Objective
Shiseido has a large global presence. They have a number of different e-commerce websites integrated with Salesforce Commerce Cloud where customers provide contact information as part of the order process. For many of Shiseido’s customers, English is not their first language. The brand was seeing poor address information because customers were not entering their address correctly or were confused with the U.S. address format. This had ramifications in downstream systems and to their customer experience
If an inaccurate address was captured or information was put in the wrong format, the warehouse or delivery teams had trouble recognizing and processing the data. The impact was that customer shipments could be delayed, and the call center often called customers to collect accurate address information.
Solutions
The retailer started to look for an address verification solution that could work across its various collection points to help ensure the accurate capture of data. The brand chose to work with Experian. The address verification tool can be implemented across various touch points. It also works within the existing customer experience and alleviates any confusion that occurs during check-out.
The process works by allowing the customer to enter the address as they want. The corrected information is then fed back to the customer in real-time so they can validate the information and ensure it is correct prior to completing the check-out process. This helps with data entry and confirming the customer means to ship to that particular address.
“Where we have a new address being entered, we have the verification in place to make sure we get it right,” says Chris Dooley, executive director of digital & retail at Shiseido Americas. “The information is collected on the site and then fed into the correct fields for Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Is it an easy plug-and-play integration that we did not need to customize.”
The bareMinerals brand was the first to integrate the Experian address verification solution. When bareMinerals was acquired by Shiseido, the tool was applied to other brands across the portfolio.
“We are going through a consolidation process internally so we can run the brands the same way and look to also run e-commerce sites in a more uniform fashion,” says Dooley. “We want to bring all the Shiseido brands onto the same trusted third-party applications. This will promote tools that work well with our systems and promote good customer interactions.”
Shiseido choose Experian to be one of those trusted partners and to work with them across the various brands. “The Experian platform and interface were very easy to use,” says Dooley. “The cost and relationship were ideal for our business and the expansion.”
Implementation of the Experian address verification tool was easy for Shiseido. “Experian is very quick to respond and easy to work with,” said Dooley. “We see a very quick response time whenever we have a question. The tool caters to different use cases very well and fits well within our current process. We did not feel the need to make heavy changes to fit our implementation.”
Results
Today Experian address verification is integrated across all e-commerce sites, several call centers, and it is currently being expanded into Shiseido’s new mobile applications. For the e-commerce sites, Shiseido is using Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
Overall the product is performing in the way Shiseido expected, ensuring the accurate capture of address information. With better accurate address information, Shiseido sees better customer data and reduces the burden on their call center and operations teams.
“It just works,” said Dooley. “Generally, in business, if you are working with a third-party with various functionality you hear about stuff when it goes wrong. In my time here, I have never heard about something going wrong with our address functionality. The functionality is used consistently across our sites, it integrates well in our platform and in our apps, and it just works.”
