Burberry's in-store digital experience

Burberry's in-store Digital Experience

"Walking through our doors is just like walking through our website"

Burberry was one of the first luxury brand retailers to pursue digital strategy by meaningfully integrating social media use into its marketing. In 2012, Burberry opened a new flagship store in London’s Regent district. The new location provided a state-of-the-art digital experience no customer has ever experienced to “blur the lines between digital and physical shopping experiences.”

 Upon walking in the store, the customer is meant to feel as if he or she is walking into the company’s website. The store includes digital signage screens on floors and wrapped around the walls, live-streaming hubs and mirrors. The screens display models walking along catwalks from Burberry shows. Customers can also use their phones to identify items to save to their online checkout account to purchase a style online that is available in the store. Additionally, the store employs an innovative use of RFID chips so that when a customer picks up a certain item, a video of the item (such as a model on a runway or how the item is made) will play on a nearby screen. Finally, all store employees are equipped with iPads which include a database of customer purchase history and preferences to create a more unique customer shopping experience. By seamlessly merging the online shopper experience with innovative digital technology, the flagship store offers an unparalleled customer experience thereby elevating the Burberry brand amongst its peers.

Copyright Harvard Business School 2019. All rights reserved.

Read more: https://rctom.hbs.org/submission/burberrys-digital-transformation/