How Swarovski’s CIO makes the 130-year old jewelry brand’s tech shine

While studying at the University of Vienna, Lea Sonderegger’s PhD research focused on omnichannel retail, arguing that consumer spending would increasingly blend across the physical and digital worlds. 

“At the time, omnichannel was just a concept on paper,” says Sonderegger, who completed her studies at the University of Vienna in 2010. “Nobody believed that people would buy online and actually pick up the stuff in a store.”

It proved to be a prescient pitch that caught the attention of Swarovski, who hired Sonderegger 15 years ago to serve as an e-business project manager for the luxury jewelry retailer. Today, three out of every four American shoppers are omnichannel, accounting for 27% of total retail spending, according to research published by credit-card giant Capital One.

Over the course of her technology career at the crystals and gemstones manufacturer, Sonderegger has risen up the ranks, taking on increasing responsibilities that included oversight of the main e-commerce business for swarovski.com, operations in China, and eventually a successor for the chief information role that would be combined with the chief digital officer title in 2022. 

Sonderegger reports directly to CEO Alexis Nasard and sits on Swarovski’s executive committee, a prime position that reflects the importance of digital commerce as a core pillar of Nasard’s “LUXignite strategy,” which the executive unveiled in 2022 that included a focus on opening new flagship stores, including a shop on New York’s Fifth Avenue that opened in late 2023. He also lauded a commitment to investing in digital experiences, a key modernization effort for a brand that began in 1895.

Reporting to Nasard, Sonderegger says, “makes a huge difference, because I’m sitting [at] the table with all of my executive committee peers and digital is right at the place where all the things are decided and driven.”

Sonderegger says despite its long history, Swarovski has always been an early adopter when it comes to consumer-focused technologies. The company opened a web-based online shop in 2001, then a mobile website in 2010 and an online store two years later. Today, 80% of the company’s online transactions come via mobile.

As consumer shopping patterns have migrated online, Swarovski’s approach has evolved. The company now offers “to “buy online, pick up in store” and even a service that allows shoppers to order something from a local shop and have it shipped to their home within a single day.

The retailer has credited the “LUXignite” strategy for why the company reported a 6% increase in revenue for the fiscal-year 2024, as well as an operating profit that was fully positive for the first time in five years. 

“We’ve always started with the customer at the center, and that’s helped us,” says Sonderegger. “We never started with, ‘Oh, that’s the newest, coolest technology.’”

Sonderegger says there’s been a lot of internal curiosity and excitement among Swarovski’s employees for new generative artificial intelligence tools. “I would say close to zero pushback from anybody, across the organization, towards gen AI,” she says.

A few of Swarovski’s generative AI applications in production today include a tool that helps customer service representatives handle client questions, which has reduced the response time of those agents by 55% and boosted the company’s net promoter score, a metric that tracks how likely shoppers will recommend a brand or service.

AI has also lifted Swarovski’s demand planning accuracy by 15%, giving the retailer greater insight to predict future shopping patterns, which can then help it better plan supply levels. In marketing, A/B testing showed that AI-written personalized newsletters got four times the response rate from customers than messages sent without the technology.

Sonderegger says she hasn’t been locked in on any one single vendor relationship throughout Swarovski’s AI journey, though Google and SAP were named as two key partners. “I’m very challenging towards all of the vendors,” she adds. “Some of them obviously generate value, but throwing out AI as a verb is definitely not enough.” 

Swarovski’s test-and-learn approach to technology has helped it avoid spending too much money on earlier forms of technology that later lost their shine. Several years ago, a test of a virtual try-on tool didn’t move beyond the pilot phase because the technology wasn’t sharp enough. 

But Sonderegger says she’s currently exploring virtual try-on again, which is expected to launch early next year. And she can do so because Swarovski was cautious during its earlier attempt.

“I really like this piloting and testing approach, rather than going in with huge technologies and then finding out it’s not working,” she says. “Then, it’s very hard to convince for the next time.”

John Kell

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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com