Bolt CEO Discusses the Integration of Experiential E-commerce With Physical Storefronts

In conversation with WWD, Bolt chief executive officer Justin Grooms sheds light on the evolving landscape of omnichannel retailing, where digital and physical shopping experiences are becoming increasingly integrated. Grooms discusses the strategic moves brands are making to create seamless experiences — online and offline. From boutique online spaces to physical destinations, Grooms says the lines between digital and tangible are blending to redefine consumer interactions in the retail sector.

BaubleBar Opens Jewelry Shop-in-shop at FAO Schwarz

WWD: What are some of the trends you’re seeing in e-commerce?

Justin Grooms: There’s been a resurgence of experiential retail. It reminds me a lot about how the office experience for people has been redefined. People go to offices now for experiences like special events and team meetings — in-person has turned into an event from a work perspective. We’re seeing a lot of merchants starting to explore more experiential spaces, and creating smaller, more boutique experiences online with a focus on curation, relevancy or personal connection.

Consumers are developing expectations that we’ll get a little bit of a curated experience when we show up somewhere in a digital environment. For example, when we go on Amazon, we are presented with products and offers that are uniquely catered to us based on our past shopping patterns. A lot of retailers that have both physical and online retail are trying to see how they can straddle that. We’re seeing that with Wayfair. They don’t want to be your parents’ furniture store. They’re opening up physical retail locations to be like Disneyland for Wayfair aficionados. They expect that people will drive to King of Prussia to experience an immersive environment with different types of living room sets. Wayfair is an example of a brand that’s redefining omnichannel retailing.

WWD: So is the physical store where a consumer engages with the brand tactilely? Or is it more than that?

J.G.: It’s about the relationship with the customer. Knowing who the customer is in both physical and digital environments. Kind of like if you and I follow the same baseball team, we exchange texts on said baseball team’s every move, and then every once in a while, we go to a game to get that immersive experience, and it refuels us a little bit. So that’s always kind of existed in both spaces.

Where the gap exists for retailers is taking their learnings from the digital environment and recognizing the shopper when they walk into the store. If you look at what Shopify is doing with their POS systems and tying things together on the SMB portion of the market, they’re really doing well and bridging that gap.

WWD: And they’re using the data generated to make it more personalized, right?

J.G.: Yes, imagine an environment where you’re looking at clothes. The store knows who you are because you’re an important customer, and they can provide you with curated experiences. Akin to the online shopping experience when you’re logged in and recognized by the digital retailer. Brands are trying to do that more and more on digital. I think that one of the fascinating trends online right now, and you can see this across multiple digital stores, is recognizing users much earlier in their shopping journeys.

What we’re seeing more of is retailers trying to understand when visitors enter their digital stores. The first step once they’re done buying or when they’re at the cash wrap is collecting information on these shoppers. And tying that information to a universal profile so when these shoppers show up again, the retailer can offer them receipts via email, reengage with them with offers I know they’ll be interested in, etc. Omnichannel retail is exciting and has so much potential if you can capture the identity of shoppers in the physical environment, and feed that data into a model to then fuel more frequent purchases online.

Artisan Finds at Designers & Agents Score With Exhibitors and Retailers

WWD: What role does Bolt play in that whole process?

J.G.: Bolt harnesses the shopper’s digital identity. We have what we consider to be America’s largest, enterprise-grade shopper identity network. It’s a network that is built from the ground up to integrate into retailer’s existing systems, which has been a big advantage for us when we go to retailers might have tons of different digital systems — some new, some old — and the same goes for the physical environment. Bolt offers a universal identity layer that offers retailers the ability to build comprehensive shopper profiles.

We provide certain basic profile information of the shopper, like their addresses, their payment methods, the validation of their names and more. And then retailers can build more intelligence around that with their CRM systems.

WWD: Is there other data that you collect that you share with your retail partners and brands? Demographic data or baselines or benchmarks in certain areas, personas that you see or trends that you see?

J.G.: Yes, in aggregate. We’ve processed shopper information for over 10 years. We see sku-level information. We see how long things dwell in carts. We see a lot of information that allows us to build personas and then we can take those in aggregate to provide valuable insights to the retailer. It is very important to the retailers in our network. We’re very much merchant-first in this and we don’t share intelligence between merchants.

WWD: How do you see omnichannel evolving from here? What’s the natural evolution?

J.G.: I think it will be like what Nordstrom is doing with their smaller footprint stores. They are creating an environment where you can go in and maybe they don’t need to carry every size of every product or offer every service, but they do want to provide a curated environment where you can take specific actions like pickups and returns. You can see some of level of personalization above the fold or on the front page of a digital shopping experience.

I see a lot of retailers now leaning into, “How do we create our physical environment as a place that can showcase a much larger assortment of sizes, colors and iterations for shoppers?” With this model, when a store is out of your size shoe, they will call another store and then ship the pair of shoes to your house. That certainly works when someone has very high intent.

It’s also about getting things moved directly to where that shopper needs it, in the size that they need it. They leave that physical experience of having been able to touch and feel the product in store — which is very important in fashion.

Sanctuary Partners With Li + Fung Ltd. for Production and Distribution of Women's Premium Denim