14 Examples of Great Customer Experiences in Retail
By Tricia McKinnon and Ben Rudolph
When speaking about when Apple first launched the Apple store Ron Johnson, Apple’s former SVP of retail said: “when we launched retail [at Apple], I got this group together, people from a variety of walks of life.” “As an icebreaker, we said, ‘tell us about the best service experience you’ve ever had.'” “Of the 18 people, 16 said it was in a hotel. This was unexpected. But of course: the concierge desk at a hotel isn’t selling anything; it’s there to help.” “We said, ‘well, how do we create a store that has the friendliness of a Four Seasons Hotel?'” The answer: “let’s put a bar [the Genius Bar] in our stores. But instead of dispensing alcohol, we dispense advice.” It has been over 20 years since Apple opened its first retail store in 2001 and that advice has not gone out of style.
A survey from Salesforce found that 84% of customers believe that the experience provided by a company is as important as its products and services. That confirms what we already know, the customer experience matters. But what constitutes a great customer experience? When looking at an example of a great customer experience it tends to hit on one of the following elements: 1) it’s helpful, 2) it saves time, 3) it’s friendly, 4) it’s memorable and 5) it fills a need. Some customer experiences like the ones provided by Apple touch on all five of those elements while others only hit on one. As you think about how to elevate the customer experience for your own customers, the following examples of retailers that are doing a great job can give you a head start.
1. Nordstrom is betting on services to provide a great customer experience. With this in mind several Nordstrom stores offer a dizzying number of services including: shoe repair, personal styling, gift wrapping, in-store drop off of online returns from other retailers, onsite alterations, dry cleaning, monograming, and an endless array of beauty services. It’s hard to keep up with everything Nordstrom offers but thinking more broadly about a customer’s needs than “I need a new pair of pants” can tap into a way to provide them with a better customer experience.
2. lululemon. If anyone knows how to provide a great customer experience it’s lululemon. It has provided like minded customers with free yoga classes for years and is a pillar within local communities by organizing and sponsoring 10 km and other runs for its fitness minded customers.
Proving that stores don’t have to be transactional in 2019 lululemon opened a new flagship store in Lincoln Park Chicago. At 20,000 sq. ft. it was the brand’s largest store at the time of opening. Over two floors the store has a yoga studio, gym, meditation area and café. Customers looking for more than yoga can take strength training or high intensity workout classes in the store. The space is also designed to hold community events.
3. Sephora. From skin care classes to brow shaping classes to contouring classes Sephora offers it all. This retailer is in tune with its customer base and has thought about everything a customer may want to learn. For example, Sephora has given makeup classes to customers who identify as non-binary and transgender. These classes are a segment of the retailer’s Classes for Confidence initiative. Classes like these allow a retailer to engage directly with their customers providing a personalized experience. Since so many retail experiences are transactional providing more experiences that are engaging can go a long way in providing experiences that resonate with customers and are memorable.
You don’t need to be a large retailer to offer classes. Classes can be offered by almost any retailer that sells a product. With the growth of DIY videos on social media there is a clear demand by the market for consumers to become experts by learning from other experts like you.
4. Alibaba. The Chinese eCommerce giant made a move into physical retail in 2016 by opening a chain of futuristic supermarkets called Hema or Freshippo in English. For those of you who can’t make the trip to China here’s a quick overview of what these stores are like and why they provide an elevated customer experience:
Scan and go. Customers shopping at Hema can use the retailer’s app to scan the QR code on each item they wish to purchase then the item is added to their digital shopping cart. Scanning a product’s QR code also provides the customer with data on the product including nutritional information, customer reviews, and recipes.
Personalized shopping recommendations. Hema’s app remembers shopper buying behavior and leverages machine learning to make personalized product recommendations for customers.
Digital payments including facial recognition. When customers are finished shopping they pay using Hema's mobile app which is linked to Alipay. Alipay, founded by Alibaba, is an online payment app that has more than 1 billon active users.
Fast shipping. Customers shopping at Hema can have their groceries delivered to their home in 30 minutes for free, if the customer’s delivery address is within three km of a Hema store. This applies to customers that shop in store and want their orders delivered to their homes or if they made the purchase online.
5. Starbucks. One of the details you may not think about but it is quite powerful is that each and every time you go to Starbucks the Barista greets you, asks for your name and writes your name on your order. That is very rare, especially for a retailer like Starbucks which serves more than 100 million customers per week.
Details matter and at a time where communication is often more generic than personal Starbucks provides a personalized level of service each and every time. That effect is compounded when the Baristas get to know you and greets you without even having to ask you for your name.
Do you like this content? If you do subscribe to our retail trends newsletter to get the latest retail insights & trends delivered to your inbox
6. Vans. Vans has created an entirely different form of experiential retail with its House of Vans concept. In November House of Vans popped-up for three days in Toronto. The four-day installation included: an on-site skatepark, local market, artist workshops and musical performances. Visitors were allowed to participate in the event free of charge.
"It's an honour to bring House of Vans back to life in Toronto to celebrate the city's vibrant creative community," says Alex Auchu, marketing director at Vans Canada. "To provide an inclusive space to highlight and support the creatives that make this city so special."
7. Adidas. In Adidas’ flagship store on Oxford street in London, customers are treated to Adidas’ vision of the store of the future. If a customer wants to try on footwear they can use the “Bring it To Me” functionality in the brand’s mobile app. All a customer has to do is take a photo of the shoe they want to try on then staff can view the customer’s location in the store in order to bring them their requested item.
Fitting rooms are outfitted with smart mirrors that show what a clothing item looks like on a customer against various real-world backdrops. If for instance a customer is trying on a soccer jersey, they can see what they would look like wearing that jersey while watching a soccer game. Customers can also simply touch the smart mirror located inside of their fitting room to request different sizes and colours.
For customers not content with walking around the store to test out a new pair of shoes, the store has a running lab. The running lab has treadmills facing a London backdrop so that customers can get the feel of what it would be like to run in the Adidas shoes in various settings. Finally, the store often has a number of value-added services including: sneaker cleaning, bra-fitting appointments with trained staff and seamstresses to customize purchases.
8. Warby Parker has an augmented reality feature in its app which allows customers to digitally try on glasses from the comfort of a customer’s home. One of the reasons Warby Parker added this functionality is because it noticed customers typically take pictures of themselves while trying on glasses in-store and then they share those pictures with friends. Customers can now do that easily with the retailer’s app.
9. Costco has a very liberal return policy where customers can return almost anything they have purchased at anytime. On Costco’s website it says: “we are committed to providing quality and value on the products we sell with a risk-free 100% satisfaction guarantee on both your membership and merchandise.” Now that that’s the type of policy I can get used to.
In recognition of the company’s outstanding customer service earlier this Costco ranked number one in the American Customer Satisfaction Index in the general merchandise category for the sixth year in a row.
10. ModCloth. A few years ago over a two-week period clothing retailer ModCloth created an Instagram experience within its stores for its customers. It hired a professional photographer and gave customers the option of having a photo taken of them in an outfit styled by ModCloth.
After the photos were taken customers were given the digital files as well as a print out of the photos that were taken. Photos of the customers were then displayed on digital screens in the store turning customers into clothing models.
The goal of the initiative was to increase awareness of ModCloth’s new store in San Francisco as well as to create a piece of content that customers could share with friends and family. Over the two week period when the initiative ran ModCloth took more than 250 unique portraits and the initiative had nearly five million social media impressions.
11. Fabletics. In Fabletics’ stores, iPads are placed on the outside and the inside of a customer’s fitting room. Each item a customer wants to try on is scanned before the customer enters the fitting room and is added to the customer’s online profile. The sales associates use an iPad located on the outside of the fitting room to see all of the items the customer has brought into the fitting room. If a customer wants a clothing item in a different size they can use the iPad inside of the fitting room to make a request. That means no more awkward peaking outside of your change room to find a sales associate to assist you. “It’s an opportunity to interact with customers in a way that avoids the awkward moment of an associate either standing right outside the fitting room door or not being attentive enough,”said Ron Harries, head of retail, at Fabletics. “Associates interact when the customer wants them to.”
12. Canada Goose. To provide customers with the experience of what it is like to wear their products in the environments they were created for, Canada Goose has installed Cold Rooms in some of its stores. These small rooms are set to -25 degrees Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit). The rooms are even equipped with a windchill button.
Customers wanting to experience the Cold Room select a coat and then a sales associate accompanies the customer into the cold room to test the jacket. Speaking about the Cold Rooms, Dani Reiss, Canada Goose’s CEO said: “we’ve found that the cold room is very exciting to customers right now, but we think it will continue to have value long after the novelty factor has worn off.” “It means customers can explore buying a coat in the summer months, when it’s hot outside.” This experience is so good Fast Company named it the best retail experience of the year in 2018.
Canada Goose has evolved its Cold Room experience into a Snow Room which simulates a snowstorm complete with a -22 degrees Celsius (-10 degree Fahrenheit) temperature. Residents of California who experienced the Snow Room for the first time in 2021 when a new Canada Goose store opened must be glad they don’t have to live through Canadian winters.
13. Trader Joe’s. Like most companies known for providing excellent customer service, Trader Joe’s employees are empowered to do what it takes to ensure its customers are happy. Mark Gardiner, author of the book Build a Brand Like Trader Joe’s, took a job as an entry level employee at Trader Joe’s for a year to gain insight into why the retailer is so successful. Reflecting on his experience he said: “even as a new crew member (the lowest-level employee) I was empowered to do almost anything for a customer. Spend 15 minutes in the storeroom looking for a $5 item at a customer’s request? No problem. If I encountered a customer who seemed to be having a bad day, I could give her a bouquet of flowers on my own initiative. Any time a customer asked, “What are these like?” I could open a package and give them a free sample.”
Your employees and their actions form one of the most important building blocks for the customer experience you offer your employees. Having employees that are engaged and willing to go out of their way goes a long way in building customer satisfaction and long term customer loyalty.
14. Ritz Carlton. The Ritz Carlton has long been known for its award-winning customer service. It has earned the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award twice. One of the keys to its success is empowering employees to surprise, delight and solve customer problems. As a result of this philosophy, Ritz Carlton employees are empowered to spend up to $2,000 to improve the customer experience of any guest. All employees fall within this program, from front desk receptionists to house-keeping staff.
This program has led to many examples of outstanding customer service. For example, one Ritz Carlton customer forgot their laptop charger in their hotel room. Before the customer had time to call the hotel, the charger was couriered to the customer. A loss prevention employee who sent the package wrote in a note accompanying the package: “Mr. DiJulius, I wanted to make sure we got this to you right away. I am sure you need it, and, just in case, I sent you an extra charger for your laptop."
The Ritz Carlton believes the key to customer engagement is employee engagement. Instead of having a lot of red tape or bureaucratic processes, the program also enables employees to take immediate action so that problems are solved quickly. When employees are fully engaged and empowered customers reap the benefits.
The Ritz Carlton has this to say about its employee empowerment program: “the interesting thing about our empowerment is that while the full $2000 (or more, with the general manager’s permission) could be used, it rarely is. In fact, the average actual amount used on an incident is often much, much lower. There is much power for of all our Ladies & Gentlemen knowing that we truly trust them with an amount that large, per incident. They are able to make decisions in the moment to quickly resolve a guest issue or to make an experience beautiful and memorable (or both). And our Ladies & Gentlemen know they can do this on their own, regardless of their level, without having to go through levels of leadership for approval.”
“It shows how much we trust our Ladies & Gentlemen. It’s how much we trust them to do the right thing, how much we trust them to resolve a guest issue well, and how much we trust them to always think of creative and memorable ways to elevate the experience. There are ways you can create empowerment in your organization that aren’t necessarily a $2000 per incident policy, that will show you trust all your employees. And if you trust your employees to care for your clients, guests, and patients, they really will.”