Leading Home Improvement Retailer Focuses on Customer Data, Prioritizes Self Checkout, and Unifies Omnichannel Interface
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Lowe’s Home Improvement Improves their Digital Experience with Publicis Sapient Engagement
Lowe’s Companies Inc.
Digital Experience Strategy & Design
Personalization
Solution Design and Architecture
Custom Development
Backend Integrations
Data Migration
Omnichannel Strategy
RECOGNITION
Background
Lowe’s is a name brand in home improvement. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it changed many things for Americans; one big change was that we were spending a ton more time in our homes which made many of us realize what we’d like to improve in our living spaces.
This was a huge opportunity for Lowe’s, not just in an increase in engaged customers, but also as an opportunity to investigate new ways of reaching users: digital! What was once primarily a brick-and-mortar store, needed to become a seamless, omnichannel, multi-touchpoint experience and Publicis Sapient was more than up for the job.
Together, Corra &
Lowe’s
achieved:
Challenge
Optimizing Performance and Taking Inventory of Desired Features
When their digital reinvention began, Lowe’s had to take a good hard look at the systems and architectures buttressing their digital experiences. What they found was a series of aging and limiting legacy systems that restricted their optionality and put a very low ceiling on their ability to be flexible and to create dynamic and adaptable customer experiences at scale.
Due to the size of Lowe’s organization, a massive business and technological audit had to take place to determine which systems were not performing. A series of roadmaps and solutions had to be created to present Lowe’s with a comprehensive plan to modernize their digital ecosystem to give customers a one-of-a-kind, 21st-century, customer experience.
Solution
A Seamless Omnichannel Experience for All Touchpoints
Lowe’s had a fragmented set of user interfaces. Orders placed online went to one OMS, and orders placed by phone to another. Orders purchased on mobile to a third, and products bought in-store and stored to be picked up later a fourth. This created chaos: associates were less productive than they could be and customers were frustrated by the confusing interfaces and long waits to pick up or receive the products they’d purchased.
Previously, all of Lowe’s digital systems were built on different, isolated monolithic systems. Those monolithic systems were overhauled and replaced with a series of microservices-based components all connected through an orchestration layer and API gateway that allowed them to be seamlessly integrated and in communication with a single inventory.
This made it so that the user interface and purchase and procurement process were the same through every device. Whether a product was purchased on mobile, in-store, or online and then put in layaway to be picked up in a few months, all transactions went through the same interface which reduced chaos, increased productivity, and created happy customers.
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Solution
Investing in Creating Unique Experiences through Customer Data
Customer data is the next frontier in ecommerce. With 3rd party cookies losing relevancy, the way to collect consumer information and deliver personalized and unique experiences is by investing in customer data platforms and harvesting first-party information. Lowe’s previous customer data platform and data warehousing capabilities were outdated and filled with customer info redundancies, and incorrect information that created an inability to utilize customer information in their strategy.
A brand-specific roadmap and strategy for an enterprise client like Lowe’s was devised to update their customer data capabilities. A new CDP was implemented that enabled the delivery of data-driven recommendations; tracking and analyzing customer engagement and reward-specific loyalty/benefit opportunities to customers that frequently engage; managing customer identities; keeping track of who is visiting their sites and for what reasons; and managing various customer experience vectors through segmentation all became possible.
A key initiative in this new rollout was to create easy and accessible opportunities for customers to sign up for an account and provide their information that way. To achieve this, the UX of the digital touchpoints was tweaked to make sure that login opportunities were prompted early and often which was successful. 29% of all transactions are now from customers who are account holders, and 58% of sale revenue is from customers with accounts.
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Solution
POS System Overhaul
Customer preferences are changing and the days when most customers want to make their purchase by handing their items to a cashier are dwindling. For this reason, Lowe’s had to overhaul their POS system with a huge focus on self-checkout.
Lowe’s wanted to provide their customers with a frictionless and modern self-checkout experience that is fast, easy, and convenient. The previous solution was restrictive and limiting in its ability to roll out new and dynamic experiences at scale and correcting that problem was a key aspect of the initiative.
A custom end-to-end solution for Lowe’s self-checkout terminals and device management processes was delivered. The custom solution was built using IoT with state-of-the-art telemetry for data collection. A custom device interface was installed that helps facilitate easier frontend changes at scale. The investment in this massive overhaul was lessened by the use of open-source technology.
The initiative was a success, resulting in improved associate productivity and a 90% reduction in terminal start-up time.
Business Audit Helps Determine Growth Areas
The process supporting all of these changes was a business audit where the executive stakeholders issued a challenge to find $2 billion of growth opportunities within the digital ecosystem. After a comprehensive evaluation took place, a list of 80+ areas with potential growth was returned. This list included areas such as omnichannel capabilities, product fulfillment and installation, and pricing and promotion. A digital transformation isn’t only about implementing complex features, it is also about a consultative relationship where we use our expertise to help stakeholders understand where their business has growth opportunities.
Results
This project was large and an even bigger success. By overhauling omnichannel capabilities, data utilization, POS, and self-checkout capabilities, Lowe’s took their digital experience into the future. They are now able to create personalized and unique experiences at scale while also creating easy opportunities to use customer info so that they can continue to deliver these one-of-a-kind experiences that resonate across demographics.
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