It was Walt Disney who once said, “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” He, of course, was referring to the creative process, but his observation also powers executives in the connected economy.
The quote would certainly get a good hearing at Lands’ End, the activewear apparel brand in the middle of a turnaround and swing to profitability after struggling through some pandemic-induced inventory issues.
In an interview with PYMNTS, Angie Rieger, Lands’ End’s chief transformation officer, discussed how curiosity drives the brand’s strategic direction and serves as a tool for uncovering deeper customer motivations.
“Curiosity takes us beyond what we can glean from a given transaction by allowing us to gain a better understanding of the customer’s intent — including why a customer might be looking at, or buying, one item over another, who may be buying the item and what else they are likely to buy,” Rieger explained. “Answers to these questions help inform future marketing and assortment opportunities.”
In a marketplace filled with brands that claim to prioritize customer feedback, Lands’ End differentiates itself by its commitment to listening. Rieger stressed the importance of examining customer interactions, particularly during returns and in online reviews. By diving deep into these touchpoints, brand officials identify common pain points and implement solutions that enhance customer satisfaction and drive repeat business.
“Listening to our customers and taking their feedback seriously, especially during the returns process and in online reviews, helps us toward that goal,” Rieger said. “We dive deep to understand what may be driving a return and look closely at online customer reviews to identify problem themes, and then we implement strategies to solve them.
“Staying on top of and alleviating customer pain points is an important part of our strategy that allows us to increase overall satisfaction and drive repeat purchasing.”
Collecting actionable data is integral to Lands’ End’s strategy, Rieger said. The brand employs customer surveys and feedback mechanisms to gauge responses to products and digital features.
“We regularly conduct surveys to see how customers are responding to our products and to make sure digital features and online benefits are clear to our customers,” Rieger explained.
Collaboration among product development, marketing and customer service teams is imperative for responding quickly to feedback, she added.
“We work hard to find the best way to listen to our customer, then develop actionable insights that translate to a better customer journey and the best, solutions-based products,” Rieger explained. “We are implementing a new ERP [enterprise resource planning] that will increase collaboration and planning across the business. It will enable us to build a more authentic and innovative Lands’ End digital experience with improvements in speed, personalization, loyalty, promotions and merchandising.”
“We pride ourselves on our ability to leverage our data to better understand our customers,” Rieger said. “We review data from multiple angles, beginning with our dedicated data scientists and our marketing, product development, and customer service teams. Through that approach, we’ve been able to better understand the shopping behaviors of our most valuable customers and classify them within two cohorts: resolvers and evolvers.”
Resolvers, Rieger said, are the largest cohort of the company’s base.
“They are solutions-oriented dressers that prefer classic styles and value quality over trends and shop primarily on necessity two to three times a year,” she explained.
“Evolvers are our second largest cohort as an opportunity for growth. They are discovering and refining their style as an ongoing journey, wearing what fit their current moment, they generally have more buying potential and spend more than resolvers.”
The focus on data-driven insights contributes to the shopping experience through personalization, Rieger said.
“For example, if we see a particular garment that has low reviews for fit, or the return rate is spiking, and the main reason cited is that it is too large, we will amend the product description to inform the customer this garment is running large and they may wish to consider sizing down.
“When people visit our website, our intent is to serve them products that are aligned to their preferences. Based on previous purchases and what other, similar customers have purchased, we try to present to present products that most interest each visitor.”
Lands’ End’s customer insights have increased brand advocacy, Rieger said, noting the recent partnership with Nordstrom’s online marketplace as a move to broaden visibility, accessibility and customer loyalty.
“Our data-driven approach is critical to our successful, ongoing efforts to redefine and elevate our brand,” she said. “With this new partnership, we’re broadening the availability and visibility of Lands’ End merchandise while reaching new customers who can find their way to landsend.com.”
Data-driven insights inform the company’s assortment strategy, Rieger said, targeting categories that drive the most quality sales.
“Zooming in further, we take an outfit-centric approach to our marketing and assortment strategies, designing and prioritizing products across categories that feature more productive inventory that facilitate sales across natural adjacencies,” she said.
The impact of these strategies is reflected in Lands’ End’s growth metrics, Rieger said.
“We see the impact of our data-driven approach both through new customer acquisition and customer retention,” she said. “From our second-quarter earnings, we’ve seen mid-single-digit growth in our new-to-file customers. And importantly, these new-to-file customers are, on average, 10 years younger.”
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