Crate and Barrel: Enhancing Customer Experience through Digital Innovation
Technology Category
- Drones - VTOL & VTOL Hybrid Drones
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Hybrid Cloud
Applicable Industries
- Packaging
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Experimentation Automation
- Intelligent Packaging
Services
- Hardware Design & Engineering Services
- Testing & Certification
About The Customer
Crate and Barrel is a retail company founded by Gordon and Carole Segal. The company has a rich heritage built on a shared passion for the customer experience. The company's product line is shaped by customer engagement and feedback, with a selection of curated products from artisans around the world. The company prides itself on its quality craftsmanship, which is at the heart of their offerings. Crate and Barrel has a strong connection to its customers, which has shaped their product line and brand. The company has a team dedicated to site design and user experience, which is responsible for translating the company's unique aesthetic and customer-centric approach into their digital offerings.
The Challenge
Crate and Barrel, a renowned retail company, was faced with the challenge of maintaining its unique aesthetic and customer-centric approach while transitioning into the digital era. The company had a rich heritage built on a shared passion for customer experience, with customer engagement and feedback shaping the selection of curated products from artisans around the world. However, translating this customer-centric approach to their digital offerings was a significant challenge. The company needed to ensure that the quality craftsmanship, which was at the heart of their offerings, was not lost in the digital translation. The challenge was particularly evident in the case of selling custom furniture online, a multi-year project that had to meet existing standards while introducing a functionality that did not exist when the company's founders established the brand's shopping philosophy.
The Solution
To address this challenge, Crate and Barrel adopted a hybrid organizational model, blending multiple organizational models and running different models in parallel. The company positioned designers in a temporary cross-functional team to work on a focused project with a clear deadline. Once the project was completed, they returned to the centralized design team. This approach allowed the company to maintain its unique aesthetic and customer-centric approach while introducing new digital functionalities. The company also adopted a systematic process for creating new features, starting with information gathering and ending with tweaks and modifications based on A/B tests and customer feedback. The company used InVision for prototyping, communications around design concepts, user testing, and stakeholder design presentations.
Operational Impact
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