Charlotte Russe improves online buying while mall shopping continues to decline

Women’s clothing retailer Charlotte Russe is stepping up its performance. IBM just announced that the retailer is using Watson Customer Engagement solutions on IBM Cloud that ultimately helps the retailer process record online sales.

Last year, Charlotte Russe was able to partner with IBM in order to analyze American consumer shopping habits and their online purchases. The solution offers cognitive technologies that allow for retailers like Charlotte Russe to use this data to their advantage in the current retail climate. The solution was operating for Charlotte Russe for the past seven months and showed that its initial sales and transactions that were predicted for the holidays were lower than what the data had shown. The fast-fashion retailer then used this information to see that their online sales would increase over 2015, which meant in the future they could be better prepared in customer orders and service. As a result, for the 2016 5-day holiday shopping peak, the retailer made sure all systems were performing at peak capacity for optimal service and customer orders. Although Charlotte Russe had record volumes of orders, there were no performance issues due to IBM’s help.

"The always-on customer's relationship with a retailer lasts only as long as the business's ability to keep their unique needs and interests at the center of every interaction," said Harriet Green, General Manager, IBM Watson Customer Engagement said in a statement. Charlotte Russe has now made online shopping easier than ever for customers, in order to improve sales. Customers could now order apparel on their smart phone and pick up the item at a nearby location. Using the new technology, the system will check inventory and identifies which store can quickily fulfil the order. It seems that despite mall traffic declining, the retailer has focused on improving other methods of buying. "Like all retailers, our business is judged by its ability to serve the needs of our customers. If we can't meet their expectations we can't compete," said Debra Jensen, CIO for Charlotte Russe.