Transforming Retail Award Winners: Ribble – Best Connected category
We asked all our winners in this year’s Transforming Retail Awards to tell us how they felt about winning their category. So here is our Q & A with Ribble on their plans for the future featuring David Stacey, Commercial Director and Matthew Lawson Chief Digital Operator.
How do you feel about winning this Award?
Matt: Over the moon! It is one thing getting the right tech in place but getting recognition from such highly regarded industry peers for our application to drive a seamless interaction between the online and the physical experiences makes all the effort worth it.
David: We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved here, and honoured to be recognised by Retailer Insider for the hard work delivered by all of our teams in bringing the vision to reality.
Why do you think your entry stood out?
David: From the very initial concepts of our showroom design we wanted to make all of the customer interactions as seamless as possible…blending the lines between our online experience and what our customers saw when they came into our showroom. We wanted it to feel connected, consistent and helpful.
Matt: We are a digitally-native brand, and this means that the integration of technology into the showroom had to be meaningful and to enrich the experience. We wanted to keep gimmicks to a minimum and focus on what really matters to our customers. We’ve been able to do some amazing things here, like completely removing paper POS from the showroom; creating a seamless ‘session’ between all the devices; and giving customers anywhere in the world access to our flagship showroom via Ribble Live, our virtual showroom service.
David: We definitely avoided gimmicks with this design, but it’s still nice to be able to claim the largest indoor 4K screen in Europe as part of our experience! It has to be seen to be believed! We’ve also thought about the small details too – we designed a Ribble scent specifically for the showroom which is dispersed in an allergen-free way; and we tightly control the lighting. We display our bikes just like jewellery, and we know our customers love that attention on the product…its why they’re buying a bike from us afterall!
Matt: In summary, we’ve created an experience that is connected, seamless and exciting but without losing the focus on why the customer has chosen to visit us. This blends ‘experience’ with ‘tech’ in a way that is fundamentally customer-focused, and allows the product to be the star. We’re really proud of what we’ve accomplished here.
What plans do you have for your company in the coming year?
Matt: It’d be quicker to tell you what we don’t have planned! Ribble is a fast-paced business, and we’re constantly evolving and bringing exciting, fresh things to our customers. We’re particularly excited about our future NPD, and how we can further enhance our customer’s connected experiences, how ever they chose to experience Ribble.
David: We also have lots more exciting news to come soon regarding our showroom expansion plans, including how we’re looking to bring the physical Ribble showroom experience to our international customers. It’s a very exciting time for the business, and we’ll continue to innovate, disrupt and challenge our market to bring the very best experiences to our customers.