Ep. 20 - Omnichannel Retail, Global Perspectives, and the Future of Customer Experience

Luxury shoppers do not think in channels; they think in moments. If the experience feels effortless on Instagram but clunky at the register, or great in store but disappointing at delivery, the brand loses trust fast. Scott Benedict sits down with retail strategist Elisabetta Borghi to unpack what omnichannel retail really means for premium and luxury brands as they navigate the convergence of physical retail, ecommerce, and rising customer expectations.

We dig into why “integrated inventory” is necessary but not sufficient, and how consistency across touchpoints becomes the true luxury standard. Elisabetta shares real-world examples of experiential stores, localized retail concepts, and technology-enhanced assisted selling, including AR and VR-style try-on experiences that help customers make confident decisions. We also talk about the messy realities leaders face: high return rates in fashion, cross-border complexity, tariffs that crush margins, and how organizational silos between store and digital teams can quietly sabotage omnichannel transformation.

Then we zoom out to the global view: what markets can learn from each other, how listening to customers can be done with simple tools, and where AI agents and new data-driven shopping models may change ecommerce personalization. If you lead retail strategy, customer experience, or digital commerce, you’ll leave with a clearer framework for blending human connection with modern tech without losing the soul of the brand. Subscribe, share this with a retail leader, and leave a review with your biggest omnichannel challenge.

0:00 - The Luxury Omnichannel Standard
5:15 - Beyond Integrated Inventory
12:40 - Assisted Selling and AR Technology
22:15 - Silos, Tariffs, and Margin Traps
34:50 - Global Retail Personalization with AI
44:10 - Outro & Final Takeaways

Transcript

Welcome And Topic Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Well, hello everyone, and welcome to the Digital Front Door. I'm Scott Benedict. On today's episode, we're going to explore omni-channel retail from a global perspective, particularly how premium and luxury brands are navigating the convergence of physical retail, digital commerce, and evolving customer expectations. We often talk about digital transformation and retail as if it's only a technology discussion, but in many ways, it's really about evolving and enhancing the customer experience, the positioning of your brand, and organizational alignment. And that's especially true, I believe, in premium and in luxury retail. And so to help us explore that, I'm excited to welcome Elizabeth Borgie. Today, Elizabeth works with organizations through Amading Associates advising brands and retailers on strategy, omnichannel transformation, and customer experience innovation. Her experience spans global markets, premium retail environments, and organizations navigating the evolution from traditional retail models to truly integrated omnichannel businesses. Elizabeth, we are excited to have you here. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

I'm excited too, and uh thank you for uh inviting me today. I hope uh to give you some tips, just uh some good uh ideas uh to try to uh modernize the approach uh with your customers.

A Career Built On Agility

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Awesome. Well, let's start with the fact that you've worked uh in your career across multiple premium and luxury retail organizations in different global markets. And I'm wondering if you can share a little bit about your background and how your experience has shaped your perspective on omni-channel retail and kind of the omnichannel customer experience, if you would.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

I can say that uh my career is not uh the classic uh linear curriculum, but in uh in some cases uh it has been uh uh very stimulating uh because every time I had a challenge, I had to uh reinvent myself, but also to study new skills. And this is uh something that uh it's happening uh still every day. Uh I don't have uh the time to get bored, but but it's very interesting from my point of view because uh I need the stimulus, and uh I can say that uh agility is part of uh my daily life life, and uh I expect that uh this approach should be incorporated also in uh uh companies all over the world because we are navigating a lot of turbulences. You need to be uh resilient but also uh reactive. So you cannot stay passively waiting for solutions. You need to reinvent yourself, you need to try to find a solution to start to make projects and to be ready, even though uh the project sometimes uh might uh meet uh some unexpected uh results, let's say.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yes. Well, I I've told several people throughout uh my career that uh one of the benefits of a career in retailing is it teaches you adaptability, the ability to kind of adapt to change. And I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one who felt that way. You've you've seen that in your own career as well, it sounds like.

What Luxury Omnichannel Really Means

SPEAKER_00 4:01

So uh so uh one of the questions I wanted to ask you, particularly given your background, is that a lot of people think about uh omnichannel, and they they often, when when you use that term, they think about operational integration, things like being able to buy online and pick up in a physical store or unifying inventory so that a customer can get at it wherever they choose to shop. But my perspective is that in the world that you come out of it, out of premium and luxury retail, that conversation feels uh a little bit different. And I'm kind of curious from your view, how do premium luxury brands maybe approach omni-channel from a little bit uh of a different approach, maybe, than mass market retailers do.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Okay. Um the the focus on uh customer experience uh, and I would say it's not a matter of omni-channel. It's a matter of uh not thinking about uh silo and function into a company. You mentioned uh the first uh step that is crucial in every retailer that is uh unifying the inventory and having the ability to check uh at the same time all over uh the world where you want to use a specific touch point instead of another one. Uh but the the key difference uh between a mass market retailer and a luxury brand is that you need to have a consistency all over the touch points. So basically, uh, if you are looking at a product on uh Instagram, you need to find yourself satisfied when you are at the point of sale or when you are receiving the product too. And it's not that uh all the luxury retailers or premium retailers are successful in it because I was uh navigating uh uh the whole process of uh returns, that uh it's very different coming from mass market to luxury retail with different uh percentages, but above all uh with fashion, uh, it's uh easily to arrive to 50% of the returns in fashion. Imagine if you are a European brand selling in the US, you would not send back the merchandise at the end of the season because you have the tariffs, and it's impacting heavily in the marginality. So, this is where the uh leaders of today have to navigate and trying to make uh the best uh uh profitability out of the human touch that is still very important because I am the customer and I have a relationship with my sales assistant. So they need to know what are my preferences and my expectations. When they have a product in store, they need to uh treat myself as uh one of the VIP customers they have. And this is what uh Hermes, Chanel are building uh since a while, or Viviton. They are building uh ecosystems where the consumers might have a 360-degree uh of experience starting from drink and food, uh starting from the service, and starting from the different uh delivery and personalization options. What we are analyzing now is that it's not just a matter of uh preferences divided by uh the kind of uh generations. We got bored uh hearing the fact that Generation Z still like to purchase physically, but what what is the difference here? The difference is that uh they are not available to pay for a premium price like the others. So if you are a luxury brand, you need to work on the different generation, the local differences, because uh you need to expect that uh a customer from the Middle East is completely different from an American, from an Italian, and from a Chinese. So everywhere you go, you need to find a local approach. And one of the best uh use cases I'm thinking about is uh Nike. Nike is able to provide an interesting uh approach uh tailored to each market. In China, they are building uh new stores uh related to cultural experiences. Every store has a team. Uh, I was uh watching uh an example of a retro design inspired by series like uh Stranger Things. So you you basically enter into the store and they don't just provide you all uh the safe uh uh assisted process. You can have uh a different uh perspective of each location you are visiting because they offer you a tailored experience that it brings back into your memories for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Yeah. And this is something that uh the luxury businesses have done for years. Obviously, uh they are uh taking the approach of uh luxurious services. They, for instance, I'm thinking about uh Barbery. Barbery was the first retailer that unified completely the digital channels, not just the online sales, but also all the touch points, with the key PIs of the retail store. And the marginality and the revenue analysis was divided exactly in terms of attribution of uh uh to different formats. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah. No, and it's interesting in your comments, kind of remind me of the fact that one of the things that we often talk about on this podcast is the fact that despite what some people have said, particularly during the pandemic, that physical retail was disappearing, it obviously is not, it's evolving. You gave some great examples uh of that in in other parts of the world.

The Modern Role Of The Store

SPEAKER_00 11:25

And that leads me kind of to the question of uh I'm curious what your perspective is, is what role does the physical store play, particularly with with premium or luxury brands? And how how do are you seeing that the most successful retailers are kind of blending the physical and the digital experience together in a way that makes that that experience end-to-end. You you mentioned how important that is, particularly in in luxury retail, but do you feel like that that is being done consistently, or some some brands are leading it out in front, and others are perhaps trailing behind uh a bit?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Uh unifying uh all the touch points uh require a long-term uh vision first, and sometimes investments. Uh not uh all the the uh the brands uh existing uh since a while were ready to do that for mentality, for uh possibility of investing. Some of them uh decided to diversify even the kind of uh exposure they want in terms of categories. If you think about uh luxury brands, many of them are creating a luxurious residential experience that are not present, for instance, uh in all over the US or all over Europe and the Middle East. It depends on uh what kind of local consumer they they are willing to target, and they are trying to uh make the experience of the brand and not just of the core business, let's say. Also, there are different uh kinds of uh rules applied to we said uh marginality. Uh the returns in beauty are much more uh uh are much less relevant but are more are much more interesting from the point of view of uh the brand. And uh it's uh easier also to capture the young generation because uh the overall price uh is uh uh less uh impactful, and the technology component is also playing uh uh a role that is different from a cat one category to another.

AR Try On And Assisted Selling

SPEAKER_01 14:07

I worked uh at uh Luxotica Retail and the eyewear business, if we think about uh Raban, uh just to mention uh one of uh the brands uh that uh is investing a lot, they are investing in cultural experiences because uh the the young generation is expecting that and they want uh storytelling, but they are also investing in tech to enhance the customer experience in store. So, what what does it mean? Uh if you have uh site issues, you can use uh virtual reality and augmented reality to simulate uh the effect of a lens before purchasing the product because everything is personalized, and you can choose what kind of treatment do you want on your lens and so on. It's an assisted sale driven by technology. You can start to use the virtual try-on on the website that is a touch point, and you can decide to finish the assisted sale in store because you want to have uh all the your question answered uh perfectly. Sometimes I will expect that in a few months uh not just uh beauty or fashion brands uh will incorporate uh uh tools such as uh the agents. Uh let's see that there are uh many brands that uh are now trying to uh make uh the perfect usage of AI agent uh to convert more. And it's visible because uh one uh UK retailer in uh sportswear in just uh two weeks have uh increased the online sale uh by 2023.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Why?

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Because I worked for Workford and uh the main uh friction is uh the fitting. You have thousands of questions. The online is not solving all, and depending on uh what are you buying, because if you purchase a jacket, the fitting uh is uh much more easier compared to a piece of lingerie, for instance, or the fitting of a shoes, the classical shoes compared to a sneaker, it's it's making a lot of difference from trying it in store or ordering it online. But the in certain categories the uh the agents uh might help if we think about uh the AI um usage of uh uh skin tones in uh in fashion. Uh you can uh try to make your own style, or if you go to Sephora, you can design your perfect skin tone starting from the usage of AI answering to all your personalized questions. And this is something that uh might help you to increase the loyalty, increase uh the feel of being assisted better, because every time you visit a store, sometimes uh the the the physical touch point might be crowded, and uh even though the cell assistant uh is uh very well trained, he is nice, and so on, uh when there are there are too many people into the store, you don't uh might have uh the enough time to decide, you cannot uh ask all the questions. So the the physical uh point of uh point of sale uh should depend on uh the human assistant.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Indeed. You know it's interesting that uh one of the things that I perceive is a little bit different in Europe and perhaps in other parts of the world than than here in the US, is that here it doesn't feel like luxury brands, particularly those that we hear about in the news that are struggling all the time, use technology to enhance the customer experience. Don't embrace personalization perhaps the way they should. You just described some wonderful experiences where digital tools and the in-store experience work wondrously together. Is it would it be your perception that perhaps uh luxury retailers are doing a better job in other parts of the world using technology to enhance that experience and using a combination of in-store and digital technologies, digital tools to make that experience feel very rich and personalized and enhanced because of the things we have available to us today that perhaps we didn't have 10 years ago, five years ago. Is that perception accurate, do you think?

Data Driven Personalization And Google Agents

SPEAKER_01 19:26

It's definitely accurate. And uh the the usage of uh data today is uh uh something that uh it cannot be avoided first. But if you think about the ecosystem that uh started around uh uh Nike for instance, because it's a it's a very good use case. They started from the innovation center and distributing online the app. In that case, they got all the customer insights directly about the training and about uh the usage of the product that can be incorporated directly into their analytics. What we are seeing today is uh an elevation. We go further in this analysis because uh during the last month uh Google launched uh uh the Universal Commerce Protocol. The Universal Commerce Protocol is uh the future of uh e-commerce. In terms of okay, it's not necessarily the step toward uh finishing uh the transaction online, but what you get you get that uh if you have a website, uh the agent, Gemini, it is not necessarily an agent developed internally by a brand. It's me with my personal data that uh uh Gemini have learned about me that is able to incorporate in the merchant center, and they can connect this data with the CRM of the brand. In that case, the the kind of suggestions that you are getting from a query of uh uh a prompt, it's very very different, and in my opinion, much more effective rather than using the classical uh online search through Google.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Right. No, and that makes perfect sense. And it and it's it's been a point of frustration for me to see some of the formats of retail that could be most benefited from where we are in the evolution of technology that, at least here in the US, don't use it to the full benefit.

Breaking Silos Inside Retail Teams

SPEAKER_00 22:00

And I think one of the biggest challenges that happens to a lot of retailers and to brands is this organizational structure where the digital and the physical teams are still organized around silos, separate silos and store teams and digital teams and different merchandising staffs for online versus offline. And I'm curious, from your experience, are some of the biggest maybe internal organizational barriers kind of stemming from this siloed approach to how they organize the business around separate physical and digital teams? And are some of the leaders that you are in accounting, some of the teams and brands that are doing things better moving faster towards a more integrated organization where that don't have these organizational lines or silos from the physical team to the digital team, and it's more integrated in the way that they approach the business.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

The hotel business was not a tech company. And if we think about the biggest brands have preferred to partner with digital platforms, let's think about Experia, Booking, because in that way they can leverage better offer personalized according to the historical data and the seasonal needs of the customer, because the platform has all the data regarding the behavior all over the year, not just because one time this person came and visited the Out and in your case, uh one purchase one time of a product.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

No, and it's interesting, and you and I have talked about

Global Market Lessons And Local Culture

SPEAKER_00 24:34

this previously. One of the things that I'm so glad about in my own career is I spent uh a number of years in uh Walmart's International Division, and it truly that experience changed my perspective about the fact that great ideas, great innovation happen in a lot of different markets. And the smart retailers are the ones that take best practices from wherever they find them around the world and try and incorporate them in the business. You've worked in a number of global markets. I'm curious, are there dramatic differences either in the how or the how fast that you're seeing brands in Europe and perhaps in the Middle East adopt omni-channel as a strategy and as a way of going to market? And maybe are there lessons that other markets uh have that we should be thinking about perhaps more uh in a more focused way here in the U.S., in terms of where there are best practices, where omnichannel is being done well in other parts uh of the world? I always think of the UK seemed to embrace uh uh uh digital grocery faster uh than a lot of other markets, and I felt like they led. That's one example. But are there others in your experience where there are great ideas, great best practices that maybe we're missing out on here in the US market?

SPEAKER_01 26:10

You you need uh to think about that uh the budget of a US retailer is uh practically uh impossible, almost impossible all over the world, probably in China, they they have those uh tech platforms that are able to leverage the full uh integrated data because they also manage uh the financial part. Uh the best ecosystem uh in uh in the world, in the Western world is obviously Walmart. What we do in the other part of the world without so much budget is uh to try to uh listen more the customer. And uh when I say listen more the customer is that uh leverage the uh brand awareness online. So using uh simple and not so expensive tools to understand the reputation online, to understand what your customers are saying because uh your catalog is missing uh certain products. St.Loader is bringing back certain brands that have been cancelled after an MMA, because after years the community was continuing to claim they wanted the best products. So, in order to avoid to uh cut the investment and probably now to allocate double the investment because they had to X the whole business unit, this is an idea. Another idea should be that uh uh listen to the customer means sometimes uh sending frequently the service, not just are you happy about the delivery. Listen to ourselves. Did you visit our store? What did you enjoy the most? What do you think it can be done better? What is missing in our assortment that could be improved? And uh sometimes uh it's also a matter of design because we we passed through uh an era of functional design in interiors and in packaging and in everything. Everything uh seemed like uh very standardized, and the customers are now very uh bored and not uh engaged anymore. They expect probably the cows of the past, but there were a sort of discovery that today is uh cold because you have the automatic point of sale. You have three products on the shelf, and all the rest should be ordered and delivered where do you want. Technology should be used to improve the experience. Like we are in a hurry, and technology is supporting us to save our time. Or the drone delivery in them all, that is something that stunned me because in Europe we have a lot of restrictions, we are famous for that, so we are still waiting uh for the drone delivery. But uh offering services uh like the charging uh station for the electric car, it's uh an interesting uh offer that you can uh be uh you can uh give to your customers in order to uh create uh loyalty. Uh and these are uh common examples.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Yeah.

Balancing High Tech With Human Care

SPEAKER_00 30:19

And you know it's interesting because you spoke earlier about this combination of human engagement with a customer with the benefits of technology, so much about we about what we read, about what is discussed in our industry. I've noticed is obviously about AI and analytics and digital tools. And at the same time, one of the things that has always struck me about the part of retail that you come from in premium retail is human connection, the human experience and interaction with uh sales associates is still very, very important. You gave some great examples earlier. I'm kind of curious that that it probably gives you a perspective that maybe there's a good balance that that brands can have between this the human interaction and the way technology works. Is there maybe uh any best practices or recommendations that you make to some of your clients in terms of here's here's how you balance between those two to make uh maybe a technology uh enhanced but still a very human interaction, particularly where it's so important in premium retail?

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Yeah, when you when you go extra mile, uh if you think about luxury, uh if uh a very important customer uh is uh having an issue in uh the delivery or the product itself uh is not uh available, you expect that uh that there's a person driving to your uh to your suite uh to in your home to try to find a solution.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Or uh driving to uh the nearest store where the product is available in order that you can have it. Uh it's not just a matter of uh having uh those uh luxurious uh services of a concierge in the U.S.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

No, and that's the thing is going the extra the extra effort, the extra mile to serve a customer is important in any form of retail, but it just feels like those are great examples uh where in in premium retail that is almost the expectation uh of a customer that you use technology to take care of them, and you go the you use it as a tool to go to that extra effort uh uh to try and serve the customer the most effectively. And hopefully, technology makes that more efficient and easier to deliver, uh, but at the end of the day, it still requires uh human leaders to uh uh to go to that extra effort.

Supply Chain Pressure And Local Production

SPEAKER_00 33:09

And uh that leads me to the last question I wanted to pose to you, which is uh I'm curious what advice you might have to any retail or brand leaders that are that are listening to us, particularly those that are trying to move to a more integrated omnichannel model. Is there any advice based on your experience in terms of if they feel like they're behind what they should focus on, or or maybe what should leaders be particularly thoughtful about as they're trying to use technology to make a better shopping experience for their customers? Uh any areas that, based on your experience, you think they should particularly focus on?

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Uh we are assisting uh to uh huge uh uh issues uh regarding uh supply chain and uh uh the responsibility of an executive in retail today is uh to find a way to make uh things work out because the the young generation doesn't want to wait uh for the product delivered to uh the millennials are demanding. Uh the product uh arriving from overseas might take an unexpected time of delivery. This is the time to become a partner of local and niche brands, and on the other side, local and niche brands uh need to invest in uh factories. Adidas started uh long time ago just to give you an example of a European company that uh before the pandemic started to run the first test of automated uh factories because they realized that uh the the cost of uh logistic uh was a problem. In uh Europe we have also regulation regarding the import of textiles, so it's better to bring uh the product uh at home and avoiding uh to have those uh issues. There is also a human uh consequence that if you think about uh Southeast Asia and uh all the people employed in uh in the factories uh will probably face uh unemployment. So we we will need to rethink the whole model. But anyway, if we think about the Strait of Ormut's the cost of uh uh bringing uh overseas uh the products, the cost of the insurances, the cost of uh fuel, uh oil, and uh everything is impacting uh on the price and uh reducing uh demise during uh the supply chain, it has become crucial these days.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Indeed. Indeed.

Key Takeaways And Where To Connect

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Well, I I'm so grateful, and I think there's a number of things I've certainly taken away from our conversation. One of the things you you talked about was the importance of the customer experience as the foundation of omnichannel retail. It's obviously particularly important in the part of retail you come from, but it feels like that applies just about in any uh retail format. We also talked a little bit about the fact that physical stores still play a very important role in the overall customer journey. And I it doesn't feel like that's uh going away. Uh and it's so wonderful to hear a different perspective on global retail and how premium brands, uh, which historically have been in the forefront of wonderful customer experiences and innovation, uh, are doing things really well. And so it was so wonderful to hear some of those uh stories from you. I'm curious if any of our listeners want to uh learn more about uh Amati and Associates and maybe some of the work that you're doing. Is there a website or a place that they can go to learn a little bit more and perhaps reach out to you and your company?

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Yes, we we have a website. Uh it's uh uh www.amati slash associates.com and uh I'm on LinkedIn. My name is uh Elisabetta Borghi. We can uh eventually provide uh on uh the post the relevant uh addresses. And uh thank you. Thank you so much for uh the opportunity to have uh this uh fruitful chat. It was uh an interesting exchange.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Yes, indeed. And I'm so thankful that we had uh an opportunity uh to get together and have this conversation. And I thank you so much for joining us. And I want to thank our listeners as always for joining us on the digital front door. Until next time, I'm Scott Benedict.