From Storefront to Shopping Cart: 3 Lessons for Tesla’s New Sales Model

Tesla, the electric automobile manufacturer, in an effort to offer the Model 3 more affordably, announced that it was moving its retail business entirely online. Although they recently changed their mind on the depth of this change, they still appear to be putting more weight into their online strategy.

So, as the identity provider of choice for many of the world’s largest brands, we have three learnings we’d like to share with our friends at Telsa: know thy customer, secure thy customer, and love thy developer.

Know thy customer

Identity is at the core of the internet’s shift towards personalization. Brands are constantly looking for new ways to deliver personalized digital experiences. To succeed, identity has to be seamless—across channels and applications.

Albertsons, one of the world’s largest retail groceries, has 30 million customers interacting with their various brands each week. According to Ramiya Iyer, GVP of IT, Digital and Marketing at Albertsons, “As one of the U.S.’s largest grocery retailers, we needed a solution that could scale with us, and we’re confident that we found that in the Okta Identity Cloud, which now serves as an important part of our customers’ digital experience with Albertsons.”

Customers interact with Albertsons grocery stores as well as other brands such as Safeway, Vons, and Acme Markets. While customers expect a uniquely branded experience for each brand, they don’t want to manage multiple passwords or face repeated logins. Okta helps Albertsons deliver these personalized e-commerce and rewards program experiences.

Protect thy customer

While customers increasingly reward seamless digital experiences, they’ve never been more concerned about the safety of their personal data. In 2018, roughly 51% of enterprises suffered a data breach.

JetBlue, a US-based airline, is looking to revolutionize air travel with frictionless digital experiences that are more personalized and engaging for travelers. But good digital experiences go beyond streamlined airport check-ins and self service. They must also help crewmembers interact with customers in more personal and meaningful—more human—ways.

However, safety and security are always the company’s number-one priority. “Aviation security has expanded from a focus on physical security and into the digital security space,” says Eash Sundaram, EVP Innovation, Chief Digital & Technology Officer. “With 40 million customers transacting with us at different points during their travel, we have to keep those transactions safe and secure.”

JetBlue relies on Okta to ensure access to digital experiences are secured. They trust Okta as their identity store to protect customer and employee login information.

Thus endeth the lesson

Okta has helped some of the most iconic brands successfully transform their digital experiences. Along the way, we’ve learned that secure and seamless experiences are critical. Our customers empower their developers to focus on building great experiences—because we’ve handled identity.

Using Okta enables developers to build identity right into their applications with APIs, SDKs, and pre-built custom code. Out of the box, Okta Customer Identity comes with authentication, authorization, user management, adaptive multi-factor authentication, B2B integrations, and lifecycle management.

Looking to make a major online transition? Learn how Okta supports organizations just like yours, by visiting our customer journey page.