Speech Summaries

Joan Broughton Vice President, Multi-Channel Programs REI

Design Track: Three Cross-Channel Design Success Stories

Moderator: Bob Chatham, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

Panelist: Joan Broughton, Vice President, Multi-Channel Programs, REI

Questions And Answers

Q: Can you introduce how REI works across channels?

A: REI began using the Web in 1996 and has been profitable ever since. Twelve percent of our sales are online. We took an integrated channel approach; for example, you could buy something on the Web and return it to the stores. This helped for early acceptance of shopping online. This past June, we started in-store pick-up. This has been a huge success, especially for our outlet shoppers. Forty percent of them choose in-store pick-up, and one of every three buy something from the Web site.

Q: Please discuss REI's cross-channel design and implementation.

A: For the design of certain features, we work on a team. One crucial member is from REI's support team. She will not let us do anything that will confuse the customer. The Web facilitates what the support team does, so they take great pains to make people understand, because they want the cross-channel experience to work. We do testing early and often. Our user acceptance testing is not just customers, but we also test employees, because this system needs to work for them, too. We are small enough that we collaborate well.

Q: Please discuss REI's organization in regards to cross-channel.

A: We have a vision that the channels work together. There is shared financial upside across channels. It seems a better idea to save the competition for our competitors versus competing internally. We build on our success to gain more support from top management.

Q: There has been lots of discussion around the front-end stuff. What about the back-end activity, like merchandise management, for example?

A: The back-end stuff is just as crucial to REI as the front-end stuff. We want the customer to understand what we offer, so we test back-end systems so that the support team can help facilitate the interaction with the customer. The back-end stuff is hard when it comes to cross-channel. For example, we began doing gift boxes if customers wanted them. We thought this was easy, but we had to change our whole system so that people in the warehouse know if the customer requested a gift box.