New technology helps alternatives save tradition

Now it’s easier for collectors of historical finds. Archiving and locating holdings is now easier with data-driven software. Some artifacts bring great joy to the new owner.

It’s one thing to provide a pleasant customer experience to someone looking for a suitable jacket, shoe, or handbag. However, helping a desperate person looking for a replacement for the broken mug that was Grandma’s heirloom is another matter entirely.

Here are the limited alternatives. supports. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the company offers special servicesTo help customers locate, restore or repair historic pieces. Replacement Ltd. has an inventory of eleven million articles, consisting of more than 450,000 samples. All porcelain, crystal and silver collector’s items are in good condition and have been carefully archived. “We want our customers to carry on their traditions, meet family and friends, gift a family member and start their own collection,” explains Lehane Calhoun, Chief Marketing Officer at Alternatives, in this video, presented at NRF 2023, the largest retail trade show. retail in the world. “We want to find customers, understand what they’re looking for, and balance the two.”

According to Calhoun, data and analytics are crucial because they help a company meet its customers’ needs with the right product. This includes having alternatives save and archive each article. It is also important how the company presents products and services to its customers and how and how often personal messages are sent.

Understand customers better

According to Calhoun, the alternatives are about knowing what their customers care about and what they collect. This is the only way the company can help each buyer find exactly the right item among 450,000 samples and 11 million individual parts.

“Because we have this information on our technology platform, we can bring it together in a meaningful way. That way, each piece can be linked more closely to the new person and a new story emerges.” We’ve done it this way from the start. We have collected information on each client and tried to understand what they are interested in and to establish a relationship.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated the evolution of commerce towards e-commerce, and according to Calhoun, better and smoother customer service is now possible. Thanks to modern technology alternatives We can now share specific product information, which is always carefully archived, with customers as well.

Innovations open up new possibilities for customers

According to Calhoun, there are three distinct groups of customers who visit an “The Alternatives” online store: people looking to buy something, people looking to sell their antiques to Alternatives, and people who are just browsing or searching.

“A lot of times they’re looking for a pattern. Ex [vor der Pandemie] “They would call us, describe the pattern, and send us a picture,” Calhoun said. This procedure was very time consuming for both customers and the replacement. The company’s website today contains a camera icon that can be used to upload the image. Porcelain and glass patterns are then recognized in a very short time. “Time turned from days to minutes,” Calhoun noted.

The program brings benefits not only to customers who want to style, but also to employees who have more time to do other tasks. And Calhoun was pleasantly surprised that looking-to-buy shoppers were looking at items they might not have otherwise discovered—which had a positive effect on sales.

“We’ve made our internal operations more efficient and our website users are benefiting from that,” Calhoun added.

data-driven decisions

Alternatives use technology to improve people’s lives. “Getting together with family and friends, experiencing unforgettable moments and passing on traditions, we want to make it easier for our customers to do all of this,” Calhoun told SAP in a video interview. “It’s what separates us from our competitors… We do this so we can have all of these great pieces.”

Because just seeing a long-forgotten pattern can trigger powerful memories. As Calhoun said across 46,000 metres² As she walks through the large replacement warehouses, she notices someone unloading dishes in the same Corelle style she recognized from her great-grandmother. “I immediately imagined my grandmother’s dining table, the way she laid it out every night getting ready for breakfast. The memory was so beautiful and so vivid,” Calhoun gushed. “Memories like this are good for us. They touch our hearts and souls.

This is why data is so important for alternatives. “It’s about finding buyers for antiques, strengthening relationships with key clients and collectors, and introducing new audiences to the inventory,” she added. This caters to the diverse demographics of clients, each of whom desires to own a piece of history.

“The personal stories, the loyalty to the brand, the human connection, the relationships with the customers – you have to move forward with all of that,” Calhoun said. “But data helps you better communicate with your customers