CSA Exclusive: Saks targets holiday shoppers with interactive digital gift guide, chatbot
Saks Fifth Avenue is using artificial intelligence (AI) to market more targeted holiday gift ideas.
For the second year, the luxury retailer owned by Hudson Bay Co. has launched a digital holiday gift guide. However, the retailer’s AI-powered chatbot gives holiday shoppers a more efficient way to browse for featured gifts.
Saks customers begin their interaction with the chatbot on the official Saks Fifth Avenue Facebook page. Users activate the chatbot by pressing the “Send a message” icon, which takes them to Facebook’s mobile messaging platform, Messenger. Using Saks’ chatbot, customers take a quiz and answer specific questions, such as who they are shopping for. Based on their answers, the bot recommends specific gifts available in the digital gift guide.
“We are always pushing to create the best customer experience and one that is easily accessible,” Emily Essner, senior VP, marketing and digital, Saks Fifth Avenue. “We want customers to get immediate responses to their questions, and want to reach customers wherever they are and whenever they want to engage.”
Essner discussed with Chain Store Age about the importance of the chatbot-gift guide combination, and how the technology has evolved since last year.
Why are chatbots important to Saks?
We want to reach customers wherever they are, in a manner that is effective and natural. Currently, 1.2 billion people actively use Facebook Messenger to communicate, so it makes sense to have a dynamic presence.
We worked with Headliner Labs to build a fluid, conversational recommendation experience in Messenger. As it resonates with customers, it has created considerable click through traffic back to our site.
We also worked with their team to incorporate the Messenger bot into our holistic marketing stack by running “Click to Messenger” ads to the bot, which directly links to it from other marketing assets. It also continues the journey from the bot back to our site.
What influenced the integration of the holiday gift guide?
We launched a gift guide chatbot on social media to allow our clients easily connect and engage with us via social media. Further, having a conversational shopping experience accessible in Messenger allows us to personalize our interactions. It also makes communication easily accessible in the channel where the shopper is, and responsive to their individual inputs.
How did last year’s usage impact your approach for the 2018 holiday season?
In 2017, 55% of users who took the quiz clicked back to our e-commerce site, with many of them purchasing the gifts that were suggested by the AI-powered bot. We also used this information to design the 2018 chatbot campaign.
These results have also uncovered many more possibilities that we are currently exploring within Facebook Messenger chat.
For the second year, the luxury retailer owned by Hudson Bay Co. has launched a digital holiday gift guide. However, the retailer’s AI-powered chatbot gives holiday shoppers a more efficient way to browse for featured gifts.
Saks customers begin their interaction with the chatbot on the official Saks Fifth Avenue Facebook page. Users activate the chatbot by pressing the “Send a message” icon, which takes them to Facebook’s mobile messaging platform, Messenger. Using Saks’ chatbot, customers take a quiz and answer specific questions, such as who they are shopping for. Based on their answers, the bot recommends specific gifts available in the digital gift guide.
“We are always pushing to create the best customer experience and one that is easily accessible,” Emily Essner, senior VP, marketing and digital, Saks Fifth Avenue. “We want customers to get immediate responses to their questions, and want to reach customers wherever they are and whenever they want to engage.”
Essner discussed with Chain Store Age about the importance of the chatbot-gift guide combination, and how the technology has evolved since last year.
Why are chatbots important to Saks?
We want to reach customers wherever they are, in a manner that is effective and natural. Currently, 1.2 billion people actively use Facebook Messenger to communicate, so it makes sense to have a dynamic presence.
We worked with Headliner Labs to build a fluid, conversational recommendation experience in Messenger. As it resonates with customers, it has created considerable click through traffic back to our site.
We also worked with their team to incorporate the Messenger bot into our holistic marketing stack by running “Click to Messenger” ads to the bot, which directly links to it from other marketing assets. It also continues the journey from the bot back to our site.
What influenced the integration of the holiday gift guide?
We launched a gift guide chatbot on social media to allow our clients easily connect and engage with us via social media. Further, having a conversational shopping experience accessible in Messenger allows us to personalize our interactions. It also makes communication easily accessible in the channel where the shopper is, and responsive to their individual inputs.
How did last year’s usage impact your approach for the 2018 holiday season?
In 2017, 55% of users who took the quiz clicked back to our e-commerce site, with many of them purchasing the gifts that were suggested by the AI-powered bot. We also used this information to design the 2018 chatbot campaign.
These results have also uncovered many more possibilities that we are currently exploring within Facebook Messenger chat.