The Pierre Cardin clothing brand is known all over the world — it is associated with prestige, style and quality. For more than ten years, Pierre Cardin products have been sold in Ukraine by the trademark's franchisee — the brand's representative in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Kharkiv. Two years ago the company decided to go online so that fans of the brand would not have to wait for long deliveries from Europe. Anastasiia Koshil, head of sales at the official online store of the Pierre Cardin brand representative in Ukraine, told us how online sales began and how the CRM system helps the team every day.
Three cities are not enough for a brand loved across the country
Pierre Cardin pieces have admirers all over the world, and Ukraine is no exception. Many customers of the offline stores are regulars: they have been coming back for this particular brand for years. Yet having points of sale in only three cities — Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Kharkiv — limited the company's reach, because residents of Lviv or Khmelnytskyi, for example, simply could not buy from it.
That is exactly why, two years ago, the team started wondering: why not create an online store where the brand's clothing could be bought not only by residents of three cities, but by people in any other corner of Ukraine?
That is where the experience of going online began
The Pierre Cardin brand does, of course, have an official website. But it is a European one, and deliveries from it take two to three weeks. The Ukrainian representative decided that it could deliver customers their orders in two or three days.
Before the idea of launching an online store, a website had already been running for several years. It was what you would call a business-card site with information about the company, opening hours and store addresses. In other words, customers could find out everything about the offline service, but there was no way to order clothing. Now that a full online store has been launched, these two resources exist independently, although you can move from the business-card site to the shopping site.
While the online store was in development, online sales were tested on the Rozetka and prom.ua marketplaces — the team learned to accept orders, deliver them and generally worked through the entire chain of dealing with customers. They also worked on building trust.
So when the site with a catalogue and the option to order products online went live, a well-established sales scheme was already in place. That made the client's goal easier — to become the No. 1 official Pierre Cardin online store in Ukraine. Today Pierre Cardin sells its products on this site, on marketplaces and on social media alike.
- Business-card site. For several years the company had a resource with information about the brand, opening hours and store addresses — with no way to place an order.
- Social media. The move online started right here: the first enquiries and the first sales outside the showrooms.
- Marketplaces. On Rozetka and prom.ua the team worked out order intake, delivery and the whole customer journey.
- Trust. In parallel, they worked on making buyers comfortable placing an online order with a high average value.
- Online store. The site with a catalogue was launched with the sales scheme already in place — all that remained was to bring every channel together in one system.
CRM came up as soon as the customer flow grew
As soon as the company started selling online — still at the marketplace and social media stage — it became clear that a CRM system was needed. The number of orders was growing, and keeping the details of every one of them in your head is unrealistic. Especially since there were already several sales channels.
The first online purchases really were recorded in notebooks, and later noted down in Excel. But sorting through scribbles on scraps of paper is inconvenient, and there is a big risk of missing something. And that can lead to poor service. So the decision to adopt a CRM was obvious — the team needed a system for conveniently processing orders, assigning tasks and keeping track of things.
The first CRM they worked with was amoCRM. Later, however, management decided to move to a different system. In the first days the sales department did not quite understand why the switch was needed, since everything seemed to be working fine. Very soon, though, everyone saw that the new system offered far more capabilities for their specific tasks.
The new online store was also built on this platform. The ANIART team synchronised it with the CRM. The marketplaces, social media and offline stores were connected to the system as well, so that the company could see the full picture of its sales.
What the CRM system gave the sales team
The company synchronised its sales channels in the CRM, and now every deal is recorded automatically — added to the customer's card. From there you can see what they bought and when, in what size, for how much, where it was delivered, whether the payment went through and whether there were any returns. In fact the system records plenty of other metrics too, and that is very convenient. Everything now runs smoothly: nobody forgets, nobody fails to enter some piece of information, and nothing is displayed incorrectly in the deal.
Customer card
Purchase history, sizes, amounts, delivery addresses, payment status and returns — all in one place and with no manual re-entry.
Reports and analytics
You can look not only at a specific deal but also analyse an individual metric: for example, select only paid orders or those still awaiting payment. Reports can be generated for any period.
Shared drive
The corporate portal's shared drive turned out to be a handy tool: the sales book is kept there, and every time new arrivals come in, fresh photos and price tags are added.
Tasks
Some tasks the managers set themselves — for example, checking a size at a customer's request. Others are created automatically: the sales funnel is configured so that routine tasks appear on their own.
Evaluating the sales team's work is easier too: that matters for analytics, for understanding the situation, for making decisions and for knowing how to move forward and improve the way the company works with customers. And the shared drive saves time for the whole team — anyone who needs to find something simply goes in and takes the information instead of pestering colleagues with questions like "where do I find the third photo of the fifth model from the spring collection".
From order to feedback — in a single system
It all starts with a person placing an order in the online store. They pick the items they want from the catalogue, specify sizes, colours and other parameters and click the "Order" button. Let us imagine this is a new customer buying for the first time. The order is automatically pulled into leads, and then a customer card is created with their details. Inside that card a deal is generated automatically, listing every detail of the order: products, sizes, prices, delivery address.
After that a manager calls. If the buyer does not need any extra consultation, the order moves to the "Confirmed" stage. If there are questions or help is needed with the choice, the deal moves to the "Qualification" stage: the manager handling it sets themselves the task of helping the customer. At this stage buyers usually ask for additional measurements, photos and so on.
The next step is choosing payment and delivery. The buyer picks the option that suits them and the deal moves to the "Preparing for dispatch" status. Thanks to the system's synchronisation with Nova Poshta, the waybill for the shipment is created automatically. From then on the carrier itself sets the status of the particular parcel, and in the CRM this is reflected as funnel stages within the deal. The system automatically sends the customer SMS notifications with the statuses "order dispatched", "order arrived at the branch", "order received".
| Deal stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Lead | The order from the online store is pulled in automatically, and a customer card plus a deal with all the details are created. |
| Qualification | Clarifications or help with the choice are needed: the manager sets a task, takes additional measurements and photos. |
| Confirmed | No extra consultation is required, the order is confirmed after the manager's call. |
| Preparing for dispatch | The buyer has chosen payment and delivery, and the Nova Poshta waybill is created automatically. |
| Delivery | Parcel statuses from the carrier are shown as funnel stages, and the customer receives SMS messages about dispatch, arrival and receipt. |
| Return | The manager sees exactly which customer returned which product, finds out the reason and records it in the system. |
Returns, exchanges and feedback
The manager's job in this process is to track the order's progress through the statuses in the CRM. If a buyer returns a product, the deal moves to the "Return" stage. The manager receives a notification and sees exactly which customer returned which item, and can act on it: contact the customer, find out why the product came back, whether an exchange is needed and what exactly they did not like. All of this data also has to be recorded in the CRM. Such information is very valuable, because on the next order the team will have a better understanding of what this particular customer needs.
And if the order has been received and paid for by cash on delivery, the system automatically creates a task for the department head — to collect the payment for the order at Nova Poshta.
After the purchase the customer is invited to leave feedback. The team has now set things up so that feedback is collected by the same manager who worked with the customer. Previously a short form was sent by email, but those messages went unread and feedback often never came. In a personal conversation on Viber or over the phone, on the other hand, people share their impressions far more willingly. So every manager talks to their own customer personally and only then records the feedback in the deal in the CRM system.
Collecting this level of detail about every customer and all of their orders is a great help in building trust and loyalty. Buyers obviously find it far nicer when, on their second order, they are addressed by name and the team already knows which models and sizes to suggest.
It also happens that customers say or write: "You already know everything about me, just pick something out for me." We really value that kind of trust.Anastasiia Koshil / head of sales at the Pierre Cardin online store in Ukraine
We aim to deliver Pierre Cardin clothing across all of Ukraine
Now, two years after the online store opened, online orders account for around 10% of all purchases. And that is understandable, because most of the regular customers are from Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, which means they can come to a store. It often happens that a person orders from the online store and then comes into the offline store to try the item on before buying.
The plan is to develop the online side more for buyers living in other Ukrainian cities. The goal is to cover the whole country, with cities of a million-plus population first in line.
There is even a dedicated team of managers handling online orders. At first it had two people. Over time, though, the number of orders grew and the team was expanded so that every deal could be processed on schedule. Because simply confirming a certain number of orders during the day is one thing. It is quite another when there are exchanges or returns that take more time.
- a manager can calmly build a list of tasks across different orders without worrying about missing or forgetting something;
- half of those tasks are created automatically anyway — depending on how the order moves through the funnel;
- the system reminds customers about the store at set intervals;
- customers receive special offers and information about promotions and discounts.
Thanks to the CRM system it is not just sales that grow — the business as a whole develops.Anastasiia Koshil / head of sales at the Pierre Cardin online store in Ukraine
The ANIART view
For our team this project is an example of how systematic work with data changes the everyday processes of a sales department: from the first lead out of the catalogue to the feedback recorded in the customer's card.
We are glad to be part of the success and growth stories of Ukrainian companies. We put all of our knowledge and expertise into helping businesses develop and reach a new level. All it takes is the desire and the realisation that a sales system has to be built in a modern way, and the understanding that recording every detail of an order is what the overall success of the business depends on.Valentyn Kertychak / director of ANIART
