Saks OFF 5th & FreshDirect on Digital Opportunities & Customer Communications

In April, I shared a quick recap about what I learned at Women in Retail and Total Retail Virtual Exchange.

Today, I had the pleasure to listen in again – this time, featuring Paige Thomas, President and CEO, Saks OFF 5TH, and Tammy Berentson, Chief Marketing Officer, FreshDirect.

Here are my two key takeaways:

The golden opportunity for retailers is in DIGITAL.

During the pandemic, Saks OFF 5th "catapulted" and "doubled down" on digital.

"Customers were forced to shop online. That was the opportunity for us to catapult on digital business," said Paige Thomas, President and CEO, Saks OFF 5TH.

Quickly, they adjusted their priorities and invested in technologies that would help them meet customers where they were.

Strategically, they began by transitioning their platform to Salesforce Cloud. A few months later, they launched Klarna for buy-now-pay-later.

This year, in April, they launched their app which has had an unbelievable response to it.

"Our golden opportunity was focused on the digital side of our business," said Paige Thomas.

It's no doubt that Saks OFF 5th tapped into their golden opportunity, and will continue to do so as they budget their tech investments for 2022.

Communicating with customers must be PRIORITY.  

There's no doubt that customers turned to FreshDirect during the pandemic. Myself included.

With such demand, FreshDirect had to make tough decisions and turn business away in order to prioritize their existing customers – those they had already established relationships with.

"Our goal was to serve as many customers as possible, focusing on our existing customers... We focused on our best customers ensuring they were prioritized," said Tammy Berentson, Chief Marketing Officer, FreshDirect.

Throughout the pandemic, the key for FreshDirect was in communication and transparency.

They leveraged multiple channels, wherever their customers were, to ensure they knew what was going on.

"We were very transparent with our customers throughout the pandemic letting them know through email, through social, through push notifications what was going on," said Tammy Berentson.

FreshDirect's success was simple – communication.

"We focused on user experience – Communicating with them – Serving as many people as possible," said Tammy Berentson.

They focused on customer and user experience. And it is those users that continue to buy from them today.

How about you? How are you prioritizing digital and customer communications? Let's talk!

Talkdesk offers solutions for you to tap into the "golden opportunity" and to better communicate with your customers. 
Learn more here: www.talkdesk.com/retail