TECHNOLOGY
How Foot Locker is stepping up the customer experience
Artificial intelligence has transformed the way Foot Locker handles customer feedback ; it ’ s just the beginning of a major investment in technology
By Aron Lewin
E arlier this year , Foot Locker unveiled a plan to drive long-term growth in the business by investing in new store formats and technology , right-sizing its retail footprint , embracing sneaker culture and deepening its relationship with customers .
Dubbed the ‘ Lace Up ’ plan , the effort comes at a challenging time , not only for Foot Locker – which recently posted a $ 5 million loss in Q2 , down from the $ 94 million in net income it generated in the prior corresponding period – but for retail more broadly .
Despite the “ still-tough consumer backdrop ”, as CEO Mary Dillon acknowledged in August , Foot Locker remains focused on its big-picture goal of growing revenue from $ 8 billion to $ 10 billion .
As part of this , the retailer plans to invest at least 3 percent of its annual sales in technology by 2026 , increasing its tech capex by more than 50 percent , to $ 240 million , over the next four years .
Foot Locker recently opened a new hightech distribution centre in Reno , NV , with a range of features designed to create greater cost efficiencies and cut shipping times across the West Coast by over 50 percent . It also rolled out an AI-powered natural language processing and text analytics system from InMoment to transform its approach to customer feedback .
Called Spotlight , the system brings together all of the customer feedback that Foot Locker receives via email , call centers , social media and other relevant channels , providing a clearer overview of what customers are feeling and thinking .
Previously , the company ' s customer support and care team received feedback through separate channels and had to manually categorize each customer enquiry – a time-consuming process prone to human error that has now been alleviated .
A ‘ treasure trove ’ of data Tyler Saxey , senior director , global voice of customer and omnichannel at Foot Locker , told Inside Retail that this investment in AI technology has provided the brand with a clearer and more comprehensive picture of what customers want . It has also ►
September 2023 www . insideretail . us 27