We invite you to explore the success story of a Romanian fashion brand’s differentiation in an industry dominated by international giants.
In a market with tens of thousands of retailers and manufacturers exporting 97% of their production, NISSA aimed to differentiate itself through innovation and digitalization in Customer Experience.
What is Customer Experience?
Customer experience (CX) refers to customers’ perception of their experience with a particular brand or company.
CX is the result of every interaction a consumer has with a brand, from browsing the website and talking to the customer service department to receiving the purchased product or service.
The Most Attractive Business Opportunity
According to Forbes, 80% of companies believe they deliver great experiences, but only 8% of consumers agree, which demonstrates that there are large discrepancies between consumer expectations and the experience that brands offer them.
Companies that improve their customer experience elements have the opportunity to gain market share in an industry or even outperform their competitors.
Thus, brands that have optimized aspects related to customer experience have managed to build consumer loyalty, while also improving their business strategy.
For example, the company Airbnb allows customers to personalize their vacations anywhere in the world, and through the experience it offers customers, the company has grown steadily, being valued at 36 billion USD in 2019.
A leader on the international market, Amazon is a brand appreciated by users for its fast delivery services and simple returns, but also for the digital assistance services offered by Alexa.
Thus, to compete with the giant company, retailers must rethink their business strategies, optimizing the quality of services and products offered to consumers, exceeding their expectations.
In fact, studies show that the most attractive business opportunity is the customer experience.
According to the results of the Digital Marketing Trends Report, a report conducted in 2019 by Econsultancy and Adobe, a personalized experience offered to customers is the ultimate differentiator for companies.
Thus, 33% of large organizations have made the development of the Customer Journey Management component a top priority.
According to the same study, 37% of companies consider providing personalized experiences to consumers in real-time to be the most interesting prospect to follow over a three-year period.
The research findings highlighted the important role that CX plays in business growth, with 20% of companies viewing customer experience as a real development opportunity.
While 12% of organizations claim that data-driven marketing contributes to business evolution, 15% believe that a business can grow through content marketing.
Also, 10% of the companies participating in the survey stated that video marketing favors business growth, and 7% responded that social networks contribute to a company’s market expansion.
According to PwC, 73% of respondents consider the customer experience to be an essential decision factor for purchasing a product, alongside quality and price.
Therefore, improving CX gives brands a competitive advantage, thanks to positive user experiences.
The increase in satisfaction is directly measurable with an established indicator, Net Promoter Score (NPS).
According to research conducted by Esteban Kolsky, 72% of respondents share the positive experience they had with a certain brand with 6 other people. In other words, this turns into the most desired form of promotion, word of mouth.
Therefore, all the actions a brand takes – the approach, the technologies used, design, logo – affect consumer perception and their decision to return or not.
Customer experience
The marketing industry belongs to consumers. They are the ones who dictate trends, and brands must adapt quickly.
In the context where in 2019 there were nearly 14,000 retailers in the fashion industry in Romania, new opportunities for brand differentiation and, implicitly, consumer loyalty are necessary.
According to Digital Fashion Consumer Trends 2019, new digital technologies influence the shopping experience of consumers in Romania, as shown by the following:
- 57% of consumers choose online for fashion shopping;
- 63% of consumers have had digital experiences during fashion shopping sessions;
- 65% of Romanians have bought fashion items online in the last year;
- 85% of consumers go to the mall for fashion shopping.
According to the same study conducted by MKOR, the Store of the Future in the fashion market is digitized.
Therefore, 8% of respondents would like to try on clothes virtually, wanting digital experiences accessible from any device.
Differentiation through innovation and digitalization
Given these data, as well as the openness of Romanian consumers to use new technologies, NISSA turned to MKOR for a market study regarding the testing of a new, innovative concept in the fashion & retail market.
The research project, carried out in several stages, resulted in the installation of digital devices in eight of the NISSA stores.
- The fashion market in Romania
MKOR Consulting provided relevant information regarding the position the brand held at that time, compared to its competitors (benchmarking).
- Global development trends of tech solutions in retail
We developed a complex, detailed analysis to observe the development trends of tech solutions in the retail field, globally.
- Evaluating the impact of the device
During the research, we conducted interviews with the sales staff (before the devices were installed in stores) and with a control group consisting of NISSA customers.
To observe how the smart devices were accepted by the sales consultants, we applied the mystery shopping method in eight of the brand’s stores in Romania.
How do the devices work?
The digital devices that NISSA installed in its stores aim to create a bridge between online and offline, in a highly digitized industry where brands compete by offering unique experiences to customers.
The digital platform installed in stores offers customers the possibility of creating a personal account that allows several facilities in choosing the right outfits.
For example, they can activate the “Find your own size” mode, where they can choose their abdomen shape or find out their measurements – bust, waist, hips – and can opt for certain preferences (tight or very tight clothes, regular fit, long or very long).
Also, customers have the possibility to check if products are in stock in the store they are in and have the possibility to order online directly from the store. In addition, the digital devices are also equipped with a barcode scanning function.
The devices are positioned near the entrance or near the fitting room, and in larger stores, in both locations.
Each positioning has a role in itself: the devices installed near the entrance aim to provide information to customers (new collections, promotions, campaigns), while those near the fitting room aim to offer suggestions to customers who are already in the fitting room.
Concrete and measurable results
The research sessions conducted by MKOR specialists aimed to collect data and information to be subsequently transposed into reports with suggestions and recommendations, aiming for the development and optimization of the “Digital Mirror” application.
It was placed in stores, near the fitting rooms, so customers benefited from digitized assistance in the shopping process. The personalized help offered to customers in stores turned, for NISSA, into a useful element in the process of developing upselling strategies.
Due to the easy way of convincing customers and the orders placed online, directly from the location, the number of in-store sales increased.
Improving the customer experience process, thanks to the “Digital Mirror” platform, led to a 9% increase in turnover in 2018 compared to 2017.
NISSA wants more results and benefits for the future, therefore improvement and development sessions are continuously carried out. In addition, the platform that offers digital assistance to customers in NISSA stores will be available in all the brand’s stores in the future.
MKOR participates in BEST OF ESOMAR 2019
The story of a successful Romanian brand that differentiated itself through innovation and digitalization will be presented by Corina Cimpoca, founder of MKOR Consulting, alongside Mara Rizea, NISSA Marketing Manager, at Best of ESOMAR Romania (BOE) 2019, an event dedicated to the local market research industry.
The seventh edition of BOE Romania 2019, an event dedicated to the local market research industry, has the theme “Building Customer Experience in a World of Discontinuous Loyalty”, a current topic, worthy of interest for those who want to improve the consumer experience.
Following the tradition of other years, the event is addressed to market research and marketing specialists from all industries (FMCG, Retail, IT/Technology and Telecom, banking services, healthcare, etc.), as well as teachers or students.
About NISSA
Founded in 1993, NISSA is a Romanian brand that has expanded greatly in recent years, finding development opportunities in Romania, but also on foreign markets. NISSA collections can be found in 15 stores located in Romania, as well as in other countries: USA, Ireland, England, Poland, Russia, and the Middle East.
About ESOMAR
European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR) is a non-profit organization that promotes the value of market research, opinion, social research, and data analysis.
Founded in 1948, the association forms a community of a group of international experts – professionals, data analysts, top brands, researchers, marketing specialists, consultants, and university professors, who contribute to progress.
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