David Khandrius of Peachy: How To Create A Fantastic Retail Experience That Keeps Bringing Customers Back For More
An Interview With Orlando Zayas
The post-purchase experience. Making sure to engage with customers post-purchase in email, feedback loops, social media, and web. An example of this is sending feedback emails, allowing customers to easily contact support through multiple channels (chat, email, phone), and engaging with customers through social media.
As part of my series about the “How To Create A Fantastic Retail Experience That Keeps Bringing Customers Back For More”, I had the pleasure of interviewing David Khandrius.
David Khandrius is founder of Peachy, a company that builds high-converting and scalable ecommerce experiences on Shopify, and COO of JUICE, an integrated digital marketing agency. Khandrius started his first e-commerce company at just 14 years old before launching additional businesses and consulting for a Fortune 100 financial company where he helped to build internal marketing tools. During college at the City University of New York — Baruch College, Khandrius founded his own technology agency helping small and medium-sized businesses set up their e-commerce presences and grow sales. Through his work at Peachy and JUICE, Khandrius applies his first-hand business development experience to grow companies and make an impact on other entrepreneurs. Khandrius also holds a BBA in Finance.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I started my first company when I was 14 and have been hooked on building ecommerce and retail experiences ever since. At 18, I helped build a chain of home improvement retail stores. Since then, I’ve mastered the necessity of a synchronous experience between digital and retail, making everything aligned with brand image. I’ve since built multiple retail experiences, digital experiences, high-end beauty salons, restaurant experiences, and more.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
The funniest mistake that I made when starting my first ecomm business was trusting a supplier without contracts. I paid a supplier $1,000 (a lot for a first-time business) and they disappeared. I definitely don’t do anything else without contracts now.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I rely on my business partners a lot. When building any kind of customer experience, you’re often so engrossed in the journey and experience that an outsider’s view/opinion is key.
There was a time when I was building a digital high-end salon experience. I designed everything from start to finish, but completely forgot the “post-purchase” experience. When my partner ran through the experience, we identified that we’re not engaging with our customers post-purchase. Implementing a post-purchase social media and email funnel increased our custom retention by more than 50%.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
The talk “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” by Simon Sinek was life changing for me. In this talk, Sinek raises the point that customers don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. This repositioning of understanding your brand’s WHY has caused me to think of experiences from a completely different angle. Starting by understanding the WHY or the values of the brand allows one to create a deeply impactful experience that connects with customers on an emotional level versus just on a commerce level.
In the talk, Sinek explores an amazing example: Dell vs. Apple. Both companies sell computers. Dell positions their sales pitch as: check out our amazing computers, they work well, do everything you need, and are super easy to use. Would you like to buy one? On the flip-side, Apple takes the WHY or emotional approach: we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe that our computers are XYZ. They look great, are easy to use, etc. Would you like to buy one?
The takeaway here is that people buy from you when they believe what you believe — when values align and emotions connect. This is monumentally important when building a retail experience, ecomm experience, or any product.
https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
My current company, Peachy, focuses on helping brands build digital experiences to complement their retail and brand experiences. Not many agencies look at the big picture and don’t really focus on experience continuity. Your digital experience is an extension of your retail experience and helps engage customers after they visit your retail store. This helps increase retention and return customer rates. We stand out because we focus on the bigger picture instead of one piece of it.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Consistently staying on top of new trends, new experiences, and following what’s going on across competitors and other brands helps me to stay current and not burn out. With so much innovation going on and things changing on the daily, there’s always something new to test, iterate, and improve. This drive to improve and align all brand experiences keeps me driven.
Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. The so-called “Retail Apocalypse” has been going on for about a decade. The Pandemic only made things much worse for retailers in general. While many retailers are struggling, some retailers, like Lululemon, Kroger, and Costco are quite profitable. Can you share a few lessons that other retailers can learn from the success of profitable retailers?
Profitable retailers like Lululemon are all about brand. The continuous brand experience is present across web, social, and retail. Another great example is Apple. Customers need to continue to feel special after they’ve left your retail store. With the advance of ecommerce, retail is often the second brand interaction experience that a customer has. Customers have to feel a connection to your brand both online and in person. Successful retail will now depend on offering a continuous experience both online and offline.
Amazon is going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?
Brands that are competing with Amazon and other giant brands have a competitive advantage of being able to provide a tailored and personalized experience. Customers want to feel engaged with a brand. Creating a well-rounded retail to digital experience is the biggest opportunity to compete.
Large companies like Amazon have pressure to appeal to the masses versus creating personalized experiences that focus on the individual. Companies that are doing drop shipping directly from China are usually focused on cost cutting and price competition and very little on the personalization aspect.
Building the consumer <> brand relationship is going to be the key driver in competing.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a retail business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
The biggest mistake I’m noticing is the lack of continuity and integration between retail and digital. A customer’s experience does not end when they leave your store — in fact, it just begins. Things like post-purchase emails, social media, and web presence allow customers to continue to interact with your brand long after they leave your store. To avoid these issues, retail brand owners must make sure they invest just as heavily in things like post-purchase emails, social media, and engaging web experiences as they do in the retail experience. This investment will pay off as engaged customers are much more likely to come back to your store or even purchase your product online.
This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business in general and for retail in particular?
The service a customer receives and the experience they have in your store is the number one thing a customer will remember. In our super competitive landscape, products are a dime a dozen. What customers will remember most is the service and experience. This is because experience plays into how a customer feels. These feelings are what encourages a customer to continue engaging with your brand. As Simon Sinek rightfully identified, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. The experience allows the customer to understand your brand’s WHY — it allows the customer to connect to the brand on a more personal and, most importantly, emotional level.
We have all had times either in a store, or online, when we’ve had a very poor experience as a customer or user. If the importance of a good customer experience is so intuitive, and apparent, where is the disconnect? How is it that so many companies do not make this a priority?
The answer to this question is multifaceted. There are brands that prioritize product price versus experience, or retail versus online experience, or maybe automation versus experience. Oftentimes, the priority comes from a place of budget or from the place of a business model.
Another cause of poor experiences is the human factor. Many times, companies do in fact prioritize experience, but as a brand, you cannot control every experience as employees are human and bad days are inevitable. In this case, the experience becomes how a brand deals with a bad experience. Great brands follow up on bad experiences, send post-purchase feedback surveys, etc. Maybe brands offer discounts or refunds for poor experiences. In short, sometimes a poor experience can’t be avoided, but it can be remedied with how that poor experience is handled.
Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?
We had a customer that was wowed by the individualized attention provided by the sales rep at a store in a retail experience that we built. The sales rep took a genuine interest in the needs of the customer and gave advice that went beyond the scope of purchase. This made the customer feel like our brand really cared about the customer’s needs and not just their in-store experience. The sales rep even recommended that a customer buy a product that was out of stock from a competitor to finish their project on time. This type of “selfless” attitude made the customer understand that we truly care about the customer’s needs and not just the sale.
Did that Wow! experience have any long term ripple effects? Can you share the story?
The ripple effect was referrals and repeat business. In any industry, a customer that was wowed will always refer their friends (network effects) and will return to your store when they need something again. “Wow” experiences override price and even product quality — they are the single best tool for a brand.
A fantastic retail experience isn’t just one specific thing. It can be a composite of many different subtle elements fused together. Can you help us break down and identify the different ingredients that come together to create a “fantastic retail experience”?
A fantastic retail experience starts from the moment the customer enters and continues well after they leave. Brands must consider everything:
- How a customer is greeted (Is help offered? Did they get a warm welcome? Many brands choose to refer to customers as guests vs customers to create a better experience.)
- If a product requires a high-touch sales process (How effective was the sales rep? Did they quickly develop an understanding of a customer’s needs and address them?)
- The music in the retail experience
- The lighting
- The scent
- The ease of purchase
- Was there a complimentary product upsell?
- Post-purchase experience (After-purchase emails, feedback, social media, website, etc.)
All in all, these elements contribute to how a customer FEELS — and that is the most important thing.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a fantastic retail experience that keeps bringing customers back for more? Please share a story or an example for each.
- How does the customer experience your space with all their senses? This is a function of lighting, music, scent, etc. Every sense must be activated to create a memorable experience. A great example of this is how Auntie Anne’s pretzels uses scent — Auntie Anne’s storefronts are purposely open and not closed stores in malls. The scent created by the cooking of pretzels draws customers in while they are shopping in malls.
- Does the user feel unique and special during their visit? How do you make the customer experience an emotion? A great example of this is Apple. In many stores, when Apple did a big release, the company had team members applaud customers that were coming in from waiting hours in line. This minor gesture makes the customer feel special and engages with a customer’s emotions.
- How does the experience convey the brand’s values? As mentioned above, customers don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. A retail experience needs to convey that why effectively.
- The layout of the store and experience. Layout is monumentally important as it guides the user through your experience. A great example of this is IKEA. The “one-way” layout of IKEA was designed to keep a customer moving in one direction. To get through checkout, you need to go through all the departments. This ensures the customer sees all the products and encourages customers to buy more than they came in for.
- The post-purchase experience. Making sure to engage with customers post-purchase in email, feedback loops, social media, and web. An example of this is sending feedback emails, allowing customers to easily contact support through multiple channels (chat, email, phone), and engaging with customers through social media.
Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. Here is our final ‘meaty’ question. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
The movement I would start would be focused on emotional brand experiences. Very few brands connect with their users on an emotional level. Customers want to engage with brands on multiple levels — not just commerce. This movement would encourage brands to interact more with their customers outside of commerce. Providing the best advice, the best experience, etc. — to the point of even recommending competitors where needed. Brands need to develop personas and use them to engage with their users.
How can our readers further follow your work?
https://www.facebook.com/dkhandrius/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
About The Interviewer: Orlando Zayas is the CEO of Katapult, an award-winning omnichannel payment platform. Zayas is known for his revenue growth strategies and visionary leadership in the eCommerce and retail space. His future-forward expertise has led companies such as GE Capital, Safe-Guard Products International, and DRB Capital. Zayas is also highly committed to providing educational opportunities to underprivileged communities through his philanthropic endeavors. Zayas’ business insights are regularly featured in publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Retail Insights, and more.
