Inside Deckers Brands Omnichannel Transformation

The retail industry is in the midst of an omnichannel revolution, led by increased consumer confidence in web and mobile shopping, said John Kalinich, senior vice president of omnichannel and e-commerce at Deckers Brands, parent company of brands such as UGG and Teva, in his keynote address at the Demandware XChange conference in Las Vegas yesterday.

"The retail industry is at a tipping point, and companies need to have a sound digital strategy to succeed," he added.

A multichannel and international retailer, Deckers Brands started noticing some shifts in its business roughly 18 months ago. for example, there was less strore traffic, although brick-and-mortar revenues remained steady; and website traffic, particularly from mobile devices, was steadily increasing. Deckers Brands decided to conduct a market analysis to identify the trends and technologies that would shape the future of its business. Here's what that market analysis revealed:

• There's been a convergence in the retail industry, and the consumer is now in control. Technology, and particularly smartphones, has enabled this phenomenon.
• Consumers are digitally savvy. They have more choices readily available to them (e.g., mobile payments), and they're taking advantage of those options.
• Consumers expect more from retailers than ever before. From inventory transparency across channels to personalized offers to a robust and engaging website experience, retailers must be able to deliver on these consumer demands.
• Digital technologies give consumers more power.

Upon finishing its market analysis, one thing became clear to Deckers Brands: it needed to change to grow and prosper, not just be average.

"We needed to use digital as a gamechanger for our brands, not just an enabler," Kalinich said. "Digital needed to be part of the solution for eliminating the pain points of our customers, he added." And not only did Deckers need to communicate this message to consumers, it had to shift peoples' mind-sets within the organization as well.