Chalhoub Group personalises customer journeys

Luxury retailer Chalhoub Group personalises customer journeys, with an aim to enhance customer e-commerce experiences amid COVID-19, which has spurred online shopping. To do this, Chalhoub Group has signed a digital transformation agreement with Salesforce.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Egypt’s beauty and personal care e-commerce market is valued at $1 billion, according to Bain & Company. In anticipation of its growth, and to meet customers’ shift to e-commerce amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Chalhoub Group continued to accelerate its digital transformation to become a hybrid retailer, meet customer needs across channels and offer luxury experiences at the fingertips of consumers everywhere.

In 2020, Chalhoub Group has launched digital commerce experiences for six brands – including Yves Saint Lauren beauty, Make Up For Ever, Faces, Swarovski, Tory Burch, Tanagra with more in the pipeline. Chalhoub Group has continued to accelerate its digital transformation by rolling out solutions to personalise customer journeys across chat, e-mail, social media and WhatsApp.

As Chalhoub Group personalises customer journeys, head of digital for beauty, Kristof Lukovich, said, “As the Middle East’s e-commerce market reaches record highs, digital transformation is a necessity for retailers to adapt even more rapidly to the post-COVID-19 era. At Chalhoub Group, our digital transformation with Salesforce has been enabling us to put the customers at the heart of what we do and listen to them. Chalhoub Group aims to delight customers through memorable personal experiences – understanding our customers is therefore of strategic importance.”

In response to customer needs during COVID-19 lockdown, Chalhoub Group worked with its brand teams to be available to and delight customers; for example, Molton Brown created a luxury handwash and hand care set, making a daily routine a moment of luxury. Chalhoub Group also launched digital concierge services for some brands to virtually connect customers with makeup artists and perfume and skincare experts from the comfort and safety of their homes.

Chalhoub Group has also doubled down on customer engagement via WhatsApp to offer rapid responses to customer care needs in beauty for Yves Saint Lauren and Faces. “This channel has become one of the favourites with our Saudi customers; we simply listened to them and made it happen. Our customers are at the centre of everything we try to do,” stated Lukovich.

Chalhoub Group is also increasingly leveraging AI from Salesforce’s Einstein, built-in intelligent solutions to personalise customer journeys, offer product recommendations and are looking to implement Einstein Bots to ease the load on customer service agents by automating routine requests, which enables agents to handle more complex issues. They are also already leveraging MuleSoft to unlock and unify data throughout the customer journey, creating connected customer experiences in e-commerce, services and retail stores with an API-led approach.

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