As Abercrombie & Fitch continues along its path toward brand revitalization, customer-centricity has assumed the top spot as the company’s key word. Customer-centricity is the key for Abercrombie & Fitch to revitalize and gain brand loyalty.
According to Jonathan Ramsden, Chief Operating Officer for Abercrombie & Fitch, the company’s fourth-quarter comp sales metric turned positive for the first time since 2012.
“Our improved results reflect strong progress across our six strategic areas of focus, which, as you know, include being customer-centric, developing compelling and differentiated assortments, defining clear positioning for our brands, optimizing our brand reach and channel performance, continuing to improve efficiency, and reduce expense and ensuring we are organized to win,” Ramsden said, according to Seeking Alpha.
Ramsden explained how Abercrombie & Fitch views customer-centricity.
“Customer-centricity means putting the customer at the center of everything we do,” he explained. “During 2015, we made numerous changes to make the shopping experience for our customer easier, faster, and more engaging. In our stores, these changes included giving more autonomy to our store management teams so they can be more responsive to their customers. They also included changes to the in-store experience such as improved lighting and shorter lines. In addition, we rolled out a new Hollister prototype store which is performing very well with traffic and sales up double digits relative to the control group. We will continue this rollout in 2016.”
On the digital side, the company continued to enhance its mobile capabilities with improved site design and upgraded apps. Mobile now accounts for more than 60% of all online traffic and nearly 40% of direct-to-consumer revenue and continues to experience double-digit increases in year-over-year conversion rates.
“And our omnichannel investments continue to enhance our ability to serve our customers’ needs in a seamless manner,” Ramsden added. “Important milestones in the year included expanding ship-from-store to another 290 stores in the U.S. and activating click-and-collect and online returns to stores in the U.K. In 2016, we will continue to invest in digital to improve the customer experience, including the rollout of omnichannel capabilities outside the U.S.”
Last year, the company rolled out several new tools to enable it to track how customers are responding to changes in the store experience and merchandise assortment.
“It’s early days for us with these tools, but in the meantime, the strong conversion gains we saw across channels and geographies validate that many of our customer-focused initiatives are gaining traction,” Ramsden said.