Following our recent acquisition of GoPigeon in India, Narvar is now crossing the Atlantic to continue our global expansion with a new office in central London, serving the UK and Europe.“Our world is more interconnected today than ever before. And consumer expectations are changing at a rapid pace regardless of where they live,” says our Founder and CEO, Amit Sharma. “Narvar recognizes that European consumers desire the same level of communication and care that we’ve seen become table stakes for shoppers worldwide."We already work with a number of brands including Puma, Levi’s, and Moda Operandi to engage with their customers around the globe in the critical moment between purchase and fulfillment. Our small-but-mighty team in London is looking forward to helping retailers across the UK and Europe drive greater customer loyalty with effortless, emotionally-engaging post-purchase experiences. Let’s get to know them a bit, shall we?
Waitrose: you get reward points, you get to choose your discounts, free coffee and paper, plus the ability to get John Lewis items delivered to your local store. They know how to look after their customers!
Unclear delivery expectations, or “delivery options available at checkout,” only to find out they are astronomically-priced, or delivery promises that aren’t met!
Interested to see how AR/VR start to creep into retail in the future, and who will make the first steps. Also love to keep an eye on how personalisation is evolving and when AI will shift from marketing spiel to something that offers customers a truly unique experience. Finally, customer care and the role of chatbots both as service agents and personalised shopping assistants. It’s an exciting space!
Nappies. I’m done with nappies.
The most exciting thing about the future of retail is the fact that the customer will decide. Gone are the days that we the consumer will be dictated to by the “experts”. We will decide with our wallets.
I like any experience that makes my life easier. I have come to realise that I shop some places for experience and some for product—what I am still waiting for is someone who does both well. I shop at Net-a-Porter for choice and convenience, Amazon because I am lazy, Ocado because it’s seamless, and independent boutiques because they know me. At Christmas, Liberty is hard to beat for an in-store experience and John Lewis remains a destination with a great easy-to-use site. Goodhood is just brilliantly merchandised and I am really enjoying The Conran Shop at the moment.
New online shops that do not take Paypal. Poor returns experience—I am too stubborn to not take it back, so I just won’t shop there again. Hidden telephone numbers and do-not-reply messages. Online shops that play the poorer cousin to the bricks-and-mortar experience, and poor service that is excused by system failings.
Strip wax.
The Bonobos model to try your items on, but not have to take them with you. Combined with ultra-fast shipping, that will mean your items will arrive home at the same time you do.
I actually just finished watching “Peaky Blinders” and that has now become my favorite binge. I can’t wait until the next series comes out!
I had shopped a few times at a particular men’s clothing store in Soho near my old office. I had my eye on a winter jacket there, and was waiting for it to go in the sale! I had, however, misjudged the weather on a November day about a week away from Black Friday, and was freezing, so I decided to bite the bullet and just pay full price so I could have the jacket straight away. The guy in the store recognized me, and he gave me the Black Friday discount early as he knew I had shopped there before. It was great customer service and now I am a very loyal customer.
I am a huge fan of sport, and if they ever fancy going to a match or playing a round of golf I would be game.
With the rise of voice recognition technology like Amazon Echo and Google Home, this seems like a really exciting channel for retailers to explore, and it feels like they are making some serious progress towards it.
Order fulfilment is huge for me. It seems like there is still such a massive disconnect between warehouse and online when there really shouldn’t be.
I’ve always been a big fan of All Saints. They have such a strong sense of brand and styling which is unique to them. You can walk into any of their stores all over the world and know you are in an All Saints shop.
Sundays are definitely family day. Having a young son means that I will probably be playing with him in the park or collecting shells on the beach.
A new house, the most stressful purchase and one that I am currently involved with.The UK team is rounded out by:
Athena recently moved to London from our headquarters in San Francisco. We'll give her some time to get oriented and experience the market for herself...Are you at Shoptalk Europe? Come to booth #400 to meet Regional Director Anthony Gavin, our CEO Amit Sharma, and VP of Marketing & Partnerships Harsh Jawharkar.
Andria is Global Director of Marketing & Communications at Narvar. She grew up in entertainment at iconic brands like EMI & MTV before pivoting to ecommerce, most recently at Walmart.com.