Pattern

Kathryn Coleman is a seasoned Ecommerce accelerator and customer champion, with over 18 years of experience in marketing and CRM. She has worked with multiple brands throughout her career in Australia and the UK. Currently, she is head of customer marketing at Pattern.

In an exclusive interview with MarTech Outlook APAC, Coleman shared her valuable insights on the challenges, trends, and future of fashion marketing and CRM.

Please give a brief overview of your journey towards your current role and your responsibilities in the company.

My professional experience revolves around fashion marketing and CRM, spanning over 18 years. During this time, I held positions such as Customer Insights Manager and Head of Digital at Speciality Fashion Group in Australia. Additionally, I spent three and a half years in the UK, working in a CRM capacity for Topshop and French Connections. Since my return to Australia in 2014, I have been involved with APG & Co for about five years.

Subsequently, I transitioned to my current role at Pattern four years back. I am a consultant specialising in CRM and marketing, catering to diverse clients. As an e-commerce accelerator, we collaborate with global brands to enhance their e-commerce performance. While my responsibilities encompass CRM for our Australian direct-to-consumer clients, including loyalty programs, email management, and data analysis, I also contribute to marketing initiatives to increase brand visibility and traction. I actively promote the Pattern and its services to foster brand growth domestically and internationally.

What are some of the significant challenges and trends that have been impacting the Marketing sector lately?

From a customer-centric perspective, one of the primary challenges Australian brands face is customer marketing, which is my specialisation. Achieving a comprehensive single-customer view has been a longstanding topic of discussion. However, in the post-COVID era, brands are interested in understanding and cultivating this aspect within their businesses. 

Today, customers can make purchases using a multitude of avenues. They can shop via social media, websites, physical retail stores, or online marketplaces like eBay, Catch, or Amazon. Hence, fostering brand loyalty has become increasingly challenging as customers are driven by price, convenience, and swift transactions.

“While traditional channels like Google offer visibility into search trends and customer preferences, these novel platforms pose a challenge in terms of understanding consumer behavior”

Our research found that approximately 52 per cent of product searches are conducted through Google, while marketplaces account for about 24 per cent of searches. In contrast, direct engagement with brands amounts to a mere one per cent to four per cent, indicating a relatively low level of customer loyalty. Consequently, when attempting to comprehend consumers and their preferences, brands encounter significant difficulties in gaining a comprehensive understanding across various platforms. This limits the visibility of customer interactions and engagement on a global scale.

Are there any technological trends that you see impacting in the marketplace today?

One notable trend in the industry revolves around businesses recognising the importance of meeting customer demands promptly and precisely. Emerging companies are leveraging technology to access valuable user insights across platforms. For instance, platforms like Lexer provide the means to monitor consumer behaviour comprehensively, enabling businesses to analyse it on marketplaces and social platforms.

While traditional channels like Google offer visibility into search trends and customer preferences, these novel platforms challenge understanding consumer behaviour. However, businesses investing in new technologies to comprehend this within marketplaces and social platforms are poised to gain a competitive advantage. Consequently, many businesses are interested in delving deeper into customer insights and leveraging available data to enhance their understanding.

Can you tell us about the latest project you have been working on and what technological and process elements you leveraged to make the project successful?

We are actively involved in projects that align with the ongoing theme of amalgamating online and offline shopping data. There has been a resurgence of e-commerce sales transitioning back to physical retail stores. Consequently, businesses seek to bridge the gap between online and offline customer data to gain valuable insights. However, crafting an effective omnichannel loyalty program proves challenging when only a fraction of the customer picture is available.

Within the e-commerce ecosystem, tracking and analysing online customer activities is straightforward. Our current projects primarily revolve around assessing the internal capabilities of each brand's ERP system. 

Moreover, it is essential to distinguish between active customers from the larger database. Many brands possess extensive databases, yet only a small fraction of these customers actively engage with them. Understanding the characteristics and preferences of the engaged customers is crucial to replicate their behaviour to attract more individuals of a similar profile. Simultaneously, it is important to identify the inactive customers within the database, as they represent potential opportunities for re-engagement. Once the requisite technology infrastructure is in place, systematic testing and experimentation can be conducted to determine the most effective methods of re-engaging the dormant segment of the customer base.

What would be a piece of advice for budding professionals in the field?

CRM often misconstrued as merely email marketing or a few selected channels, encompasses a broader scope within a CRM-focused business. To excel in this field and progress professionally, one must comprehensively understand the entire business landscape. CRM's core objective lies in customer acquisition, retention, loyalty, and transforming customers into brand advocates.

From the moment a customer walks into a physical retail store, evaluates and interacts with the products to the online purchasing process and subsequent product fulfilment, each micro-moment significantly impacts the likelihood of repeat purchases. Retaining customers becomes a formidable task without a holistic grasp of the entire customer journey and identifying potential friction points.

My advice is not to confine oneself to a singular domain but to dedicate time to collaborate with individuals from various departments within the business. By sharing valuable customer insights, which are often abundant within the CRM realm, one can contribute significantly to the overall understanding of the customer experience. Recognising how each department's role in the broader ecosystem affects the customer journey enables the alignment of efforts towards becoming true customer advocates.

I strongly advise immersing oneself in the inner workings of the entire business, gaining in-depth knowledge of each step of the customer journey across online and offline marketplaces and diverse channels. This comprehensive understanding will empower you to positively impact the customer journey, elevating the customer experience and contributing to the organisation's success.