How MECCA built out its omnichannel experience

Beauty retailer MECCA has reshaped its omnichannel experience and brought its in-store experience to life online.

Since kicking off its digital transformation journey in 2020, MECCA has been integrating Salesforce to deliver personalised digital experiences for customers.

MECCA, the largest premium beauty retailer in Australia and New Zealand, has around 110 national stores, 4.6 customers and roughly 84 million visits to its digital app.

General manager for omnichannel product and experience at MECCA, Elena Little, told a Salesforce World Tour Essentials Melbourne audience it began its digital work after noticing customers were switching online for the latest trends and to explore new products and advice.

“In 2020, in the wake of repeated lockdowns, store closures and the global pandemic, we increasingly saw more customers turn to online.

“We were already starting to see that trend take place before the pandemic and the pandemic really actually acted as a catalyst for us.”

This led to the rise of the “omnichannel customer” and made up 25 percent of its customer base.

“We had a vision to create a state-of-the-art digital destination,” Little said.

“It would be our digital flagship store where we would bring the best education and entertainment, discovery, service elements and easy ways to shop [plus] quick pathways to purchase like never seen before.”

Little said MECCA wanted to invest in its mobile app and act as “the ultimate expression of our omnichannel journey” and be a “bridge between our physical and our digital world”.

MECCA’s head of digital product, Michael Fulton said the team implemented Salesforce Service Cloud to manage customer enquiries.

“In this phase, we also introduced an AI chatbot, Miss MECCA,” Fulton said.

Since the implementation of the Einstein Bot-powered chatbot, MECCA has seen a 76 percent reduction in chart abandonment rates.

Little added that overall, we really want to double down on this concept of humanizing digital, so taking the best of people and technology and seamlessly blending them together to create the ultimate experience.

“We knew we had to create one central flagship store that seamlessly blended together the best of these technologies and customer service experience.

“This digital flagship also reached out to the best of our content and comments through an integration with our new content and digital asset management systems, as well as uplifting and ensuring our various vendors and internal systems are seamlessly integrated into the biggest digital journey,” Fulton said.

Little said overall the company wants to “double down on this concept of humanising digital.”

“Taking the best of people and technology and seamlessly blending them together to create the ultimate experience."

Little added MECCA is developing its Melbourne flagship store, “which at 4000 square meters stands to be the largest beauty retailer in the world”.

“We're already starting to think about creative ways that you can use technology in-store to really augment that in-store experience.

“This goes without saying that all of this ties back to our core purpose of helping our customers and our people look and feel and be their best budget”.

Kate Weber attended World Tour Essentials Melbourne as guest of Salesforce.