Dive Brief:

• Women's apparel brand NYDJ is enabling its direct-to-consumer online sales channel through the Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Marketing Cloud platforms as it looks to provide more personalized shopping experiences across multiple touchpoints, according to a Salesforce press release.

• NYDJ is looking to Commerce Cloud to help the brand use individual customer data, such as browsing history, previous purchases and which type of online touchpoint — web, smartphone or social media — a customer is using to shop to provide those shoppers with unique content, campaigns, offers and recommendations, according to the press release.

• As NYDJ aims to engage directly with customers, the brand can use Salesforce Marketing Cloud to set up protocols to send customers personalized messages, potentially with special offers, through their preferred communication channels and at the most opportune time, such as while they are shopping or soon after they have abandoned an online shopping cart.

Dive Insight:

Personalization continues to take the industry by storm, with retailers investing more money in personalization strategies than just about any other area, according to Forrester Research. Companies throughout the sector are looking to forge personal bonds with individual customers, as well as learn lessons from Amazon about how personal data can be applied to provide a more satisfying shopping experience to customers.

This group of companies includes not just retailers, but also many of the major consumer product brands, who have been concerned about the state of their retailer partners — especially department stores — that have traditionally represented a significant path for them to reach consumers. That's especially true of the sportswear market, in which retailers like Nike are turning away from traditional partners to sell direct-to-consumer on Amazon. 

As a result, there are a lot of brands that have upped their direct-to-consumer game in recent years, with an accompanying focus on personalization. Some have tried to do so through their own websites, stores (sometimes pop-up stores) and distribution channels, while others have taken Nike's route and partnered with Amazon. Some of the brands that have done so recently include Calvin Klein, Under Armour, Nike, Adidas and start-up Revtown.

For NYDJ's part, the brand was recently included on a list of distressed retailers from Moody's Investors Service, so the company may be facing some extra pressure to turn customer engagements into sales in the short term and loyalty in the long term. Investing in tools to help the brand have a more personal touch with consumers should only help.