slowing down. As a brand that fully embraces digital, Miki Berardelli, CMO and Matt Marcotte, SVP, global retail, took the stage at Shop.org’s Annual Summit to share some insights about the brand’s digital journey.

Berardelli described Tory Burch as an OPEN brand—an acronym for on-demand, personal, engaged and networked. “For us it means bringing customers along on the brand building journey,” Berardelli said.

The digital sphere, including social media, the website, mobile app and iPad-wielding store associates are all a huge part of inviting customers along. The company’s blog shares inspiration, an innovative feature on the website gives fans a better-than-front-row view of Tory Burch’s latest runway show with live interaction and sharable media, and an app offers exclusive, limited edition items.

Social media gives the brand an opportunity to listen to and engage with their customers. At the suggestion of Facebook followers, Tory Burch created t-shirts that helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. “If we listen to our customer, she will actually help us be a better brand and make a difference in the world,” Berardelli said.

Catering further to their shoppers, a tool called “Client Book” provides associates with access customer information like birthdays, past purchases and items on the customer’s wish list, making it easy to personalize service while they’re in the store and build an authentic relationship with customers. This kind of marriage between digital and traditional retail goes a long way in making customers feel heard and valued.

It’s also helpful to husbands and their marriages. Watch the short clip to see the real-life impact Client Book has at Tory Burch. The full presentation is available to watch on demand.

via Shop.org Blog http://blog.shop.org/2013/10/01/how-tory-burch-builds-passionate-customers/