The New York Times recently posted an article about an innovative form of the data analysis business. A data agency called Powerfront is creating customer avatars for e-commerce websites, especially for luxury brands, among which are Gucci, Kiehl’s, Sephora, Neiman Marcus.
Instead of data in forms of number, charts, and graphs, those avatars visualize the sheer information of individual customer, from browse history to order history, from shopping mood to items in bag, plus a label that summarizes the overall shopping habit such as “hesitant.”
The service is said to be designed to allow brands to provide “the kind of service that luxury customers deserve.” For example, they are having real agents instead of bots chat with wealthy customers, so that they don’t feel offended and are able to enjoy the kind of service they used to only receive in a bricks-and-mortar store, and of course, more willing to pay for the products. The reason for Powerfront to do so is that they want to add some “human touch” to online shopping experience.
The service is said to be designed to allow brands to provide “the kind of service that luxury customers deserve.” For example, they are having real agents instead of bots chat with wealthy customers, so that they don’t feel offended and are able to enjoy the kind of service they used to only receive in a bricks-and-mortar store, and of course, more willing to pay for the products. The reason for Powerfront to do so is that they want to add some “human touch” to online shopping experience.
I can’t agree more with the saying that “Purchasing is emotional.” Compared to physical stores, there are just too many frictions online that stop customers from making the order. The avatar-like customer profile can surely help brands have a more direct impression of a customer, know him/her better, and provide service accordingly. Plus the colorful avatars are a lot more interesting to look at than black-and-white numbers and charts.
However, the “human touch” that Powerfront is creating is nothing compared to the luxury experience that customers can receive in a physical store. E-commerce won’t be able to replace offline sales. What it can do the most is to compensate the coldness and indifference that one might experience during online shopping.
What’s more, doing so may be a good idea for luxury brands. But it’s probably not the best solution for other brands. The kind of service can be time- and labor- costing, greatly. And the offensiveness of being tracked and monitored can be just not worth the service.
There’s no doubt that Powerfront is opening a new gate for data business. It’s only that their clients need to be perfectly sure that such a solution will be suitable for them.
References
B. J, & T.J, (2019), They see you when you’re shopping, The New York Times, Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/style/powerfront-software-ecommerce-cartoons.html
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Zixiao Li 