How leading UK retailer Schuh is using location data to make customer experience quick, easy and convenient

Schuh is a branded footwearretailer selling popular brands like Converse, Adidas, Vans, Nike and UGG Australia, as well as less known and more niche brands.Opening it’s very first store in 1981 in Edinburgh Scotland, Schuh is now multi-million-pound UK retailer with a fully optimised site and a strong emphasis on a mobile first approach.

Getting orders to customers first time, improving accessibility to click and collect and ensuring that customers can get their products as easy as possible are a key focus for the team at Schuh. In a recent interview with Internet Retailing, the company’s Head of eCommerce and Optimisation, Stuart McMillan explained that location data is vital to achieving this customer focused approach.

“Location data is important to the customer in two ways,” he says. “Firstly, it makes it easier for them to give us their location, for order processing or store lookups. Secondly, it increases accuracy, which reduces issues post-purchase.”

Location data makes it easier for our customers to give us their address, for order processing or store lookups. Secondly, it increases accuracy, which reduces issues post-purchase.

Making the purchasing experience quick, easy and convenient for customers – whether online or via mobile is vital. Therefore, Schuh chose to implement Loqate’s real-time address verification product in order to speed up checkout time and improve data quality. The address look-up tool allows customers to enter just a few characters from any part of an address and the system will automatically show results to choose from, plus it removes any typos –reducing failed deliveries.

Schuh’smobile firstapproach sees more than three-quarters (79%) of visits coming from mobile, so this means that location data and address look-up is even more vital.“This is particularly important on mobile, where screens are smaller and mistakes are easier to make,” says McMillan.

Location is key to the future of retail – location of the customer, location of the stock and location of stores or collection points.

As well as making it easier for customers, this head of eCommerce is also a fan “Personally whenever I see the Loqate button at the start of typing my address, I find it really useful. When you have a unique house name like I do, it’s such an easy experience,” he says.

When it comes to the future of retail, McMillan believes the importance of location datacan only increase. “Location information becomes more and more important, particularly with regard to click and collect and other ‘local’ fulfilment options,” he says. “Location is key to the future of retail – location of the customer, location of the stock and location of stores or collection points.”

Stuart McMillan, Head of eCommerce and Optimisation, Schuh

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