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AI-Powered Retail Engagement: How Braze Unlocks Zero-Party Data & Omnichannel Loyalty · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  And just that data and being more explicit around what you
• 0:03
  want that data for and how it's going to power an experience is
• 0:05
  just so much more valuable because I'm much more likely,
• 0:09
  having chosen to give my data to that brand, much more likely to
• 0:13
  return and therefore make a purchase through better
• 0:16
  interactions with me as a consumer.
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  Hello and welcome to the Retail Podcast.
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  Now, as you know, we'd like to solve problems on the show.
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  So we thought what better way that when retailers are looking
• 0:39
  at customer engagement platforms, we haven't really
• 0:42
  covered that area specifically. We've covered some of the
• 0:46
  partners and suppliers around that, but who better than Brace
• 0:49
  to to talk to when, when, when retailers are looking to, to fix
• 0:54
  that? And I'm joined by James Herridge
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  Link, who is the director for partnerships at Braise.
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  Have I got that right? Yeah.
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  And so global strategic partnerships and at Braise prior
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  to that, I was actually the Global Head of Retail and
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  Consumer Goods at Braise based here in London.
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  I got you, but you're you're AUS company, right?
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  Because I can see the head office is based in New York.
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  That's right, yes, so frequently travelling overseas and, but but
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  20 years in in technology and I think the, the, the luxury or
• 1:28
  joy of travel is definitely starting to wear off.
• 1:30
  OK, I got you. So listen, if I if I knew
• 1:34
  nothing about brakes, which is pretty much the case, how would
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  you in layman's terms sort of describe brace?
• 1:41
  Sure. So a great place to start.
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  So Braise is a customer engagement platform that helps
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  brands to personalise and scale the customer experiences across
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  all channels. So it's one platform and endless
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  touch points and channels that we support for customers
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  including Deliveroo, ASOS, Estee Lauder, elf Cosmetics, many of
• 2:05
  the the best and and leading brands in the world.
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  So I I noticed that's cross category, so you're not limited
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  to fashion or beauty. No, no, we, we absolutely work
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  with from like small, from very small businesses and through to
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  some of the largest companies in in the world.
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  I got you and and so if I was like, you know, SS their Lauder,
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  what what would be the outcome that you would you would you
• 2:30
  would create for me? What would you?
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  Do sure it's a great question. So if, if we go back to, you
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  know, pre kind of 1947, so SS Lauder was in New York, she was
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  in hair salons and beauty salons and she was starting to actually
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  implement what was her, her products to consumers as they
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  were having their hair blow dry. And, and that was really kind of
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  the starting of what was high touch consumer experiences.
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  And so for Estee Lauder, they want to continue to, to, to
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  fulfil what was their kind of founding mission.
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  And, and really that's being able to understand consumers in
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  the moment through the various different touch points that they
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  have, whether it's a a website, whether it's through their and
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  skin or online diagnostics tool through to also in store and
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  experiences. By understanding those consumers
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  based on their known and unknown behaviours or anonymous or known
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  behaviours, be able to actually orchestrate journeys and
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  delivering messaging through to those consumers across the
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  various different channels that that brave supports.
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  And in doing so means that they can launch campaigns quicker,
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  they deliver more value when it comes to using own channels.
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  So very much a prioritisation of own before paid.
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  And in doing so, you know you've seen significant reductions in
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  the OR increases in the return on ad spend, just as as one
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  example. So there was a / 200% increase
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  in return on ad spend just by using braids.
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  Got you. So, so if I, if I understand
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  right, because one, one of the complaints I always hear senior
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  execs at conferences talk about is that the, the fact that
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  people take the decisions take longer and then more digital
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  touch points that they, they touch before they come to
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  complete or purchase. And if I understand what you're
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  saying correctly is that you sort of help secure that if you
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  know, if there's an advert or a digital channel that they've
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  gone and they've seen the brand and they've they've touched one
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  of those digital touch points, if they're known to us,
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  fantastic, we've got more data. But if they haven't that you can
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  also somehow bring that data. In well, so probably a good
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  example is that you would see an an ad from a a brand and the
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  most typical thing that you do is that could be.
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  Anywhere right that on any? Social.
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  Yeah, anywhere. Instagram, exactly.
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  Exactly. And typically in those
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  experiences, those consumers are unknown to the brand because
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  they're not logged in. So they see an add on Instagram,
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  they go to the website and they're anonymous.
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  But for the brand, they need to very, very quickly understand
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  who that consumer is and drive them somewhere, right?
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  So they want to typically drive them to either do a skin
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  diagnostic, yeah tool or to say make a purchase.
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  And So what Braise is doing is in the moment understanding that
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  consumer based on their behaviours and then triggering
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  messaging to drive some form of action.
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  And so that might be to a certain place on the website or
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  it might be to make a purchase or actually even into to store
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  to, you know, at that point, say download a coupon or something
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  like that. But I think in so many examples,
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  you've got consumers that and actually, if you ask them what
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  they're looking for, they can't necessarily tell you.
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  And I think that that kind of is like modern day life, right?
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  If you ask someone what they're they're wanting or looking for,
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  they can't tell you. And, and what Braise is doing is
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  actually just watching them and understanding their behaviours
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  and then using messaging to drive some form of interaction,
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  which ultimately drives then an outcome.
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  And you look at many of the other brands that we serve, from
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  elf Cosmetics to Zealando to Doctor Barbara Stern, that was a
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  hard one to to to get out there. And all of all of these are able
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  to actually just personalised experiences at scale.
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  And in doing so, consumers just become a lot more loyal.
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  I got you. So I mean, from my own personal
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  experience of working in tech, you probably have a view of what
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  people get wrong, right? What do they not do or what do
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  they take for granted? What what?
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  Like, what are the top three things that people are getting
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  wrong in this industry right now?
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  Sure. So I think one of the one of the
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  big challenges that a lot of brands have is that they operate
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  within silos, whether that's a channel based silo.
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  So just understanding how consumers interact through
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  e-mail or with data silos. So, you know, I think a lot of
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  retailers have just legacy systems and they're not
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  connected. And that's a real challenge for
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  retailers because they want to be able to make data available
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  to therefore action. But where data lives in silos,
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  they can't action it in the moment.
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  And so there's always this latency.
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  But then when it comes to channel silos, you're looking at
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  how James Harris laying interacts for e-mail.
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  But I didn't necessarily interact with brands through
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  e-mail. I'm much more responsive, say,
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  on the website or through WhatsApp.
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  And I think the the, the core challenge that fundamentally a
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  lot of the brands have is that that data is siloed and the
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  channels are also siloed. And therefore to be able to have
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  cohesive, ongoing conversations with consumers through
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  messaging, it's just really difficult.
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  But yeah, I guess the reason it's difficult is because those
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  signals that consumers are giving pretty much I don't know
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  what percentage is are lost, right?
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  Because you, you don't have some form of signal detector picking
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  up all the signals that you're missing, right?
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  So obviously I can go on my how many people are responding to
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  e-mail and that's going to be abysmal number, right?
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  Because how many people respond to that as opposed to as you
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  said, these new channels. So what are the channels that
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  you're seeing influence purchasing behaviour?
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  Sure. So I think so in what would be
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  seen and say in product channels, so like web messaging
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  on the website and in app messaging and then channels or
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  out of product channels like e-mail, WhatsApp, SMS.
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  Also RCS when it, when it comes to say braised on a, on an
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  annual basis runs what we call our consumer engagement review
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  and that we go out to many different execs across our, our
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  customer base. And a, a, a key stat for you.
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  So 47% of retailers say that they're extremely or very
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  concerned that their messaging isn't resonating with customers.
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  And I think when, you know, when you even kind of break that down
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  further. So 95% of marketers through the
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  consumer engagement review admit that they can't or sorry, they
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  find it difficult to craft emotionally resonant messaging
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  and this lack of connection can lead to lower engagement rate.
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  So I think the it's very clear that there's an issue.
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  And I think one of the challenges is, is that a lot of
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  brands have gone to or a lot of retailers gone to your kind of
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  one-size-fits-all type technology vendor where what
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  we're seeing is this shift to what is kind of composability
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  and composable solutions. So being able to actually find
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  the best in breed of a data warehouse or ABI tool or a
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  customer engagement platform. But core to those technologies
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  actually being able to work is that they can work together.
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  And I think, you know, Braze has very recently launched or
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  announced our partnership and integration to Shopify.
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  And I think for, you know, if you've got 70 million people in
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  the UKI think we too frequently just look at the biggest
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  businesses in the UK and the world that are then the example.
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  But but actually 85% of consumers live outside of
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  Greater London. So you've got I'm a parish
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  councillor and on the Watlington Business Association as a
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  representative. And you just see that the
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  challenges that a lot of these businesses have in trying to
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  actually engage with consumers and actually resonate with them
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  to increase the amount of spending and the, the, the
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  frequency by which they're making purchases.
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  And I think fundamentally they need technologies that can work
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  together. And so composability I think is
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  becoming more and more of a, a theme that that will play out
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  over the, the the coming years. How do you handle privacy across
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  Europe or across the world? Because you have so many
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  different privacy laws that you have to adhere by in different
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  parts of the UK, or I mean, actually I think GDPR is a
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  European, you know, almost if you're GDPR compliant.
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  Do you have any thoughts on privacy?
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  So like privacy and, and, and customer data is, you know, cool
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  to, to what we do it, it underlies everything but, or
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  underpins everything that we do when you take it very seriously,
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  because you can't build trust for the consumer without
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  respecting their, their data and their privacy, but also having,
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  you know, and again, taking security very, very seriously.
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  I think an important point to consider is so many marketers
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  hesitate to use personal data because of concerns around
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  consumer consent. So 45% of the UK marketers cite
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  this as a top worry. And with an ever evolving
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  landscape, it becomes even more important because you've got all
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  of these various different technologies for Braise,
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  security, privacy and compliance.
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  Is, is, is, you know, the, the, the most critical part to, to
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  what we do because our customers and the reason that they love
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  Braise is because we make sure that the, the relationship that
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  they have with their consumers is just, you know, dealt with in
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  a way that's secure, trustworthy and compliant in, in every way.
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  I got you. I understand.
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  So do you think that there's a hindrance?
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  Is there like do retailers, is that like does that perception
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  block them from doing things in terms of they're eternally
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  worried about not being compliant, whereas actually
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  maybe the work that they are? I mean, what's what's the
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  blockage of, of using a system like brace?
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  I guess that's what I'm trying to understand.
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  Sure. So I, I don't think compliance
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  is one of the factors that kind of underpin or so being
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  compliant in the way by which you communicate with consumers
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  is absolutely critical. We know that.
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  But I think that that is kind of course of what all of these
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  technologies allow brands to be able to adhere to in terms of
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  kind of compliance and regulation.
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  That said, I think one of the biggest fears that we we
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  continue to see is that there's a risk of kind of taking that
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  next step, as it were. So the status quo is, is, is the
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  status quo. So I think a lot of brands are
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  still chat struggle to, to to challenge what is that status
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  quo. I've got a, a stat here in terms
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  of like the amount of of e-mail that's being used.
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  So bear with me one second. Sure, no problem.
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  So when it comes to e-mail like as a channel, so 43% of
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  consumers or sorry, respondents to the customer engagement
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  reviews say that e-mail is the preferred channel.
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  Messaging apps like WhatsApp lying account talk is 39% SMS
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  38% and then slowly followed by by other channels.
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  And I think there's this still over reliance on one single
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  channel and consumers are all different, right.
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  And I the one like I said earlier, e-mail is, is one way
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  of getting hold of me, but not necessarily the the best way.
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  And I think it's also dependent by market as well.
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  So in a lot of mobile first markets, so like India is a good
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  example or South America, the penetration of mobile is just so
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  high. And you know, like e-mail to cut
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  through is, is quite difficult because it's not a channel that
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  that everyone uses. And so for a lot of brands that
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  come to Braise is that they want one platform to walk a straight
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  journeys and have an like a variety of different ways to
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  communicate with consumers and to do so at scale.
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  And I think where AI is going to, you know, change the way by
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  which brands communicate is that it's not going to be a
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  one-size-fits-all. It's going to be really truly
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  understanding who that consumer is, whether you know them or you
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  don't, and then interacting with them based on their behaviours
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  and other data that you have about them, but also being even
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  more explicit about the data that you collect from them and
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  asking them. So you know, James, do you like
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  this product versus this product or this experience versus this
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  experience and using all of that data and it being available is
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  going to what I think is, is, is the next wave that a lot of
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  brands are are starting to embark on, but very few are
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  actually doing it well, I would say.
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  I got you. So I think that brings us nicely
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  to like the the final question in terms of you, you mentioned
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  AI or when you look to the future of over what this
• 16:01
  industry, your industry looks like over the next two to three
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  years, what does that look like? What?
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  What is in, in, in, You know, what is in the future for us.
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  So I think that there's, there's a number of factors outside of
• 16:14
  just the, the industry. I think, you know, planning as,
• 16:18
  as one example here in the UK, there's planning laws that are
• 16:21
  changing. And I think the cost to live in
• 16:24
  a city centre, I live in, like I said, in in Watlington, which is
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  junction six of the M40 for those who don't know, second
• 16:31
  smallest town in the UK and you know, you've got the LTN or the
• 16:36
  20 mile an hour speed limits. It takes an hour to get into to
• 16:40
  Oxford City centre. And I think planning laws are
• 16:43
  changing in a way that you're going to see new shopping
• 16:45
  centres and new malls built around housing because we've got
• 16:48
  a housing crisis. And I think that fundamentally
• 16:51
  is 1 opportunity that's going to change the way in that you've
• 16:55
  got property that allows for better connectivity and better
• 16:59
  experiences. And I think AI is going to
• 17:02
  change the way there in that it will move to a more Omni channel
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  way. So brands will see this more as
• 17:08
  even more of an opportunity that you need to connect online and
• 17:11
  install, equipping your, your teams, whether they're in store
• 17:15
  or online, but specifically in store with technologies that
• 17:20
  provide them with more knowledge, which is effectively
• 17:22
  AI or Gen AI is being able to equip them with, with, with more
• 17:27
  skills and, and, and knowledge. And, and in doing so, I think
• 17:31
  will change the way that consumers interact with the
• 17:33
  stores. So being able to actually be
• 17:35
  identified as you walk in that store through a mobile app and
• 17:38
  then retail media, being able to actually deliver much more of an
• 17:41
  immersive experience to those consumers in store, using that
• 17:46
  behavioural real time data to then trigger more experiences,
• 17:49
  whether it's through your app or actually through kiosks and so
• 17:52
  forth. And I think where the power of
• 17:54
  AI is going to come in is it's going to allow you to do that at
• 17:57
  scale. So your experience, Alex, will
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  be different to my experience, James and, and so on.
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  And what's your perspective on that?
• 18:05
  Well. That's a good question.
• 18:07
  I think there's there's a bit of a bun fight going on in terms of
• 18:12
  what the how AI wants to control the future channel.
• 18:16
  So you've got AI companies or like perplexity who basically
• 18:21
  circumvent the website and take the customer to where the
• 18:24
  transaction happens to like the buy page because they feel that,
• 18:28
  you know, if you're looking for a floral summer dress, you don't
• 18:31
  necessarily need to go through the 25 different touch points on
• 18:35
  the website. Let's just take you to the buy
• 18:37
  page. We'll show you what that that
• 18:39
  looks like. And so I think, you know,
• 18:41
  whether or not retailers accept that and say, you know, the
• 18:44
  amount of money they're they're spending on their websites,
• 18:48
  whether they'll obviously, they don't want to lose any channel.
• 18:51
  I just see that as them wanting to take more control to own that
• 18:55
  data rather than the data sitting in perplexity, TikTok,
• 18:59
  Instagram or wherever else. And I think that's what
• 19:02
  retailers are really probably struggling with building
• 19:06
  coherent plans. Either they give up and say
• 19:08
  we're not going to have that data, it's all going to sit in
• 19:11
  meta and you know, that's the way it goes.
• 19:15
  Or they'll put some form of fight, fight back and really,
• 19:20
  really sort of double down on their own digital assets on
• 19:24
  owning the customer or, or providing better value for the
• 19:27
  customer and the reason to engage at that level.
• 19:30
  So. Yeah, it's it's definitely an
• 19:32
  interesting one because I think the last time that brand
• 19:35
  actually asked me data about me instead of just assuming or
• 19:39
  understanding my behaviours. So Estee Lauder do this really
• 19:42
  well. They use a an in browser message
• 19:45
  on their website. So it might be cosmetics to
• 19:48
  actually surface a message that is interactive that you can
• 19:53
  potentially part ways with 0 positive data.
• 19:55
  So it might understand your skin type or what you're looking for.
• 20:00
  And just that data and being more explicit around what you
• 20:03
  want that data for and how it's going to power and experience is
• 20:06
  just so much more valuable because I'm much more likely
• 20:10
  having. I've chosen to give my data to
• 20:12
  that brand much more likely to return and therefore make a
• 20:15
  purchase through better interactions with me as a
• 20:18
  consumer, and I think brands that get that right will build
• 20:21
  better longer term relationships with their customers.
• 20:25
  Yeah, I think there's, there's so much that brands get wrong in
• 20:27
  terms of just look at, if you follow some of the chat rooms
• 20:31
  where you know what, why do the, why do people use ChatGPT?
• 20:36
  And it goes to beauty? It's they want to know what
• 20:38
  other colours are adjacent to the, that match their skin tone,
• 20:42
  right? And so they'll ChatGPT has a,
• 20:45
  has a, a capability of looking at you, taking, you know, using
• 20:50
  a vision AI, saying, OK, you're this colour.
• 20:53
  Consider wearing this, this than this colour.
• 20:55
  And the beauty industry is nervously asking you to, you
• 20:59
  know, scan your face to see whether or not you, you, you're,
• 21:02
  you've done sconce sun damage. So I think there's that source
• 21:06
  of the bold will win because they understand or they'll look
• 21:10
  at these sort of what people are searching with AI and then
• 21:13
  think, well, we could do that. Why are we not offering a
• 21:15
  service of you bought this brown because you're that shade of
• 21:19
  brown and all these other colours that go with you or, you
• 21:22
  know, I don't know. But it's that's where I think
• 21:25
  brands are need to invest more to not be left behind.
• 21:30
  And again, I heard someone say, well, is that like in the old
• 21:32
  days, like 10 years ago? Alexa voice, everyone was
• 21:36
  worried that that would be the channel.
• 21:38
  You'll just say, Hey, Alexa, buy this for me.
• 21:41
  And so retailers were like, well, we need to own that
• 21:43
  because we don't want, you know, if, if, if, if someone says buy
• 21:46
  some batteries, you don't want Amazon deciding what batteries
• 21:50
  you're going to sell. You want to own that.
• 21:52
  That really didn't come into fruition as a channel.
• 21:54
  Maybe it still might because, you know, these things take take
• 21:58
  forever in terms of consumer behaviour changing.
• 22:00
  But yeah, that's it. Any closing thoughts?
• 22:03
  So. Thank you for for taking the,
• 22:05
  the, the time for me today. And I think for, for, for those
• 22:09
  retailers and brands that want to have one platform that
• 22:14
  connects to their best of breed technology and be able to
• 22:18
  orchestrate journeys and deliver messaging to consumers in the
• 22:22
  moment using first and zero party data and across a variety
• 22:27
  of channels. So in products, a web app and
• 22:29
  then out of product through e-mail, SMS and WhatsApp,
• 22:32
  Braises is becoming even more well known and just the
• 22:37
  customers that we work with and the results do speak for
• 22:41
  themselves. So I'd encourage those that are
• 22:44
  interested in finding out more to to to make contact.
• 22:47
  That's fantastic. Are you at any conferences that
• 22:49
  are coming? Up we are so we'll be at Cannes
• 22:52
  Lion festival OK, and what's amazing about Cannes is that you
• 22:58
  get to make meet so many of the world's most amazing people and
• 23:02
  I think you do so obviously in 30° sunshine.
• 23:08
  And then we've got Viva tech and tomorrow or the twenty 20th of
• 23:13
  May we've got praise city by city and then other things like
• 23:16
  shop talk Europe that we'll also be at.
• 23:18
  So looking forward to having many great conversations with,
• 23:22
  with, you know, amazing people across the world.
• 23:24
  That's fantastic, James. Thank you so much for giving up
• 23:26
  your time and I look forward to seeing you at one of these
• 23:29
  conferences. Great.
• 23:31
  Thank you, Alex.