Interactive Shopping: Nordstrom’s 1: Macy’s 0.

At Pop Art, we preach that “Interactive” and “Online” are not synonyms! Companies should invest in making their brands and customer relationships more interactive — this means interacting better with your customers, both online and in-person. Based upon my experiences in the past 24 hours, I think Nordstrom’s gets it, but Macy’s doesn’t.

Yesterday, I was eager to take advantage of post-Christmas sales to create the beginning of my 2009 wardrobe. (Those of you that know me know about my fashion expertise!)

After reviewing the dozens of direct mail fliers that arrive at my house each month, I decided to check out the sale prices at Nordstroms.com and Macy’s.com. Both web sites were similar, decent functionality and tons of stuff on sale. But it is very hard to evaluate a shirt’s texture and feel online, so I decided to take the brave step of going real-world shopping.  After all, the Pop Art office is 1 block from Nordstom’s and 3 blocks from Macy’s! Moreover, most major e-commerce merchants have yet to incorporate good “people watching” technologies and food courts into their web sites.

So, I loaded my wallet with plastic, and headed to Macy’s. I love Macy’s product catalog – tons of great products from beds and linens to clothing. I was prepared to lay down a couple G’s … maybe take advantage of the sales to even start on the 2010 wardrobe!

My experience at Macy’s yesterday:

1. Macy’s had some customers, but wasn’t overly busy given the holiday sale.
2. Greeted promptly by nice perfume ladies passing out samples.
3. Hung out in clothing department for 30 minutes, not offered help by a single sales rep. (What, you don’t like my perfume?)
4. Sale prices were confusing. You could get 50% off + 10% if you have a Macy’s card + 10% if you have a coupon? I asked one cashier about this, but I think she said you only get the 10% discount once, I didn’t quite understand her answer, and I couldn’t remember if I had a Macy’s charge card or not.
5. Shopped in linen’s department for 15 minutes, not offered any help. Picked out some bath towels to purchase, but then left (without buying them) because the cashier was too slow.
6. Total amount I spent = $0.

My experience at Nordstom’s today:

1. Half-yearly Men’s sale + post-holiday sale. Store had moderate traffic, similar to Macy’s the day before.
2. Sales rep greeted me & offered to help me within 30 seconds of me entering Men’s department. Other sales reps were also on the prowl for customers. (I learned they have a policy that customers should be greeted within 60 seconds).
3. I said that I wanted to look around first, but once I was ready for help, the sale’s rep gave me her undivided attention until I had completed my purchase. This included everything from her offering to hold stuff for me, looking up inventory, product suggestions, an offer to give me free shipping on anything out-of-stock.
4. I spent $500.

So, here are the take-away lessons:

• You can heavily discount your products, but keep pricing and sales terms easy to understand.
• All the discounting in the world won’t help you if your service is lousy.
• Provide your customers with friendly, personalized service and they will spend more money with you!

If for some reason, you don’t have enough sales reps, use computer technology to supplement the human touch. Interactive computer kiosks could have helped Macy’s as follows:

• They could have had kiosk allowing me to request help from a store employee.
• They could have had a kiosk to allow me to check myself out given that the cashier line was slow.

The best companies use both human touch and computer technology to synthesize the ideal customer experience.

Hopefully, Macy’s was just having a bad day. I’ll give them another chance in about six months.