Endear vs. Tulip: The Battle of the Retail CRMs
Discover the advantages of Endear over Tulip in our detailed comparison. Learn about features that enhance efficiency and customer satisfaction for retail brands.
![Women holding an iPad with CRM software](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.prismic.io%2Fendear%2FZkN_Xyol0Zci9Hk__Endear-vs-Tulip-CRM2.webp%3Fauto%3Dformat%2Ccompress&w=1280&q=75)
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At Endear, we live and breathe retail customer relationship management (CRM), consistently evolving to be the best choice for retail brands of all sizes to grow their business. But we know there are other options out there.
In fact, the worldwide CRM software market is expected to show an annual growth rate of over 10% through 2028, reaching a market volume of a whopping $131.9 billion. That means there are not only “other options,” out there, but also that they can happily coexist, meeting different needs for different brands. The only downside as a brand: having to sort through a variety of platforms with different features and price points to choose the best CRM for your business.
So while many of the retail CRMs out today offer similar solutions when it comes to providing clienteling, data analytics, retail marketing campaign tools, and more, we’ll introduce and discuss the benefits of two leading clienteling platforms, Tulip and Endear.
About Tulip
A popular retail CRM is Tulip which was founded in 2013. Tulip is a cloud-based platform designed to help retailers enhance customer engagement and streamline the shopping experience across multiple channels. It aims to empower store associates with tools that allow them to offer more personalized services. This is achieved through features like detailed customer profiles, mobile-first point-of-sale (POS) systems, and the ability to connect with customers through various channels including social media and email.
A key component of Tulip's offerings includes its analytics capabilities, which provide actionable insights into customer behavior and store performance. This allows retailers to improve service delivery by tailoring their interactions based on detailed analytics of customer data and trends. Moreover, Tulip's technology is developed in partnership with notable companies that enable sophisticated retailers to optimize operations and create an end-to-end shopping experience that meets the modern demands of consumers.
Overall, Tulip serves as a solid solution for retailers looking to elevate their customer service and integrate their physical and digital commerce channels effectively. This approach not only improves customer satisfaction but also drives sales growth by making retail interactions more personal and data-driven.
Why Brands Switch from Tulip to Endear
“Endear is miles ahead of Tulip.” – anonymous retailer who evaluated both CRMs.
While Tulip has some powerful features, Endear has been the go-to retail CRM that many dissatisfied customers turn to. From chatting with such clients, we have a clear picture of why brands make the switch to Endear. Let’s highlight the most common things we’ve heard.
No Sign-on Fees
Many retailers tend to be ROI-conscious when it comes to their software, and a CRM is no exception. Tulip maintains extremely high up-front costs when signing up for their services.
Meanwhile, Endear offers a 14-day free trial and custom pilot programs, with $0 platform fees.
Free, Pre-built Integrations
In addition to a custom API and unlimited .CSV imports, Endear also offers a library of pre-built integrations that are all free to connect to, which helps make it an easier choice for brands with a more robust tech stack. Due to this lower barrier to entry, Endear is simple to test and pilot, and ends up being an easier software to get approved by leadership because it’s an all-in-one platform with no hidden fees.
Real-time Data Syncing
Our team prides itself on getting brands up and running with Endear in no time at all. On average, it takes Tulip six to twelve hours to update data for their clients. With Endear, this happens in real-time. This is due to our tech team that has extensive retail experience and can anticipate obstacles when working with new retail partners.
Endear has been a huge upgrade to our clienteling and customer outreach process at our store locations. The platform is so easy to use and makes customer outreach seamless, especially with the integrations and seeing everything in one place.
Jess D'Agostino, Store Operations Manager, Clare V.
Customers report that it typically takes 3 months or longer to onboard Tulip, which can lead to frustration when trying to be strategic and grow quickly. An extra week or two of onboarding and configuration means not being able to capture thousands of data points that could serve better clienteling and personalization.
Free Data Cleaning
Modern retail runs on data. Unfortunately it’s hard to keep data clean, as most retailers know. According to Salesforce, it roughly costs $1 to verify data as it comes in, $10 to clean data after it’s been collected, and $100 if you do nothing with the dirty data.
Endear makes it a priority to clean each new partner’s data, for free. After all, we can’t provide the best retail analytics and insights if we’re working off bad data. It behooves us to make sure the data is clean, and that’s part of our process. It’s a major benefit to our clients, and a step that Tulip doesn’t take.
Month-to-Month Pricing
When it comes to pricing, flexibility is very important to many retail brands. Upfronting a year-long subscription – as Tulip does – can be a deal-breaker for some stores, and locking into a CRM can be a pain if it turns out it’s not quite right for your team.
We here at Endear understand this pain-point, which is why we offer month-to-month pricing, so brands don’t feel like they are handcuffed if we’re not the right fit (luckily for us, we usually are!). This flexible, no-commitment contract again makes us an easier sell to the CFO/CTO, but also provides peace-of-mind for managers who are worried about costs and ROI.
Tulip doesn’t have month-to-month flexibility, which has been an issue for some brands.
Ease of Use
Finally, when it’s all said and done, the best software is the one that you want to use and spend time in. That’s why Endear has focused on making our UI and UX as tailored as possible for real-world retail teams, who are (almost without exception) incredibly busy.
Endear was built from the ground up for retail teams to do more with less. So even smaller sales & marketing teams can manage personalized, segmented email campaigns to hundreds of thousands of contacts. Or easily hand-off SMS conversations to the rep that is on-duty over the course of days or weeks. Or even to make real-time customer engagement possible and easy with our live SalesChat.
Those who have come to us from Tulip have universally touted the easy to use interface of Endear that helps them intuitively do what they need to do, faster and without confusion.
Modern Retail Teams Choose Endear’s CRM
Tulip’s CRM is a powerful tool and can work perfectly for many retailers. But if the Endear features listed above strike a chord with you and your team, it might be time to switch to Endear.
Let us show you what Endear can do for you with a free demo.
Plus, qualified brands that switch from Tulip to Endear get 2 weeks free. Book a demo to learn more.
Learn from the best - subscribe to our clienteling newsletter now.
Latest posts in Modern Retail
- What is Social Commerce?
- Clienteling Platform or Traditional CRM? How To Decide What's Best For Your Retail Brand
- Why the Sum Studio’s Data-Driven Retail Design Philosophy is a Breath of Fresh Air
- The Future of Retail Clienteling is Mobile: Here's Why
- How Stores are Turning their Associates into Personal Stylists