Clas Ohlson boosts sales and satisfies e-customers with Vergic’s solution

Clas Ohlson was launched in 1918 as a mail order operation in Insjön, Sweden. Since then, the mail order business transformed itself into a European retail giant with 5,000 employees in total. Every day, Clas Ohlson helps customers acquire solutions for home projects. Do-it-yourselfers find their products in 200 brick-and-mortar shops, web shops, or in the classic Clas Ohlson catalog that is mailed out annually. Clas Ohlson AB is listed on NASDAQ OMX Nordic. The company reports a yearly sale of SEK 8.7 billion (2019) and a 47 % increase in Online sales.

Challenge

Clas Ohlson wanted to improve customer service in its web shops, which is why they implemented the Vergic Engage Platform in early 2011. The objective was to make things easier for customer service personnel and improve personalized guidance and customer assistance processes. Among other features and functions, Clas Ohlson implemented Vergic’s proactive chat function. Vergic’s platform lets Clas Ohlson employees communicate in real time with their customers—in a personal way.

“We create initial contact with potential customers and then nurture the relationships with them — just like we do in our physical stores and other sales channels.

The Vergic Engage Platform is business-critical for Clas Ohlson.”
says Elvy Axklint, Contact Center manager at Clas Ohlson.

Experienced benefits with Vergic:

Industry’s best customer experience

Vergic’s platform lets Clas Ohlson employees communicate in real-time with their customers—in a personal way. Earlier this year, the Nordic eCommerce Summit recognized Clas Ohlson for enabling the industry’s best customer experience – further evidence of the company’s successful implementation of Vergic’s platform and improved customer service.

“It is of course tremendously rewarding to receive such an acknowledgement. For us at Clas Ohlson the customer interaction and customer service is a priority and something we work with daily at our contact center and in all our sales channels, stores as well as e-commerce”, says Clas Ohlson’s EVP Peter Jelkeby.

Sales soar — thanks to Vergic’s solution

Shortly after platform implementation, Clas Ohlson found that customers who received the solution-based assistance made twice as many purchases as other website visitors.

“The statistics showed that customers engaged in chats with agents purchased 100% more often compared to those who are not chatting.
says Alexander Lunde, CEO and founder of Vergic.