Case Study

Harry Rosen wanted to ready themselves for the next generation luxury customer. With a focus on distinguishing themselves through experience and a need to enhance merchandising and curation capabilities across an expanding product mix, they knew they needed to evolve to support new ways of selling. Orium was enlisted to map the in-store experience and to develop an omnichannel experience roadmap.

So how do you bring white-glove in-store customer experiences online? By going in store for first-hand observation.

The Orium team visited the flagship Harry Rosen location in downtown Toronto as well as a mall-based location in Toronto, two locations in Calgary, the Vancouver flagship store, and an additional Vancouver location. We spoke with management, with sales coaches, with advisors decades into their tenure, and with advisors new to the trade. We saw CSRs ring customers in. We saw customers get the great service the brand is known for. And crucially, we saw when things weren’t being optimized for the future of customer experiences.

In addition to the in-store teams, we spoke with customers, especially those coming up in the next generation. We heard about changing dress codes, about the move to dress for your day, and about broadening tastes in casual and weekend wear. But most importantly, we encountered broad differences in perceptions of the brand and how the Harry Rosen customer wants to engage with it.

Out of all that work we mapped the process of selling at Harry Rosen. It quickly became apparent that it is both complex and varied. True to the luxury market, each sale is unique and each customer demands their own way of being served. Some came in with families who required entertaining; some customers want advice from an expert while others listen only to a wife or partner; some come in with a clear purpose and others to enjoy the luxury experience. One important thread running through it all, however, was the importance of digital— even in store. Nearly every transaction included a digital touchpoint, generally with the website, in one capacity or another.

Our extensive research activities aligned the business on what a digital customer experience could and should look like, and provided a north star for future activities. With clear objectives in hand, we were able to quickly lay the foundations for success with our Accelerator offering and dedicate the saved time and effort to building out the custom components that would meet the specific needs we surfaced in our research.