Consolidating multiple marketing technologies onto a single platform can enhance personalization at scale and better meet customer needs. That’s the strategy behind Destination XL Group’s (DXL) latest move. The big and tall men’s clothing retailer, which operates 300 U.S. stores, an e-commerce site, and a mobile app, has partnered with Bluecore to refine its CRM approach.
The collaboration aims to attract new customers, increase repeat purchases, and re-engage lapsed buyers by unifying customer data with marketing campaign management, helping DXL deliver a more personalized shopping experience.
Central to this work is replacing multiple disconnected marketing technologies and capabilities with a unified AI-powered platform from Bluecore. As DXL rolls out the new AI-powered platform in the coming months, Bluecore will serve as its single technology partner.
According to DXL’s chief marketing officer, Jim Reath, the move will centralize everything the retailer needs to scale personalized experiences, both online and offline, to surface the brands, styles, and products individual shoppers are most likely to shop and purchase.
As an omnichannel retailer, DXL must understand customers’ needs to support their shopping and buying journeys. Bluecore will fill that need by providing a unified view of customers’ preferences and shopping behaviors.
“Our digital marketing through Bluecore is bringing our offline and online channels together to create a seamless, personalized shopper experience in partnership with our digital and technology teams. Beyond the technology itself, Bluecore has proven to be a strategic partner who is always looking out for our business and acts as an extension of our marketing team,” he offered.
Fixing Fragmented Marketing Systems
DXL is one of many omnichannel retailers moving away from outdated marketing infrastructures that rely on multiple disconnected tools to engage customers. This fragmented approach made it difficult to scale personalization effectively.
By consolidating these efforts, Bluecore will help DXL centralize customer insights across its website, email, and in-store interactions.
According to Jason Grunberg, Bluecore’s CMO, the platform applies AI-driven intelligence across key areas like identification, customer data management, audience segmentation, campaign execution, and media integration — all within a single ecosystem.
“Previously, all of these capabilities were spread out across multiple marketing point solutions. Now, with everything in one place, DXL is able to manage and predict customer behaviors across channels much more efficiently, discovering the best methods to reach each consumer and drive growth,” Grunberg told CRM Buyer.
DXL is highly attuned to its customers’ shopping needs and has long embraced a customer-first strategy. The company understands how focusing on customers rather than channels ultimately drives growth, he added.
“With access to this nuanced shopper-specific data, DXL can better predict what types of messages shoppers need to see and when they need to receive them, whether it’s a warning that an item in the cart is about to go out of stock or a note about the new spring line,” Grunberg explained.
AI Smarts Boost CRM Precision
The partnership announcement followed Bluecore’s recent acquisition of AI shopping assistant Alby. It will enable retailers to make e-commerce sites, email campaigns, SMS, and mobile apps conversational by anticipating and answering shoppers’ questions about particular merchants’ products to enhance the online experience.
This new CX feature drives more engagement, sales, and post-sale satisfaction among early users. Bluecore anticipates full integration with Alby will be complete and available to retailers in Q1 2025.
Grunberg said that DXL has not yet integrated Alby. It will test the features in the coming months.
“The DXL customer is very niche due to specific sizing considerations and requires an even deeper level of personalization. With Alby, DXL will enhance predictive capabilities even further to better engage their shoppers and initiate two-way conversations to re-create the in-store experience in a digital environment,” Grunberg said.
Alby will guide customers through their shopping journey across email, mobile apps, and the web. It will anticipate customer questions and answer inquiries on everything from size options to fabric sensitivity.
“The goal is that this granular level of personalization and communication will enhance DXL’s customer experience, making it easier for shoppers to identify the right products to purchase and creating enhanced brand loyalty,” he said about one of the key benefits of the consolidated platform.
AI-Driven CRM Fuels Revenue Growth
Bluecore says consumers expect similar conversational capabilities across all e-commerce brands and retailers. Major e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon have introduced AI Shopping Assistants that are gaining traction among consumers.
Grunberg noted that Alby achieved as much as $40 million in annualized incremental revenue for a single e-commerce retailer. Shoppers who engage with Alby are two times more likely to make other purchases, less likely to contact customer support and rate their satisfaction with their shopping experience at 85%.
Bluecore’s Customer 360 profiles already contain the lifetime of a customer’s historical and predicted activity. This new dataset enriches customer profiles, enabling deeper insights and personalization. The increased use of AI in CRM impacted customer retention and loyalty across different touchpoints, such as online stores, mobile apps, and in-store experiences.
Over the past few years, e-commerce and online retail experiences have become more popular due to consumers’ growing digital presence. However, reaching consumers and maintaining a relationship with them on digital channels has become difficult as the retail market grows increasingly saturated and more players compete for attention, Grunberg observed.
“This is where AI comes in. Customers care about individualized experiences, and with AI technology, retailers are beginning to be able to connect with their shoppers one-on-one earlier in the lifecycle. AI enables retailers to collect data across channels, gain deeper customer insights, and tailor experiences accordingly,” he concluded.
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