Physical merchandising will remain; however, the emphasis will be different. Kiğılı Information Systems Executive Board Member in Charge of Customer Experience “As of September, we have commissioned the video shopping project that we have been working on since the beginning of the epidemic process,” Gürkan Taşkıran remarked. Our project’s purpose is to stay away from e-commerce; however, due to the pandemic, customers who avoid congested locations such as shopping malls create a new generation hybrid shopping experience that offers the customer experience and service they are used to through video calls.
In Turkey, Kiğılı is one of the brands that best fulfills the concept of “like a razor.” In addition to its outstanding and current designs, the first brand that springs to mind when it comes to men’s clothes continues to enthrone its clients with its creative works in the digital transformation process. Gürkan Taşkıran and his crew, who have been working in Kiğılı for four years, are without a doubt the most essential architects of this transition. Gürkan Taşkıran, Executive Board Member Responsible for Customer Experience at Kiğılı Information Systems, Technologies, has designed the new process, 2021 plans, with Kiğılı Information Systems, Technologies. as we discussed the future of ready-made garment retail in Turkey…
Mr. Gürkan, let us first hear about your professional life in Kiğılı before moving on to our primary topics.
As you are aware, Kiğılı is one of the first brands that spring to mind when thinking about retail in Turkey; in fact, it is the first brand that springs to mind when thinking of men’s clothing in Turkey. My career at Kiğılı began four years ago, when I began to oversee a staff that enjoys and excels at its work. The importance of technology cannot be overstated, and it is critical that brands do not fall behind the times. With this objective in mind, we developed Kiğılı’s digital transformation strategy. From system management to information technology management, from integrations to digital projects, we touched Kiğılı at every turn. We merged these projects and completed other digital transformation projects using Nebim V3 ERP project management. In fact, customer expectations have shifted so dramatically that technology alone is no longer sufficient for growth. As a result, we decided to examine our brand through the eyes of the customer and began the customer experience process. We are currently addressing this issue and developing omnichannel strategies. In summary, I am a member of Kiğılı’s Executive Board and am responsible for Information Systems, Technologies, and Customer Experience.
We predict that you, like every other organization, are experiencing extremely delicate days throughout the pandemic process. What did you do as a role model in the ready-to-wear retail industry, which involves one-on-one engagement with the customer, during this process? I’m curious about how you went through this process, from procurement to logistics, from online workflows to employee business continuity.
As you stated, humans are the foundation of our business, and it is critical for Kiğılı to have one-on-one communication with its consumers and to deliver service. However, our global stores remained closed for more than two months. This was, of course, a process to which no one was accustomed and had never been exposed. No one knew what to do because it had never happened before. However, our e-commerce activity expanded throughout this time. Our clients continued to contact us and we, our customers, via internet channels, and during the pandemic period, we observed an increasing graph every day, with our increase rate exceeding 200 percent.
“Our four-month-long internet food operation was conducted with social responsibility, and we learned a lot!”
In the current operation, we do not reduce client happiness; however, we had to preserve staff and customer health, which is the most critical issue, at the greatest level. As Kiğılı, we have been alert to this issue from the beginning, and with the commencement of the pandemic phase, we have maximized the information and preventative efforts for our logistics center and our personnel who must be in the headquarters.
Every day, the relevant team disinfected all of our items, all of our personnel completed their work processes while wearing gloves, masks, and visors, and utmost hygiene and sensitivity were demonstrated in the cargo and product delivery processes.
Furthermore, we attempted to maintain active communication with our employees who do not work in the office and instead work from home. We tried our best to help our staff get through this process as smoothly as possible by using all of our communication channels; we offered briefings at regular intervals and organized health surveys.
As Kiğılı, we conducted out another operation that caused quite a stir on social media, and we sold food. This operation was carried out with a sense of social responsibility and understanding. Contrary to certain social media criticisms, we received very favorable client response from all throughout Turkey. We saw the 4-5 day order waits faced in online food shopping at the start of the process and thought, why can’t we help consumers by utilising our already continuing logistics / freight operation? We ran an internet meal delivery service for four months. We learned a lot during this process, and we quickly implemented what we learned into our own processes.
On the other hand, we are undergoing a process known as the new normal. Some companies attempted to pick up where they left off in the new normal, but they discovered through experience that it is not so simple. Furthermore, worldwide corporations have entirely embraced remote working. What ideas do you have for the new normal?
Yes, we are entering a new epoch. Many things have now shifted in ways that will never be the same again. In this regard, we have used a hybrid model. We currently have workers working both physically in our headquarters and remotely. Personally, I believe the hybrid model will be around for a long time. Although online meetings, online events, and live broadcasts have fast infiltrated our lives, we live in a world where humans are social beings and need to be physically together; we must not forget this, but there will also be a wholly online audience. This process has been hastened by the pandemic.
We know that physical merchandising must continue; yet, certain fundamental adjustments on the physical merchandising side are also required for this new approach. In Kiğılı, we witnessed another example of this. You also mentioned some pretty imaginative ideas, such as trying on items from a distance. Could you please clarify this in more detail? Infrastructure, employee count, and productivity are all important considerations for such a study… How did you organize them?
Yes, physical merchandising will continue for a longer time; nevertheless, it will continue to vary. With the development in digitalization and mobility in recent years, the retail sector has already become one of the fastest transforming sectors. Because e-commerce has entirely altered the rules of the game. Many brands nowadays do not have a physical presence, were born solely through e-commerce, and continue to exist in this manner. However, because even these brands want a physical site, they create showrooms where they can demonstrate and evaluate their products.
We released the video shopping project that we have been working on since the beginning of the epidemic phase in September. Our project’s purpose is to serve customers who avoid crowded locations such as shopping malls due to the pandemic with a new generation hybrid shopping experience that offers the customer experience and service they are used to through video calls.
To summarize the project, our customer signs in to support.kigili.com.tr and schedules a video conference at the store and time period he specifies. Our skilled sales team responds to our customers’ requests in a timely manner and gives pre-prepared combination options and items. If our customer loves a product or products, an order and payment link are delivered to his phone. Our customer views the things he wants again using this link, and after approval and secure payment, our store ships the products to our customers by cargo. This system is now in high demand among our clients. For several reasons, I believe that this purchasing experience will become more popular with each passing day.
“We are now physically and process-wise isolating our e-commerce logistics and shipping procedures.”
What is your level of commitment to e-commerce in this process? Do you intend to offer physical retailing a boost on the e-commerce side?
In fact, we have increased our efforts in our e-commerce platform in recent years. I believe that the pandemic has accelerated certain processes. We are about to open a new facility for our e-commerce logistics business. We are now physically and process-wise separating our e-commerce logistics and shipping processes. We intend to provide maximum operational excellence and the highest level of customer satisfaction in our expanding operations with our new e-commerce logistics center. We plan to implement our e-commerce operations in countries where we have physical stores in the near future, and we intend to solve all of these problems with human and infrastructure resources in our own country.
I believe 2021 will be a year like 2020 in which we cannot see far ahead. What kind of changes have you made to your plans in this context?
As you indicated, 2020 was a highly unpredictable year, and 2021 appears to be even more dubious. But, despite everything, life continues on, and we will all adjust to this new normal together. I can tell that foreign operations, e-commerce/omnichannel, and customer experience are our top priorities for 2021. Customer experience, in particular, will be a process for us that begins in the fourth quarter of 2020 and goes into 2021. At this moment, our goal is to present our customers with unique fashion retail experiences. I believe we saw the first indications of this with video shopping. We hope to introduce innovative new initiatives to our clients’ experience in 2021.
The Turkish retail sector is increasingly competing with global competitors, and it even has better operations.
According to reports, the ready-to-wear business is one of the most vulnerable industries in terms of the organizational structure during the pandemic period. Do you believe this? Do you believe ready-made apparel retail has so far overcome this ruling?
I disagree; the Turkish retail industry is now competing with global competitors; it even has better operations in several areas. This does not imply that the entire business has reached this degree of maturity; rather, many Turkish retail companies can now operate quite well in many regions of the world. In this regard, I believe we are in an excellent situation. Because, since the start of the pandemic, all of our employees have been prepared to work remotely and have the environment and technology to hold online meetings. As a result, I believe our adaptation process has been considerably shorter and easier than that of the rest of the globe. Today, we run all of our stores around the world online using our cloud infrastructure in Turkey. Following the completion of the localization work, we provide all sales/operation and reporting infrastructure from Turkey to almost 300 sales points in 20 different countries via a similar platform and infrastructure. I believe that many corporations, if not the entire industry, have overruled this decision.
