Demands of the Modern Customer - Fireside chat

Adam Jacobs, Co-Founder, The Iconic & Diane Tate, CEO, AFIA

• The Iconic a retailer and a technology and logistics company – and different parts of the organisation would see it differently. They are all partially right.

• It’s all about meeting customer needs and demands.

• Technology has disrupted the idea of what it means to shop.

• Responding to consumer demands drives profitability.

• e-Commerce used to be about discount shopping and premium shopping was onsite.

• Lessons learned from overseas companies who were leading premium online shopping.

• Need to adapt to rapid changes and seize growth opportunities as they arise.

• Acknowledge technology shifts then execute on them better than your competitors.

• Iconic rapidly grew and had to be innovative in developing new warehouse technology to enable storage of increasing stock, use of robotics and automation and rapid delivery. Iconic now holds 2 million items and ships 10,000 items a day with on-time delivery at 99.8%

• 3-hour delivery for clothes was a game-changer.

• People’s sense of identity, through fashion, is connected to the brand. Brands need to understand how they want to make their customers feel, then build a culture around it. Then make sure those promises are embedded in consistent hygiene practices.

• There are good and bad uses of AI – it needs to be used ethically and be explainable and transparent. Companies and users need to know how AI reaches outcomes.

• The example of dress selection was provided - Iconic uses an AI ‘sorting algorithm’ based on consumer behaviour to deliver a curated selection of products which is then presented to the consumer. A transparency feature that Iconic uses includes explaining to the consumer that the selection is based on their individual browsing history.