Unterföhring/Munich, 28.06.2023 – Harrods, the world’s leading luxury department store, has overhauled its IT infrastructure with an SAP CX solution as part of an 18-month project led by the consultancy and IT firm KPS. The benefits include an improved customer experience (CX) through the optimisation of online and offline customer interactions, increased customer loyalty thanks to a unified approach to communication and marketing activities, and the opportunity to boost revenue through stronger customer engagement.
For the retail company Harrods, customer loyalty is an integral part of its comprehensive CRM strategy. Through the ‘Harrods Rewards’ loyalty programme, launched in 2008, members gain exclusive access to a range of benefits. Although the company was well-positioned with an existing CRM solution, the continuous introduction of further systems meant that customer records were stored in silos but not linked to one another. To overcome the associated challenges, Harrods commissioned KPS’s UK and European specialist teams to carry out an SAP-based transformation of its IT landscape.
IT transformation: putting the customer first
In 2021, the partners set about overhauling the Harrods platforms with the aim of modernising the customer loyalty platform, the marketing platform, customer service and customer data management, and restructuring them within a scalable Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) architecture. This was intended to help Harrods:
- Achieve agility through SaaS platforms, the adoption of best-practice processes and standard functionalities.
- Open up new opportunities to identify and engage the right customers through holistic and centralised customer data.
- Convert every potential customer into a high-value customer through automated and personalised customer engagement.
- To create leading-edge customer analytics to establish an intelligent foundation for data-driven decision-making.
- To deliver timely, relevant and measurable customer communication, segmentation and marketing to strengthen sales and support and enhance human interactions with customers.
- To provide a seamless experience for customers across all touchpoints throughout the entire customer journey.
A complex journey of transformation
Around 200 internal and external integrations were added as part of the platform’s IT transformation, including the CRM system (SAP Cloud for Customer), the marketing automation tool (SAP Marketing Cloud), customer data management (SAP Customer Data Cloud), loyalty software (Annex Cloud Loyalty) and data analysis/visualisation (SAP Analytics Cloud with SAP Business Warehouse).
In addition, specialised applications were required for more specific use cases such as telephone integration, chat integration (Sinch Contact Center Pro), link shortening (Sinch Campaigns) or a knowledge base (MindTouch Knowledge Management). Each application was integrated into Harrods’ IT environment and systems (SAP ECC, SAP CAR, SAP BW, Farfetch). Every available customer touchpoint was connected and now interacts with the platform – from the Harrods app to the currency exchange machine.
Processes have also been standardised, and staff teams now use a single system, regardless of which department in the store customers visit. This reduces complexity, saves on IT costs and standardises the user interface.
A unified view of the customer
Harrods now has a comprehensive 360° customer profile at its disposal in the ‘Golden File’, which is based on shared customer data as well as on the collection of customer interaction data from all touchpoints, both online and offline. This unified view of the customer helps Harrods in various ways: in making management decisions; within the Business Improvement Team when analysing and evaluating customer behaviour; in marketing when creating targeted and personalised communications; and in providing the best possible support to customers.
High-spending customers have always been greeted personally in-store, simply because staff know them. Now, such premium service benefits many more customers, as customer information can be viewed digitally, comprehensively and quickly. This allows the focus to shift towards developing further customer groups into high-spending customers.
The loyalty programme now forms the basis for scalable marketing communications targeting dynamic customer segments across various communication channels. Increasingly sophisticated predictive models are being developed to anticipate future customer behaviour and adapt marketing strategies accordingly.
Further details about the project can be found in the Harrods Case Study.
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