How David Jones overhauled its customer communications strategy
The retailer is working with Braze to optimise customer communications as it embarks on a major digital transformation project.
David Jones is the oldest continuously operating department store in the world. Founded in Sydney in 1838, David Jones has a rich history of retail innovation, from installing the country’s first hydraulic lift in 1887 to delivering orders to customers via a branded aeroplane in 1919 to bringing international designers like Pierre Balmain and Christian Dior to local customers in the late 1940s.
Over the years, David Jones has carved out a niche as the go-to destination for luxury fashion, beauty and homewares in Australia, with 40 bricks-and-mortar locations and a thriving e-commerce business. Last year, it launched a mobile app as part of a broader $65 million digital transformation.
Like many legacy retailers, David Jones uses various backend systems and solutions, so creating a cohesive, personalised customer experience across multiple physical and digital touchpoints has been a challenge. At the same time, department stores have been under pressure to attract the next generation of shoppers amidst rising competition from specialty and online retailers.
Recently, David Jones implemented Braze, the leading customer engagement platform that allows marketers to creatively engage with customers in real time from one platform, to optimise its customer communications across channels.
Demolishing data siloes
Data silos are one of the biggest roadblocks to providing a seamless shopping experience, but gaining a single view of the customer is easier said than done, especially for traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers that have evolved into omnichannel operators.
David Jones is no different. In 2023, as it was about to embark on a significant digital transformation, including the launch of a mobile app, it was clear the company’s existing platforms lacked the agility and real-time capabilities needed to keep pace with changing customer behaviours.
“We were also working with fragmented data, which limited our ability to fully understand and engage with our customers on a one-to-one level,” David Jones’ chief marketing officer James Holloman explained.
The retailer needed a solution that could help it unlock the full potential of its customer data and deliver highly personalised, relevant communications at scale.
“Our goal was to enhance customer engagement, drive conversion and improve loyalty – while also empowering our internal teams with the agility to test and optimise our communications,” Holloman said.
Capturing customer data in real time
When it came time to choose a solution, Braze stood out for its focus on real-time engagement and flexibility to integrate within David Jones’ broader tech ecosystem.
“Over the last 18 months, we have deployed various technologies to accelerate David Jones’s ambitious marketing plans and help support our newly launched retail media business, David Jones Amplify,” Holloman said.
“It was clear from early conversations that Braze understood the needs of modern retailers. The platform’s capabilities around segmentation, automation and customer journey mapping were market-leading, and we felt confident that Braze could scale with us,” he added.
With Braze, David Jones could combine external channels, like email and SMS, with internal channels and use dynamic segmentation to send more relevant content to the right audience at the right time.
In addition, Braze promised to help the retailer achieve key objectives, including increasing the frequency of purchase and average order value, leveraging first- and zero-party data to create more personalised and relevant connections with loyal customers and connecting the in-store and offline experience.
It was clear from early conversations that Braze understood the needs of modern retailers.James Holloman, CMO, David Jones
Working together to ensure a smooth integration
David Jones worked with Deloitte to implement Braze, and Holloman described the process as “incredibly smooth”.
The Braze team worked in close collaboration with our internal stakeholders and partners, ensuring that timelines were met and that we were supported every step of the way,James Holloman, CMO, David Jones
“The biggest challenge was ensuring seamless connectivity with our existing systems. That said, Braze provided strong technical support that helped us resolve issues quickly. Open communication between teams and a shared commitment to getting it right made the process seamless.”
David Jones has been using Braze for nearly two years now. In its first year, it successfully launched email and SMS campaigns, expanding into mobile push notifications after the release of its mobile app in late 2024.
It has also integrated Braze’s Web SDK, or software development kit, on its checkout page to support abandoned cart use cases and is in the early stages of integrating its existing messaging channels as it moves towards a cross-channel approach.
“The David Jones business is delivering on its Vision 2025+ strategy at pace, so we were pleased to be met with the same level of efficiency [from Braze],” Holloman said.
IMPROVING CLICK-THROUGH RATES AND APP DOWNLOADS
60% increase in email click-through rates
Simply put, Braze has transformed how David Jones engages with customers. The business is sending more relevant communications in the moments that matter, which has contributed to higher levels of customer satisfaction. From an internal perspective, it has significantly increased operational efficiency, making it quicker to build and deploy emails, segment audiences and design sophisticated automated journeys.
“While results vary across campaigns and channels, we’ve seen up to a 60 per cent increase in email click-through rates. We’ve also seen a marked improvement in customer sentiment and NPS [Net Promoter Score], which is a strong indicator of the value we’re delivering through more relevant, timely communication,” Holloman said.
The clearest example of Braze’s impact can be seen in the launch of David Jones’ new mobile app, which reached its download goal three months early. Braze integrates seamlessly with the app and allows the retailer to test send channel optimisation, to ensure it’s communicating to customers with the channel that works best for them.
One of the most effective aspects has been the ability to introduce push notifications as a new communication channel, allowing us to engage with our customers in real time, with relevant and timely messaging,James Holloman, CMO, David Jones
Transforming the customer experience
As one of Australia’s longest-running retailers, David Jones has seen technologies and trends come and go. Through it all, the business has survived by prioritising the customer experience. Today, that means providing a seamless shopping journey across channels.
Since integrating Braze, David Jones is several steps closer to that goal. It is now able to leverage customer data to deliver more relevant messages to the right audience at the right time, and it can do so efficiently thanks to dynamic segmentation and built-in AI tools, such as Intelligent Channel and Intelligent Timing. These are part of Braze’s send-time optimisation capabilities.
“We’d welcome even deeper AI-powered recommendations and predictive capabilities to further enhance campaign optimisation,” Holloman said.
He described Braze as a “critical enabler” in David Jones’ digital transformation and would “absolutely” endorse the solution to any retailer.
For those considering working with Braze, he shared some practical advice: “Start with a clear vision and ensure alignment across your internal teams. Also, lean on the Braze team, they are not just a vendor, they are a strategic partner that is committed to shared success.”
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