Three warm customer experience initiatives from a cold winter

Retailers have been counteracting the winter chill with solution rollouts that help keep their customer relationships warm and fuzzy.

For much of the U.S., it has been one of the coldest and stormiest winters in years. While retailers can’t do much to improve the weather, they can warm up their customer experience with innovative technologies.

Following are three retailer initiatives launched during the 2024-2025 winter season with an eye toward to making it as easy and pleasant as possible for customers to engage across all channels.

Stop & Shop rolls out in-store digital coupon kiosks

Stop & Shop, a subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize USA, implemented an in-store kiosk called Savings Station across all of its more than 350 stores, starting during the 2024 holiday season.. 

Initially piloted in late 2023, Savings Station kiosks allow customers to activate all weekly circular digital coupons and personalized offers with no smartphone, internet access, or computer required. 

[READ MORE: Stop & Shop cuts prices, puts kiosks in R.I. stores; eyes remodels]

The kiosks are designed to ensure that all customers, especially those who might not be tech-savvy or who do not have access to a smartphone, have the same access to savings via its digital offers.

To use a Savings Station kiosk, shoppers can scan their Stop & Shop Go Rewards loyalty card or enter their phone number to load their digital coupons and activate personal offers based on their shopping history. A QR code is also available for touchless mobile scanning. 

Ulta Beauty enhances personalization of loyalty program

Ulta Beauty  implemented the Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Capabilities (CDP) solution in an effort to more effectively utilize loyalty program data to better understand the unique preferences of loyalty members and enable more detailed and accurate customer audience segmentation.

The retailer seeks to deliver automated, personalized and seamless loyalty content in real time across all channels, including social media, customer app, and in-store. 

Real-Time CDP works by instantly gathering and updating customer profiles the moment they interact with Ulta, such as making a purchase, browsing products, or adding items to their cart.

These real-time capabilities allow Ulta Beauty to respond immediately to potential loyalty member needs, offering personalized recommendations, targeted promotions, and content tailored to their preferences. 

“Our North Star is to create a fully automated personalization engine that will dynamically adjust in real-time as users interact with our brand, creating highly personalized experiences at scale,” Kelly Mahoney, senior VP of customer marketing at Ulta Beauty, said in an interview with Chain Store Age. 

Ikea expands integration with assembly services platform

Ikea is building out the customer service offered by its Taskrabbit subsidiary. 

Previously, Ikea customers could receive a furniture assembly quote through the Ikea website while purchasing their furniture; but booking and paying for the assembly service required a separate step on the Taskrabbit assembly platform, which it acquired in 2017.

Now, Ikea customers can arrange for professional assembly from Taskrabbit contractors at an up-front, transparent price directly at checkout when finalizing their orders. 

Assembly tasks are fulfilled by independent contractors who find work through the Taskrabbit platform. This new integration is designed to streamline the furniture shopping and set-up process. 

Initial results from Ikea show that 50% more customers are adding assembly to their purchase through the new seamless booking experience than the previous process. 

Ikea also says that the average order value for purchases including assembly has increased by 4.7X and has resulted in a nearly 40% reduction in returns of some of the retailer’s most complex furniture items.