Traditional retailer Altar’d State has steadily grown its e-commerce sales year after year. With the rise of internet sales, the brand needed to take a hard look at its overall customer experience to make sure its online sales were delivering the same brand experience as retail sales.

Altar’d State lacked the data to determine what percentage of orders were being filled at the store level or through the distribution center. They made the assumption that the breakdown was 70/30 store to e-commerce—and decisions were being made around that assumption. In addition, they didn’t have a full grasp on their e-commerce process—what was the total turnaround time from order to placement to delivery? What if multiple orders were placed—were they all delivered in one box or multiple?

Altar’d State had a strong reputation for the customer experience within the stores—carefully packaging your purchase in tissue paper and walking behind the counter to hand deliver the bag. Their stores had a distinct smell that connected with customers and added to the overall shopping experience. Were they losing those important CX moments through the e-commerce experience?

Every touch point the customer has with the brand makes a difference and Altar’d State needed to understand the Customer’s experience from start to finish.

RBG designed a web service plan for Altar’d State to get behind the scenes to see just how the product was really being shipped to customers.

We made monthly online purchases at all Altar’d State locations. We gathered data and images for every step of the online purchase process. We took the data across different times of day, quantities purchased, and locations.

We combined that data with that of the online shopping experience to help uncover a clear picture of an online Altar’d State customer experience. The RBG web service plan uncovered the real online customer experience and replaced assumptions with real data.

(Real?) Data doesn’t lie. 

Shopping all locations monthly uncovered that in fact 70% of e-commerce orders were being fulfilled at the warehouse level compared to the 25-30% that were assumed. 

The reality was that 70% of orders were being shipped from the warehouse—this was a stark realization for Altar’d State on the importance of the customer’s shopping experience journey from start to finish. This proved the need for Altar’d State to begin analyzing inventory levels, ensuring all staff was properly trained to inform in-store marketing recommendations and package goods up to brand standards.

In this world of retail omnichannel, it is crucial to understand your customer’s journey from start to finish—both online and in-store. Altar’d State’s analysis of their e-commerce sales changed their business and influenced how they train their employees, manage inventory levels and speak to their customers online. Going forward, this will set them apart from their competitors and drive repeat customers, brand recognition, and loyalty—therefore growing their bottom line.