How The Fragrance Shop connects to its customers with Microsoft Azure

The Fragrance Shop is a retail business with 185 stores across the UK and an annual turnover of £120 million. It focusses purely on the sale of fragrances and has recently invested in Microsoft Cloud Technologies in order to develop a stronger understanding of its customers and hence provide a more connected experience. It has fully embraced multi-channel experiences, using technology both in store and at its Head Office built on Microsoft Azure.

With Microsoft Azure, The Fragrance Shop is innovating its sales technique, considering ideas such as how to talk with customers before even purchasing a fragrance in store and how to find out if they provided the right experience for the customer after a recent sale. “Customer centricity is a massive part of our business, so the technology we invest in is all about collecting the right data. Joining this all together means creating a seamless experience and a connected customer,” explained Sanjay Vadera, CEO at The Fragrance Shop.

Their CRM team can now engage the customer immediately after a purchase and because they are interacting with customers in real-time, the response rates being achieved are very high. “We gather information in stores, online and through customer service, which all feeds into Microsoft Azure. With the right computing power, we can now get the results that we want in the timescales we need,” commented Julian Holt, Chief Technical Officer at The Fragrance Shop.

All stores now collect live data, such as how many customers enter and walk past the store, sale frequencies and conversion by the minute. This data transforms the information staff have access to, the roles they perform within the business and hence the way the business functions as a whole. Julian Holt stated, “We are now able to give the responsibility of certain IT elements to Microsoft like security, high availability and scalability, meaning my IT department can focus more on business strategy and less on dealing with IT issues.”

The Fragrance Shop is excited about what the future holds with the help of Microsoft Azure. Sanjay Vadera sums up by saying, “We’re in the right position and we’ve got the right partners in place… now we’re thinking about how we can take this to the next level.” Check this short video to see more.

Want to find out more?

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

Do epic stuff with data: Here’s how you can position your business to capitalise

By 2020, the amount of high value data will double. Make sure your business is able to capitalise on this phenomena.

Today, there’s a big shift toward a more technology-driven society in the modern IT world. More and more businesses are adopting a cloud-first procurement strategy, using web and social capabilities to reach customers, gather market and business intelligence, and engage employees. With Microsoft Azure, you can save time, money, and effort with Azure Web, Mobile, Data Analytics, and Business Intelligence solutions.

In fact, sourced from a study in the Modern Microsoft Partner Series, by 2020, the amount of high-value data will double. Data Architecture Manager Stephanie Bruno, who works with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, states, “…. the data is the most important thing we have. Using Microsoft BI and analytics tools helps us make better decisions and save more children’s lives.”

Other firms also leverage data through Power BI to increase revenue, while reducing costs to develop new products. Vice President and CIO Steven Hanna states, “We can also leverage intellectual property that used to be spread out in notebooks or in people’s heads. And if we can leverage that, and get to market 20 percent faster, that’s a pretty great competitive advantage.”

Get started today on how to do epic stuff with customer data and app solutions with Azure. Here are a few easy ways to get started …

  • Mobile—Help your customers easily access valuable data on any device at any time. Create native cross-platform mobile apps, using one platform, IDE, and language for all app types. Embed fully interactive and up-to-date visual analytics directly in your apps with ease—without the time and expense of writing code.
  • Web—No matter what you sell, you need secure and scalable e-commerce solutions that meet the demands of both your customers and business. Leverage your data and drive customer engagement through customised products and offers, process transactions quickly and securely, and focus on fulfilment and customer service.
  • Data Analytics—Deliver better experiences and make better decisions by analyzing massive amounts of data in real time. Get the insight you need to deliver intelligent actions that improve customer engagement, increase revenue, and lower costs.
  • Business Intelligence—Transform your company’s data to support informed decision making. Gain deeper insight into your data to stay up to date and spot trends as they happen. With modern business intelligence (BI) solutions and tools, your entire organisation can understand and quickly act on data.

Check out this short video to find out more about Microsoft Azure and how it can help your business.

Want to find out more?

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.