Coffee & Commerce with Cascone: Ecommerce and Brick & Mortar Tie the Knot with Callie Canfield
At the onset of COVID-19, one thing became clear: Retailers needed guidance. In an effort to help brands operate effectively and efficiently in this digital world, we launched Coffee & Commerce with Cascone: A biweekly series with bite-sized episodes tackling the latest in retail, featuring established marketers from today’s biggest brands.
Transitioning from brick-and-mortar to eCommerce is never easy, and this especially reigns true for experiential specialty retailers like bridal. Learn how David’s Bridal successfully navigated this shift by putting their customers first in this conversation between Sarah Cascone, Senior Director of Marketing at Bluecore, and Callie Canfield, VP of Marketing Communications at David’s Bridal.
Welcome back to Coffee & Commerce with Cascone. Today I want to talk about how even the toughest of retail categories are emerging with new paths forward in this digital-first world. One particular category experiencing this on a whole new level is the bridal industry. Here to talk to me today is Callie Canfield, VP of Marketing Communications at David’s Bridal. This is a brand that has completely transformed their business and accelerated their eCommerce operations overnight. Callie, thanks for joining!
CALLIE: Thanks for having me, happy to be here.
CASCONE: Callie, talk to me about what the shift has been like for David’s Bridal. What are some of the biggest changes you’ve made off the bat?
CALLIE: I’d say the biggest shift for us was basically changing to an eCommerce retailer from a brick-and-mortar retailer overnight. We have over 300 brick-and-mortar locations in the U S, and with the start of COVID we temporarily closed all of them in a matter of weeks. We really had to think quickly and nimbly to convert that very high-touch in store experience that our customer is used to, to an online experience. We did that in a lot of ways. We had to launch our virtual styrofoam stylist program, bringing our store stylists into the virtual space really quickly. We listened to our customers very closely. We launched a lot of surveys so we could get feedback and hear from them in real-time. We operated really nimbly as a business: So we changed a lot of our meeting structure, started changing our promotions and our marketing messages basically overnight. So it was a really big shift for us.
CASCONE: That is a huge shift. And it’s cool to see how you’re making these changes, not only organizationally, but one of the best things that I heard you say was how you’re really listening to your customers and partnering alongside them. Like, “Hey, what do you need right now? How can we help?” So how are you focusing your digital priorities to that end?
CALLIE: That’s a good question. So we’ve had to make a lot of changes. One of the channels that we shifted quite a bit was our email channel, which we’re working with Bluecore on. We used to just speak to a lot of broad strokes marketing messages. They could be tied to a multi-category sends, to our whole entire list, which is really a large list. Now we’re really focusing on more targeted messages and we want to speak to the customer where she is. There’s no more one-size-fits-all wedding or bride. We know that some people are opting for smaller ceremonies, some people are proceeding as they usually would. So we’re really focusing our email messages.
Another key focus for us is launching a loyalty program, which is actually something new. We have not had a loyalty program in the past, and we’re really trying to move quickly to get one launched for our customer. Obviously that’s much different for a bridal retailer than it is for another retailer. I used to work at Gap, and obviously at a company like Gap a loyalty program looks like, you want somebody from the time they’re two years old to the time they’re 60. So it’s really a full lifecycle. For bridal, that’s much different because you basically have her for her event, so we’re really focused on that. And then another piece that we’re really focused on is localization, so in our marketing messages, we’re really focusing on each region specifically, because customers are experiencing the impacts of COVID in a much different way depending on where they live.
CASCONE: That’s awesome. I think the awareness there is huge. All of these brands are having to become more human in that way, which is great. And you make a great point about the definition of loyalty, which is actually something we touched upon in one of our last episodes with Tommy Lamb on beauty. It does seem to mean different things for different brands, and rallying around what a loyalty program is meant to support for your brand is very important. Callie, I’d love to end with any advice you have for brand executives undergoing a similar upheaval as David’s Bridal.
CALLIE: I think one thing that I have learned through all of this is to throw out whatever you did in the past and really think based on what’s happening in the world right now. I think, specifically in retail, we like to look at year-over-year or month-over-month, and compare to what we’ve done in the past. And we’re really not able to do that anymore. So I think the best things we’ve been able to do as a business are to be really nimble, move really quickly and swiftly to make changes to best serve the customer, and to listen to our customers. Throwing out the rule book and really operating swiftly and nimbly with the customer in mind is my best piece of advice.
CASCONE: Absolutely. That’s great advice. You are part of one of the many brands making incredible shifts to accelerate their rebound. And since Bluecore is super bullish about the resiliency of the industry, we can’t wait to see how David’s Bridal turns the ship around and how you succeed. So, Callie, thank you for your time today, and to everyone at home, thank you for joining Coffee & Commerce!
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