The model of the relationship between customers and brands has become much more complex in recent years. The technological evolution (particularly, the arrival of smartphones) has totally changed the way customers interact with brands.
Faced with this new reality, as retailers, we have the difficult task of satisfying the needs of customers who are much better informed, more demanding and more powerful. We have to do it quickly, because for customers there is no going back. They expect more from their favourite brands: fast delivery methods, product availability, great customer service, etc.
As retailers, we need to develop initiatives and technologies that will allow us to understand the way in which our customers relate to us today, and, subsequently, other initiatives and technologies that respond to their needs. We also need to be capable of segmenting our customers into different standardised groups, because not all our customers are the same. In fact, no two customers are the same and for this reason, ultimately, we must be able to offer personalised experiences for each and every one, taking their needs and preferences into account. These needs and preferences affect all the ‘touchpoints’ the customer has with the brand, and payment is just one of them.
In payments, there has also been a major disruption in recent years with the appearance of several more payment methods, which a short while ago did not exist; basically, we used to pay in physical stores in cash or with a debit/credit card.
However, payment in itself will not disappear. We have to assume that payment is a ‘painful’ moment for customers, since paying, by definition, does not generate the same satisfaction as, for example, finding the garment you have been after for a weekend party. However, payment will always exist.
This is why at MANGO we are working on the creation of a ‘Phygital’ payment ecosystem with a single aim: to generate the least possible friction for the customer and streamline the payments experience. We all know that queuing is something we prefer not to do. So why not allow the customer to pay in any location other than the store without the need to pass through the cash desk? How can we resolve these painful aspects of our customers’ shopping experience?
When we talk about a Phygital ecosystem we are referring to being able to transfer the online payment experience to the physical store (if the customers prefer, they may continue to pay with hard cash or physical debit/credit cards). We want to be able to make payment virtually invisible to the customer. To achieve this, we are working on developing payment solutions via smartphone.
We are constantly analysing the preferences of our customers in the digital environment to find out their preferred payment methods to be able to offer them in the physical store. The more data we have from customers, the more simple and natural it will be for them to pay. Adapting to the speed at which new payment methods are appearing involves the integration of the vendor with the payment hubs. As a result of a single integration, we can offer a single worldwide payment system, irrespective of the channel the customer purchases through and irrespective of the payment method they choose.
This is why at MANGO we are focusing on learning about the customer and using technology as a means to improve the shopping experience of our customers.
This editorial was first published in our Payment Methods Report 2019 – Innovations in the Way We Pay, which provides a comprehensive overview of the up-to-the-minute trends, updates, and innovations in the payments space worldwide, depicting the key developments in the way people pay.
About Carlos Madrona Guillén
Carlos Madrona, with more than eight years of experience in payment methods, joined the company in 2015 as Head of Online Fraud. In July 2017, he was promoted as Director of Means of Payment and Fraud, a position in which among others he aims to lead the strategy of payments and offline in the markets.
About MANGO
MANGO was founded in 1984 and is today one of the leading fashion groups in the world. Based in its city of origin, Barcelona, the company has an extensive store network of 812,000 m2 in 110 countries. From its ‘El Hangar’ Design Centre in Palau-solità i Plegamans, every year it designs more than 18,000 garments and accessories for wearing the season’s trends. The company closed the 2017 financial year with sales of EUR 2.194 billion.
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