Neiman Marcus Group (NMG), an American chain of luxury department stores, has announced plans to invest $500 million in digitizing its infrastructure over the next three years. The focus will be primarily on AI and ML solutions.
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NMG: Always exceed customer expectations
Founded in Texas in 1907, the company has boasted since its early days of always exceeding customer expectations through its exquisite offerings. Only the hottest designers, the most outstanding fashion, or the most outlandish luxury furnishings have been found in their displays ever since. In order to maintain their brand essence of distinction through style, they have now decided to move with the times and invest massively in their own structures.
Human-machine collaboration for customer satisfaction
NMG has been integrating modern technologies to keep up with the competition for quite some time. New acquisitions such as Stylize or the in-house creation Connect Clienteling App bear witness to this. However, the focus is to be increasingly extended to applications in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). However, the company emphasizes that this is by no means about displacing human personnel with digital solutions. Rather, both sides are to work together to deliver the best possible service to customers.
Stylize: Style advice with AI and ML
The Texans have worked with over 30 SaS vendors in recent years to attract only the best IoT solutions to their chain. The aforementioned half billion dollars is now expected to help deepen and expand such collaborations. Stylize, a product acquired in 2021, is expected to be a particularly big step forward in its own modernization. The digital platform for style advice uses metadata to advise customers on complementary merchandise using AI and ML. This is particularly true in the fashion sector, where algorithms can use style questions to provide consumers with recommendations on suitable items of clothing or accessories.
Connect app: fitting helper in the crisis
One application that dovetails directly with Stylize is found in the Connect app. Developed long before the current pandemic, it could be used right at the start of the crisis and thus counteract lost sales. The app enables cooperation between store employees and customers, even when face-to-face contact is not possible due to hygiene regulations. The end-to-end solution not only ensures a smooth continuation of the shopping process, from product selection to payment. It also maintains customer loyalty through enhanced relationship management, just as NMG customers have been accustomed to in the past.
