e strategies that lean into exploration of tech are futher optimising retail business models and fostering employee exploration in this field, furthering the positive customer experience. Business success on-the-line In an interactive keynote presentation at last week’s Online Retailer conference in Sydney, the power of a channel-less customer experience was emphasised by Nicholas Kontopoulos, VP of marketing, Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) at Twilio. Given a choice of hearing a retail experience story over a travel one, the  audience opted for the former and Kontopoulos shared a personal tale of his encounters with Paul Smith “I’m going to give you an example of a personal experience I had from a retail perspective that gave me insight into the power of a channel-less customer experience,” Kontopoulos said. “I’m a big Paul Smith fanboy and I live in Singapore [where it’s] hugely expensive – way out of my price range – to buy [the brand] there,” he added. Given Paul Smith is a UK brand, Kontopoulos would wait to make his purchases at the brand’s London Heathrow Airport store, where it was more affordable for him to do so. “I would reach out to the terminal ahead of time – email or phone them and talk about what items I wanted to try on and they would arrange a time for me to come in based on the time I was in the airport,” Kontopoulos said. Kontopoulos described his “exceptional brand experience journey” with the luxury fashion label where the staff prepared garments he flagged interest in and match them with prospective upsells – and had the changeroom ready and merchandised for when he transited through. “I’d walk away with a purchase and an amazing brand experience,” he said. “This is a few years back, it was very manual, but it gave me a cool insight into the power of using different channels, ultimately powered by people working with me to land on a choice to my liking,” he added. This channel-less service led to a loyal brand customer in Kontopoulos, and repeat sales. “Every time I go back there, I tend to reach out to make those purchases,” he said. Kontopoulos flagged the channel-less customer experience as “the next wave of retail” – despite the audience voting omnichannel as their guess. In a nutshell Kic’s campaign invites customers to ‘find their flow’ by taking a quiz and having a ‘personalised pilates pack’ sent straight to the consumers’ inbox.  Voice API technology has been integrated into this offering with a call to action that urges customers to call the Kic concierge to chat with its founders Laura Henshaw or Stephanie Miller. This application of API is an example of how the consumer experience can be enhanced through new and emerging technology to provide a service that starts with the customer experience. Which circles back to Kogan’s chief technology officer Goran Stefkovski’s keynote on day two of Online Retailer that encouraged creativity to deliver an exceptional customer journey with AI, achieved through exploration, trial and error. Working in reverse Personalisation is the key to creating ‘amazing’ customer experience journeys that can be executed by “putting people at the at the heart of the customer experience strategy and working back,” Kontopoulos said, before quoting Steve Jobs: “Start with customer experience and then work back to technology.” That approach is supported by the findings of the 2023 report ‘How Consumers Really Feel About Personalisation,’ commissioned by Medallia – an American customer and employee experience management company based in San Francisco. The report found that 69 per cent of consumers agreed that receiving special recognition, rewards, or treatment for customer loyalty had a significant positive impact on their customer experience journey. Retailers understanding late payments saw 68 per cent of customers have a positive brand experience as well as having information communicated to different customer service agents within the business so as to not repeat themselves. Personalisation is crucial to a retail business’ success and ‘The State of Personalisation Report 2024’ found that 89 per cent of business leaders agreed it would be a factor in the next three years. “It’s something I passionately believe in,” Kontopoulos said. He concluded with emphasising the importance of four tips for creating a channel-less experience: Integrate channels and data Empower employees and create cross-functional teams Partner with AI Ensure consistent messaging