Lorna Jane sets the pace for activewear industry with AI-driven commerce

Lorna Jane is an Australian activewear brand established in 1989 by Lorna Jane Clarkson. Clarkson worked as an aerobics instructor at the time in addition to her job as a dental therapist and was uninspired by the clothing on offer to wear in class. This led Clarkson to design her own by repurposing swimsuits and other materials. Of course students took notice and soon people were lining up down the stairs and into the street to purchase items after class.

Clarkson and husband Bill Clarkson saw the opportunity to grow the business and moved to Brisbane where they opened their first store. The retailer has since grown from being Australia's favourite activewear brand to conquering additional markets around the world.

Lorna Jane has also continued to drive innovation in the industry, offering customers unique apparel and experiences. With Salesforce Commerce Cloud, the retailer is also leading the way in providing customers with an exceptional ecommerce experience powered by AI.

“We work in a fast-paced industry in a business led by two entrepreneurs always wanting to challenge the status quo. Commerce Cloud has provided us with a platform that not only supports us to keep up with the industry, but to actually take the lead in exceeding customer expectations,” said Jessie Dean, Head of Ecommerce and Marketing Operations at Lorna Jane.

Leading up to the adoption of Commerce Cloud, Lorna Jane’s ecommerce platform restricted its ability to innovate. Site management was a burden with activities like setting up promotions needing to be done manually overnight. There was also duplication of effort involved in publishing content and promotions to each of the retailer’s sites.

The outcome was an online experience that didn't reflect the heritage of Lorna Jane’s brand, making it difficult to keep customers engaged. So the retailer set out to find a new platform with ambitions to improve the customer experience and increase the percentage of online sales to more than 50% of total.

Lorna Jane decided on Commerce Cloud and working with eWave and a consultant recommended by Salesforce, the retailer was able to go live with six new sites in just six months.

The new sites were launched in July 2020 which was fortuitously timed given the increase in online shopping driven by people staying home during the pandemic.

“Due to COVID-19, we reached our goal of 50% of sales coming from online almost overnight, but what’s important is that we have maintained that growth by providing customers with a great experience when they land on our sites,” said Dean.

With features like scheduling in Commerce Cloud, Lorna Jane’s ecommerce team no longer has to get up at midnight to make sure promotions are ready to go live. They also no longer worry about site reliability and can instead focus on enhancing the customer experience.

One of Lorna Jane's goals is to change consumers' attitude to shopping and encourage them to buy better, not more. It also designs every collection to sell out so that it’s not put in the position of sending excess stock to landfill.

The retailer’s merchandising strategy supports these sustainability goals and helps customers find looks they’ll love and want to wear over and over.

Lorna Jane’s ‘Shop the Look’ concept stores are just one example. These stores showcase the latest collections and how customers can mix and match different pieces. Commerce Cloud extends this concept by supporting a ‘Complete the Look’ feature online. The key difference is that Einstein Product Recommendations suggests product pairings based on what other customers have already purchased. In A/B testing ‘Complete The Look’ recommendations, Lora Jane has seen a 50% increase to average order value (AOV) for test cohorts.

Einstein Product Recommendations is used separately to provide returning customers with personalised recommendations based on their browsing history and past purchases.​

Peter Clarke, Chief Technology Officer at Lorna Jane, shared that the Einstein Recommendations API could be used in the future to dynamically insert recommendations into emails. The API could also be integrated into the retailer’s POS so store representatives can provide recommendations to in-store shoppers.

“Having used Einstein for a few years now, I’m convinced it is the premier solution for AI-driven recommendations in ecommerce,” said Clarke.

Lorna Jane’s move to Commerce Cloud has increased conversion, with average conversion on its Australian and New Zealand sites now respectively three and four per cent. It has also delivered incremental improvements in a number of other areas. For example, the retailer’s add-to-cart rate has increased by 1% and AOV has increased by $7 AUD.

Lorna Jane’s transformation is also ongoing. Expert Coaching Sessions from the Success Cloud as well as support from their Salesforce client success manager and partner Amblique have helped Lorna Jane to maximise the value of Commerce Cloud and continually optimise features like search Lorna Jane also uses reporting from Commerce Cloud to uncover new opportunities. For example, if customers search for items that don’t exist, it may suggest a new design opportunity.

Lorna Jane is also leading the way with plans for a new mobile app. The move to headless commerce represents another exciting opportunity and the retailer is collaborating with Salesforce via Slack to develop proof of concepts in this space.

“Salesforce’s move to headless has been swift and it is really taking the industry by storm. We’re very keen to be part of that journey and showcase what headless can do for ecommerce teams," said Clarke.