4 best case studies of an online to offline economy in action

The online to offline (O2O) economy is a relatively new one. The O2O experience is a combination of the speed and convenience of the internet with the physicality of brick and mortar. While undoubtedly the strongest in countries like China, it is heralding a revolution in the way people engage in commerce.

The following are 4 case studies that best showcase the O2O economy in action.

Burberry

Two years ago in October 2013, Apple announced that Ahrendts would be joining the company as senior vice president of retail and online stores, a newly created position, reporting to CEO Tim Cook.

The Apple Stores’ annual revenue of just over $20 billion is more than six times Burberry’s, its 30,000-strong staff is almost three times as large, and—due respect to the trench coat—its products have insinuated themselves more thoroughly into consumers’ daily lives. As envisioned and created by Apple mastermind Steve Jobs and his retail lieutenant Ron Johnson, the stores’ design and customer experience were radical, “but they haven’t progressed that much in the past five years. If you’re not reinventing your experience every five years, you’re behind the curve,” said a longtime member of the retail team.

Focus on the customer experience

A beloved manager, Ahrendt transformed Burberry’s culture, more than tripled its earnings, expanded its global footprint, and helped to restore its historic reputation as an innovator. All Apple wants her to do is exactly the same thing.

In a company-wide email announcing Ahrendts’s hiring, Cook wrote that she “places the same strong emphasis as we do on the customer experience.” But he also added, significantly, that “she cares deeply about people and embraces our view that our most important resource and our soul is our people.”

One Apple Store employee says the focus on customer service, on “enriching people’s lives,” was wonderfully relentless at first. He recalls enjoying the luxury of taking time to walk people through their problems and think through possible solutions. “But when the first iPhone came out, things started to change to make us more of a typical retail establishment,” he said. At the Genius Bar in his store, early expectations were that you would help three customers an hour if you were working on Macs, four if you were working with iPods and iPhones.

During her long tenure as the head of Burberry, Ahrendts managed to roughly triple revenue, while launching novel digital initiatives with the luxury brand. In a separate statement, Burberry sought to ease shareholder concern over the move, announcing that revenue had shot up 14 percent for the half-year through September 2013.

Before moving to London in 2006 to lead Bur­berry, she had a long lunch with Christopher Bailey, who had joined the company five years earlier. They spent most of it talking about the need for a new corporate culture. At the time, “nobody talked about culture, and nobody talked about brand,” said Ahrendts. The whole operation—a business that was built largely on licensees and franchisees—felt fragmented and in silos. She and Bailey decided empathy and trust would be Burberry’s new cornerstones.

 She wanted the customer experience to be seamless, consistent, and brand-centric.

When Ahrendts first came to Burberry, she was faced with a unique challenge: how do you breathe new life into a 158-year-old brand without disrupting its underlying DNA? She wanted the customer experience to be seamless, consistent, and brand-centric.

LINE

CheBanca!

Tesla

Providing an integrated customer experience both online and offline