Montana fueled the strategy with customer insights
A close collaboration transformed 200 customer insights into 20 strategic priorities. Involving leadership and stakeholders throughout the process gave Montana organisational ownership of their future roadmap.
Montana Furniture, a Danish lifestyle furniture brand, faced a challenge familiar to many companies with international growth ambitions: understanding the complex customer journey for high-consideration purchases. Specifically, they needed insights on UX and the customer journey for people who want to design their own Montana System.
At IMPACT Commerce we rely on close collaborations, and that’s why we didn’t just deliver a solution but made Montana Furniture an active partner in creating a customer centric roadmap.
“The result of IMPACT’s work became an important part of our strategy going forward. The roadmap has become a management tool to create value. It is a foundation for conversion and adapting to customer needs,” says Trine Roed, Branding and Marketing Director at Montana Furniture.
By deeply involving Montana, they have true ownership of the findings and how to utilise it into a strategy going forward. Multiple workshops transformed +200 early findings into 20 strategic initiatives with full commitment and organisational buy-in from Montana.
Extensive data gathering
To understand the complete journey of customers wanting to design their own Montana System, we triangulated multiple perspectives to identify blind spots no single source could reveal. We gathered data both inside-out and outside-in:
The result of IMPACT’s work became an important part of our strategy going forward. The roadmap has become a management tool to create value.
The data provide a solid foundation to present numerous findings to the management, covering the entire customer journey – from awareness & inspiration to service & loyalty.
And we didn’t just deliver the findings where we knew we had the answers. As Peter Bak Torjusen, Client Director at IMPACT Commerce, explains:
“Our work is customer centric with focus on delivering value all along the customer journey. That have enabled Montana to adapt their strategy even more to meet customer needs. Our collaboration is a true testament of ambition and vision for both IMPACT and Montana.”
In the process from findings to initiatives, we held multiple workshops with Montana to build a shared foundation for future opportunities. Using the customer journey insights, we jointly defined ideas and concrete business needs that serve as the basis for an actionable plan.
“The customer journey mapping from IMPACT has become a central part of our strategic direction. The roadmap of prioritised actions is now a management tool that helps us prioritise, convert, and stay closely connected to customer needs,” Trine Roed, Branding and Marketing Director at Montana Furniture, says.
Mystery shopping discovered dealer importance
With almost endless possible configurations available customers face a complex set of choices when designing their personal Montana system. While every part can be seen online, the actual configuration with the approximately 8 billion variants happen at a Montana dealer or store – making this an essential step in the customer journey.
The mystery shopping confirmed just how critical this step is. It revealed a major opportunity for Montana to empower dealers even more. The transition from online inspiration to dealer visit is where conversion happens, and this step must be carefully curated.
This discovery helped Montana reshape their channel strategy and revealed a critical gap between brand promise and customer reality. It emphasised that customers rely on personal assistance when moving from website inspiration to designing their dream furniture in-store.
Our work highlighted the importance of preparing customers even better before visiting a dealer. Now our focus is on creating a more seamless transition from online inspiration to the in-store design process, ensuring that each touchpoint is more connected and equips customers to make informed decisions.
Ongoing transformation
The final initiatives that set the strategic direction for Montana’s international growth ambitions are still a work in progress. The roadmap consists of five pillars, where IMPACT Commerce continues to work alongside Montana to help fulfil the potential in some areas while the furniture company works independently with large parts of the road map.
The insights now drive concrete transformation. Together with Montana, we are formulating a new strategy for montanafurniture.com that emphasises inspiration and customer preparation instead of cold conversion.
Together we are repositioning montana.com from a transactional ecom site to an inspirational preparation tool. The future purpose is a site that inspires customers and directs them to a Montana dealer without any friction.
Key improvements include new structure and navigation that enhance the customer experience while making it easier for Montana’s team to create and edit a website full of furniture inspiration.
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