American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), a leading clothing and accessories retailer, knows its core customer demographic (15 to 25-year-olds) increasingly looks for convenience and “get it now” options in their shopping experiences. The company continues to identify ways to provide brand experiences that flow seamlessly between digital and in-store shopping. For this reason, AEO worked with Cheetah Digital by Marigold to enhance its mobile-enabled shopping experience, encouraging app users and website shoppers to stop by a physical store.

Goals

Encourage omnichannel behavior

Through extended data analysis, the retailer discovered its omnichannel customers, those who shop in more than one channel, spend more than double the amount of customers who stick to just online or in-store shopping.

Provide flexibility

AEO wanted to develop a shopping experience that gives customers the flexibility to shop exactly how they want, which requires coordination between mobile, website, email, and in-store data and messaging.

Promote subscription

AEO wanted to increase its email and SMS subscription lists and downloads of its app to ensure it was regularly in contact with its best and most loyal customers.

“American Eagle, among fashion retailers with a millennial customer base, is doing better than most in providing a valuable in-store experience for its users… for millennials who are quick to write off features they don’t find helpful, American Eagle is insightful and forward-thinking to include things like ”Reserve, Try & Buy.” Among its direct competitors, American Eagle is leading the pack.”

Solution

Reserve, Buy & Try program brings shopping to every channel

AEO developed a program called Reserve, Try & Buy (RTB) that allows customers to browse for a product on their app or website, and then reserve it to try on at their nearest store. When the item is set aside, a series of real-time email (and SMS if the customer has opted-in) messages are triggered and deployed by Cheetah Digital by Marigold to confirm the order and announce the product’s availability at the local store. These real-time messages are also enhanced with dynamically relevant content, like store hours and location information.

Cheetah Digital by Marigold ’s Marketing Suite is the primary driver of the outbound messaging, ingesting real-time data updates and deploying transactional messages via email and SMS to alert customers and message them incrementally as the order moves through its different stages.

On average, Reserve, Try & Buy customers purchase 2x more units in store than the number of units they reserved on the app or website

Results

Reserve, Buy & Try program brings shopping to every channel

The RTB program is driving direct revenue for the brand. By encouraging multichannel behavior and in-store up sells, the brand is converting more customers into loyal, multichannel shoppers.

  • RTB customers purchase 2x more units in store (on average) than the number of units they reserved on the app or website.
  • AEO was crowned the winner of the Omnichannel Marketing Innovation Award at The 2016 Marketing&Tech Innovation Awards presented by DMNews and The Hub.
  • AEO was ranked #1 in mobile experience for apparel brands by Digital Management, Inc. in 2015.
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