As the premium lifestyle company further expands internationally to meet its goal of becoming one of the top 100 brands worldwide, maintaining a seamless payment experience is crucial across its flagship stores, retail and online platforms.
We spoke with Jan Philipp Wintjes, EVP of Global Omnichannel of HUGO BOSS, and Boris Griesinger, Head of Finance Operations, to delve into HUGO BOSS' unified shopping experience, developed with its strategic partners Adyen and Visa.
The challenge
Unified experience, stringent security
Adapting to shifting customer preferences and navigating the global retail landscape, HUGO BOSS strived to deliver a seamless shopping experience while ensuring robust security measures across all sales channels.
"Payment has to work daily, seven days a week, at all hours worldwide. Systems have to be built to deliver this reliability around the globe," says Boris.
Managing over 450 freestanding stores worldwide, spanning Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific, presented the task of ensuring a consistent and convenient customer experience across all HUGO BOSS stores.
Enhance security on transactions via the website and app
Finding the right solution to fight against fraud and friction in the online environment was a priority for HUGO BOSS.
"As a major premium fashion company, we consistently face the challenge of dealing with sophisticated fraud attacks. Ensuring smooth transactions while safeguarding our payment systems is an ongoing battle,” says Boris.
The aim is clear: ensure a smooth authorization process for an enjoyable online shopping experience.
The solution
From traditional tills to flexibility
HUGO BOSS elevated its in-store experience by introducing shelf-side checkout in five stores. When customers are ready to purchase, staff equipped with AMS1 mobile terminals offer immediate assistance anywhere in the store.
The brand provides flexible payment options, including debit cards and credit cards, popular mobile platforms like Alipay and WeChat, and many more, allowing customers to choose their preferred method.
"Our priority is to give customers the freedom to choose how they want to pay, we don't decide for them by offering only one payment method," adds Jan Philipp.
Secure online payments with Visa Network Tokens and 3D Secure
To safeguard payments and provide a frictionless experience, HUGO BOSS implemented Visa's EMV 3D Secure (EMV 3DS) technology for payment authentication.
EMV 3DS acts as an additional layer of defense to ensure transactions are genuine and secure in real time.
"It’s an important function in our current landscape. When we have integrated [EMV 3DS], we get fewer customer declines, more authorizations, and better conversion rates," says Boris Griesinger.
To further enhance the digital experience with more consistent, personalized, and seamless payments, HUGO BOSS integrated Visa Network Tokens.
Network Tokens protect sensitive customer data across the payment journey and are designed exclusively for digital payments. Token transactions see uplifts in approval rates of up to 8% and reduce the risk of fraud by up to 3x, positively impacting sales and operational costs.
"Network Tokens by Visa [are] bringing us closer to seamless one-click checkouts," adds Boris.
Empower shopping everywhere
To meet the diverse needs of customers worldwide, HUGO BOSS uses Adyen's Pay by Link solution. This versatile feature enables HUGO BOSS to create and send payment links via email, WhatsApp, or other channels for a convenient checkout experience, offering a modern and flexible shopping approach.
"The Pay by Link function from Adyen really supports us in specific use cases of retail journeys. Customers' use case expectations are different. We can create links when we make remote purchases where the customer is not physically in the store. We can send it via email or WhatsApp - basically via any communication channel the customer expects. This makes it easy for the customer to pay at home, on their device, as they are used to from an e-commerce checkout," adds Boris.
Efficient E2E-Financial flows
The payment flow doesn’t stop at the point of a successful customer payment. It is crucial to manage the financial flow end to end on a global omnichannel scale.
“Since the start of the relationship with Adyen, we always had an efficient end to end financial flow in mind as we have to capture and settle millions of transactions every year. With Adyen’s settlement features and options, HUGO BOSS is capable of establishing rock solid and lean accounting processes to round off the end to end payment processes, no matter what the payment method is or in which channel the transaction happened,” says Boris.
The results
Data driven personalization
Where and how customers shop has become paramount in today's omnichannel landscape. Being at the forefront of payment technology and providing a higher level of personalization for their customers were key factors for HUGO BOSS.
Fashion the future of retail
In an increasingly interconnected world, it's clear that offering payments alone is no longer sufficient. What truly matters is a seamless payment infrastructure that transcends borders and meets the expectations of a global clientele.
Jan Philipp highlights HUGO BOSS's successful partnership with Visa and Adyen:
"We've established a robust global payment system, ensuring a consistent experience worldwide which is fully in line with our Lead In Digital strategy. Partners like Adyen and Visa [...] are supporting us to leverage the full potential of digitalization", adds Jan Philipp.
HUGO BOSS has expertly fused payment technology with data-driven insights, creating personalized shopping experiences where every customer interaction embodies fashion-forward convenience.
Through innovation and robust partnerships, HUGO BOSS isn't just shaping the future of retail and payments; they're creating a runway-worthy experience.
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