Retail Tech: J.Crew’s New Private-Label Credit Card, Asics x BlueConic
The weekly Retail Tech Roundup compiles technology news across the supply chain, manufacturing, retail, e-commerce, logistics and fulfillment sectors.
Payments
J.Crew/Synchrony/Mastercard
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J.Crew Group has entered into a new, multi-year credit card program agreement with Synchrony and Mastercard. J.Crew Group and Synchrony will partner on a private-label credit card program, and together with Mastercard, the companies will launch a co-branded credit card designed for J.Crew and J.Crew Factory customers next year.
As part of this partnership, Synchrony will acquire J.Crew’s existing credit portfolio. Synchrony will also provide J.Crew with a full suite of digital capabilities including mobile wallet provisioning, pre-approval capabilities, a “scan to apply” feature and direct to a customer’s device credit application options.
The partnership with Mastercard also marks the first time that a new J.Crew Group co-branded card will be available to make purchases outside of J.Crew to obtain rewards and powered by the Mastercard Network.
Together, the companies will leverage their cultures to create a digital-first credit card program that will include savings and rewards for J.Crew Group customers across its J.Crew and J.Crew Factory stores, online sites and mobile channels. Integrated with J.Crew’s loyalty program, J.Crew Passport, members will receive more rewards and accelerated tier status with the new card.
“We are thrilled to be working with Synchrony and Mastercard, as their deep industry expertise, leading digital capabilities and collaborative partnership approach are exactly what we are looking for in financial partners,” said Libby Wadle, CEO, J.Crew Group. “Together, we will create the opportunity for our consumers to receive an easy and convenient credit experience that will meet their ever-changing needs.”
Assortment planning
David Jones/Lightspeed
Australian department store David Jones has implemented the NuOrder platform from Lightspeed Commerce as part of its Vision 2025+ strategy to digitize its merchandising and buying process.
Launching in January with the women’s international and designer ready-to-wear categories, David Jones will utilize NuOrder Assortments to digitally preview collections, curate assortments and complete orders in collaboration with their brands.
This partnership aims to accelerate David Jones’ digital transformation efforts and replace manual, time consuming processes like data collection, sizing and order writing. It also is designed to give buyers more time to focus on improving the shopping experience. David Jones can move away from manual spreadsheets, with the buying team using pre-populated data, automated roll-ups and real-time collaboration tools to deliver a more sophisticated omnichannel assortment.
NuOrder by Lightspeed’s technology will give David Jones the ability to view and analyze its assortments across brands, categories and attributes. Buyers will now be able to take a more customer-centric approach to the range planning process to ensure they are delivering a premium product offering both online and in-store.
Using the platform’s tagging and rollup capabilities, David Jones buyers will be able to collaborate with leadership and teams across the organization to review investments in initiatives, such as exclusives, enhancing their ability to create distinct assortments for their customers.
“David Jones is committed to delivering an unparalleled omnichannel shopping experience for customers,” said Bridget Veals, general manager, women’s wear, footwear and accessories for David Jones in a statement. “Adopting the NuOrder Assortments technology as our new digital buying process will ensure that our teams provide customers with access to a well-planned premium shopping experience online and in stores while also enhancing our collaboration with brands.”
More than 3,000 brands and more than 100,000 retailers use NuOrder by Lightspeed to streamline the wholesale buying and selling process, including Saks, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Brunello Cucinelli, Rag & Bone and more.
Shopping assistant
Dynamic Yield
Dynamic Yield by Mastercard has unveiled Shopping Muse, an advanced generative AI tool that aims to changes how consumers search for and discover products in a retailer’s digital catalog.
Shopping Muse can re-create the in-store, human experience by translating consumers’ colloquial language into tailored product recommendations, complete with suggestions for coordinating products and accessories.
Consumers can use Shopping Muse to explore modern aesthetics, trending looks, dress codes and unconventional search terms like “cottagecore” or “beach formal,” the company says.
Shopping Muse recommendations are designed to match an individual consumer’s unique profile, intent and affinity, and builds on the conversation’s context over time to deliver results that can match eccentric queries. Underpinned by Dynamic Yield’s personalization capabilities, the solution combines contextual and behavioral insights to produce recommendations that are informed by the retailer’s keywords, visual cues and the consumer’s own affinity.
In addition to helping shoppers search by phrase, Shopping Muse can reduce frustration by helping consumers find an item even when they don’t know how to properly describe it in words. Using integrated advanced image recognition tools, retailers can recommend relevant products based on visual similarities to others, even if they lack the right technical tags. The tool also accounts for the shopper’s affinity, based on session browsing history or past purchases, to better estimate future buying intent. With an understanding of the consumer’s affinity and the context of broader collective behavior, the retailer can ensure the suggested items are complementary, not redundant.
Mastercard acquired Dynamic Yield from McDonald’s in 2022 to strengthen its suite of consumer engagement and loyalty services, and help brands deliver more effective and trusted experiences across channels.
Merchandising
One Door
One Door, a provider of visual merchandising software for retailers, has unveiled Image IQ, a patented computer vision capability that is designed to bolster visual merchandising results for brick-and-mortar retailers.
With the click of a camera, Image IQ evaluates the quality of visual merchandising, delivers real-time recommendations to store teams and improves the accuracy of merchandising compliance data. This drives a more consistent in-store experience across locations and better sales performance.
Image IQ augments One Door’s capabilities for merchandise planning, communication, in-store execution and analysis. Additionally, Image IQ works with the platform’s localization capabilities, so every store team is guided based on the exact plan for their store, versus generic images.
The feature works by showing stores feedback to understand how to get their displays right the first time, the company says. According to Rian Tasker, platform product manager at One Door, the company is seeing immediate response times and recognition accuracy rates of 99 percent with almost no field team training.
E-commerce
Brooks Brothers/Metrical
Brooks Brothers has partnered with customer engagement solutions provider Metrical to bolster e-commerce growth.
Through the partnership, the lifestyle brand aims to convert more e-commerce customers by combining artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict online shopper behavior. Metrical’s AI/ML models operate anonymously and use no personally identifiable information (PII) ensuring that the consumer experiences remain private.
“For over 200 years, Brooks Brothers has appealed to consumers that expects impeccable service and a hassle-free experience to go along with our style, quality and craftsmanship of our merchandise,” said Katherine Yoo, senior director of e-commerce at Brooks Brothers. “Metrical’s AI solution understands this mindset and is able to provide the type of personalized experience our customers expect without them having to sacrifice privacy. This enhances our brand and contributes to the loyalty our customers show.”
While shoppers are browsing a retail site, Metrical predicts which people are about to leave, engages with them, assesses their needs and delivers messaging that drives them to make a purchase in real time. This personalized experience improves conversion rates, drives customer loyalty and increases return on ad spend (ROAS), without using cookies or PII. Metrical is used by brands and retailers including JCPenney, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Fossil Group and others.
3D visualization
Metail/Tronog
Metail, a technology company that offers fashion brands products powered by 3D body modeling, virtual model imagery and augmented reality for innovative and sustainable selling, is partnering with Tronog, a visualization studio specializing in creative 3D services for the apparel and automotive industries.
With the partnership, Metail will transfer ownership of its EcoShot solution to Tronog. EcoShot is a sample-free, virtual photography solution built to deliver accurate and realistic images of 3D garments on models and both companies expect minimal disruption to service for users.
The partnership enables Metail to accelerate helping apparel companies leverage artificial intelligence capabilities, and also provide generative AI components to Tronog for rollout within EcoShot.
As well as serving EcoShot’s existing market, which includes apparel product development teams using 3D CAD technologies, Tronog will offer an enhanced “design-to-sell” asset creation service. This will also involve making EcoShot’s AI and real-life models accessible to all, including brands that do not yet have 3D CAD capabilities. Tronog’s ability to accelerate the rollout of EcoShot’s new AI-generated models can assist brands in creating correct-fit, category-specific and campaign-appropriate model images.
According to CEO Tina Bregant, Tronog can use its 3D artists’ resources to accelerate the expansion of the new custom AI-model generation service for EcoShot customers. In addition, customers can leverage Tronog’s expertise in managing numerous client projects to expedite their project completions and proof-of-concept initiatives, receiving additional support to complement their in-house teams.
When combined with EcoShot’s fashion models, companies can use their 3D garments to sell, which can deliver a better response among viewers. Tronog’s mass image production expertise will also speed up EcoShot’s rollout of AI-generated models.
The idea of “on-model” images without physical samples appeals to many marketing and design teams. However, most do not have the 3D CAD garments required for accurate imagery. Tronog wants to overcome this obstacle by taking advantage of Metail’s 3D modeling services.
Teams that already have 3D CAD garments can benefit from greater flexibility, continue using EcoShot as a standalone product, and opt into Tronog’s additional services based on their needs.
Customer data
Asics/BlueConic
Athletic footwear and apparel brand Asics has selected pure-play customer data platform (CDP) BlueConic to empower employees to support a growing number of personalization projects while remaining compliant with global consumer data privacy regulations.
With a focus on increasing engagement and loyalty both within the app and across brands, channels, and regions, Asics will use BlueConic to unify its first-party data for a deeper, real-time understanding of individual interests, behaviors, consent preferences and more. With access to more unified and privacy-compliant customer data, Asics’ business teams can build robust segments and orchestrate personalized experiences for customers across all touch points, while mitigating consumer data risk for the organization at the same time.
“We chose BlueConic because of the flexibility and usability of the platform, along with their ability to support various use cases across brands and regions, from data cleanup and identity resolution to compliance and personalization,” said Melissa Reed, senior product manager of customer data at Asics Digital.
“BlueConic also stood out for its level of support,” Reed continued. “During our proof of concept, the BlueConic team went above and beyond to address our concerns and provide creative and effective solutions. Ultimately, it was this combination of people and platform that made BlueConic the clear CDP vendor of choice for our organization.”
