What: Vogue Business sat down with the new EVP leading the investment.

Why is it important: The American retailer is hoping that personalisation, faster delivery and tech-enabled stores will enhance its value to customers.

Neiman Marcus plans to spend the sum during the next three years on new tech, updating its stores and speeding up deliveries. Bob Kupbens, Neiman Marcus Group’s new EVP and chief product and technology officer is leading the investment. He will be working with the e-commerce team, the “Connect” app and the innovation team.

Technology to improve personal relationships with customers is key, making services such as recommendations, one-to-one communications and store visits better, faster and more scalable. Crucially, it’s the top clientele who are set to benefit. The goal is what the company calls “integrated luxury retail”, which translates to personalised services for a small subset of customers, says Kupbens; 40% of the retailer’s business is from customers spending more than USD 10,000 a year, and about 35% of the group’s revenues comes from the retailer’s credit card holders.

In June, NMG announced it was acquiring Stylyze, a software company that uses machine learning to make outfit recommendations based on what customers have looked at or purchased. Neiman Marcus has worked with the company since 2018, and integrated it into NM Connect, the proprietary tool introduced two years ago that associates use to communicate with customers. That’s a huge competitive advantage as customers don't want to wade through thousands of products, they want more curated selections. Two months after the technology was rolled out to nearly 5,000 associates, it resulted in USD 60 million in incremental sales.

Stylyze uses machine learning to understand products and then find similar or coordinating items. It helps associates scale their capabilities to make product and outfit recommendations. This technology has the potential to be combined with proprietary customer data, such as location, shopping habits or preferred brands, to generate personalised experiences and offers. Even in store, an associate could use the software to fill a dressing room with client favourites, or make coordinating recommendations. The group currently uses Stylyze’s technology in remote and digital selling, but plans to integrate it into e-commerce, mobile apps and one-to-one messaging channels like text and chat. Stylyze is a first of “several future investments”, according to the company.

Kupbens rejects the notion of tech for tech’s sake. “There are a lot of really gimmicky things that I just reject — like I don't want a bunch of screens in a store for the purpose of having screens. I don't want facial recognition. I'm very much in the service of the customer experience, and whatever is going to make that seamless.” Going forward, he may offer the ability to log into an app in store to access extra information or experiences that require identifying the customer, similar to the types of perks found online.

Inside Neiman Marcus’s $500 million tech investment