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“Australian businesses must focus more on customer experience and service, making people feel understood, celebrated and unique. They need to exceed customers’ expectations at every single touch point. Many businesses are facing tough competition but they have the opportunity to do better,” said Megan Quinn, Co-Founder, Net-a-Porter.

Quinn is a keynote speaker at the marcus evans Retail Forum 2017, taking place in the Gold Coast, Australia, 14 - 15 September.

How is Australian retail transforming? 

People were happy with the status quo until e-commerce disrupted it. That followed with globalisation and the internet opening their eyes to various price points and a plethora of choice. Now they are competing against international sites. Amazon is seen as an enormous threat. Australian businesses have been too focused on efficiency and cost-cutting, and have not recognised the importance of customer experience and reinvesting into their organisation. They need to be relevant to their consumers and be worthy destinations, both physically and digitally.

What has the biggest impact on customer experience? What opportunities for improving customer experience would you point retailers to? 

Retailers need to invest in the customer experience, understand their wants and desires, and cater a destination across every touch point and channel that they find appealing. That is the opportunity. They also need to see opportunities with Amazon. They cannot fight it, so they can be more involved and test the demand for their products. They should consider Amazon as another vehicle for selling their products.

They must reverse engineer what Amazon and other international sites cannot do, and understand how they can be different or unique. How can they create a destination that is worth talking about? They do not need to be a big chain to excite customers. They must hire the right staff and invest in people, train them on the products and good salesmanship. They should exceed customer expectations. They need to create a community around the product not just the commodity itself – that is the opportunity.

The key to Net-a-Porter’s success has been the attention to detail and focus on exceeding customer expectations at every single touch point. Our goal was to make people feel excited, understood, unique, celebrated and appreciated. We gave people a range of choice, delivery and packaging that exceeds their expectation, and an easy return process if they are not delighted by their purchase for some reason.

What innovations or tools could retailers make better use of?

Data is a hot topic. Building a profile on customers, not just knowing what they have purchased but a story around it, interpreting that data to improve the experience. Marrying the digital technology seamlessly with customer experience is crucial. What is driving people at the moment? We live in a rapidly changing world and the challenge is not just to know what is coming next but knowing what to do with it.

How can retailers make sure there is a seamless shopping experience across mobile, tablet and desktop, and the actual store?

So often they do not make them synergistic. Every touch point has to be seamless. It all needs to stem from the same brand and ethos. The stock needs to be real time. It needs to correlate with the after sales service. They should feed off each other. It is about making sure that everything resonates, anticipating what could make the interaction with the business excellent and ensuring that happens.