Klarna’s What’s In Store series highlights how brands are navigating their physical in-store locations and what customers can expect across the omnichannel experience.
We sat down with Detria Courtalis, Interim General Manager, North America at Pandora to learn more.
How has Pandora’s in-store strategy shifted over the past year to meet consumer demand?
All of our teams and stores are following local and state guidelines in real time, continuing to wear masks and have hand sanitizer stations available for employee and customer use at a minimum. We believe these details will continue to evolve, but some of the precautions and new protocols we’ve implemented to ensure a safe shopping experience include: directional signage on the ground to provide guidance on how people should move within the store, signage inside and outside the store also indicates local regulations, increased cleaning of the stores and product, and plexiglass shields implemented in many stores.
What changes have you made to the store experience due to the pandemic?
We have! Our roll-out of omnichannel capabilities in the US has continued to increase and we have implemented buy online and pick up in store features in more than 250 concept stores. Additionally, we are continuing to adjust as the world gradually recovers, with safety and cleanliness consistently our top priority. Some of the in-store experience has shifted to accommodate that, with restrictions on trying on jewelry to limit contact in-store, if a customer decides they do want to try on a piece of jewelry, all pieces are cleaned and disinfected using an ionic cleaner, which uses polishing agents and gentle soap cleansers to remove tarnish and dirt with a safe bubbling action.
How have consumer spending behaviors changed?
Something we’re seeing from customers in their purchasing habits is that the emotional connection to pieces remain. Customers are spending their money in more thoughtful ways, whether it’s a piece for themselves or a gift for loved ones, and they’re more deliberate and conscious about where they’re spending their money and what they’re spending it on. Ensuring that brand values align with personal values have become more apparent over the past year.
What products are customers spending most on these days?
Charms continue to be our most popular piece with customers. They celebrate people, places and passions and serve as timeless reminders of important moments in our customers lives. Our most popular charms are hearts and family-themed within our Pandora Moments collections.
Shoppers today are more value-driven than ever before. What drove the decision to make sustainability such a big part of your mission?
At the heart of Pandora’s business is the belief that high ethical standards and high-quality jewelry go hand in hand. We consider sustainability across our business, from how we craft our jewelry to the workplace we offer employees. Reducing what we take from the planet, protecting the environment and treating all stakeholders well is key to Pandora’s success.
Which technologies are you currently leveraging online and in-store to reach new audiences and enhance the customer experience?
Our team has worked quickly to be agile to meet customers where they are. From an online perspective, we’ve had a strong increase and seen triple-digit growth despite the virus and shifting retail landscape. We’ve adjusted our strategy by bolstering our e-commerce technology offerings in three specific ways.
First, by partnering with a gift-based e-commerce and data platform called SmartGift, customers can send and unwrap gifts via text, email and other digital platforms, and has enabled us to be more present for consumers during key gifting occasions.
Second, we’ve expanded our distribution centers with new locations in Canada, Dallas, and Las Vegas to accommodate increased sales and demand. Lastly, we launched live chat as a key functionality and are staying close to how all builds are performing to continue evolving and serving the Pandora family.
From an in-store perspective, our Waitlist Me App has helped our staff on the backend to efficiently limit store capacity as well as create a seamless experience for our customers to enter the store. When a store reaches its capacity, our staff are utilizing the Waitlist Me App to secure a customer’s place in line once the customer has arrived onsite. Once in-person, the customer is added to a queue that allows them to shop elsewhere and will notify them through a text message that we are ready for them to come into the store. With the app, we can also jump start a customer’s in-store shopping experience by gathering initial details on what and who they are shopping for.
Additionally, our Virtual Queuing App service allows for virtual queuing, and we’ve added kiosks to key, high-traffic locations across the North American market during peak times like the holidays.
What does the future in-store experience look like at Pandora?
We believe long-term effects on the retail industry will be seen in omnichannel, and consumer sentiment around safety and the shopping experience. Over the past year, we’ve been focused on the acceleration of omnichannel especially, launching Click and Collect (Buy Online, Pick up In Store and/or curbside pickup) in order to help our team take learnings from the digital shopping experience and implement them in-store. We launched virtual try on, which allows customers to try on products on their mobile devices from wherever they are, to speed up the in-store transactions and we plan to introduce augmented reality features down the line. We piloted remote selling assistants where the store assistants provide styling advice to our online customers. We continue to explore opportunities to digitize the overall omni customer journey across all channels to offer the most personalized experience.
Klarna is available at Pandora in 350 stores in the US and Puerto Rico, and is already boosting sales for brands in more than 60,000 brick-and-mortar stores across the country. If you’re ready to grow your business with happy returning customers and a better shopping experience, get started today.