How Customer Data Can Help Recover Revenue in 2021
Prioritizing customer data is fundamental to retail recovery. Understanding your relationship with your customers, how you capture their data and how that data can be used to recover revenue should be on top of your priority list.
We reached out to our partners and personalisation experts, Emarsys, for some actionable insights for retailers to contemplate as we cautiously step into 2021.
Customer-centricity is key to survival.
It’s no longer enough to be “customer-focussed” – it’s time to be “customer-obsessed”.
Customers are more savvy and well-informed than ever. They have high expectations and, with all the shopping channels available to them, will ditch you in a second for someone that will give them the experience they desire.
Understanding your customer, their data and how you can securely and effectively manage it is key. Data is sacred, and consent comes only with a clear value exchange; the promise that you will provide superior experiences and better personalisation.
The competitive advantage of data.
It’s no longer enough to be “customer-focussed” – it’s time to be “customer-obsessed”.
Customers are more savvy and well-informed than ever. They have high expectations and, with all the shopping channels available to them, will ditch you in a second for someone that will give them the experience they desire.
Understanding your customer, their data and how you can securely and effectively manage it is key. Data is sacred, and consent comes only with a clear value exchange; the promise that you will provide superior experiences and better personalisation.
First-party customer data, data that your brand has captured (with consent), will be very different from the data your competitors have. This allows you to deliver data-driven experiences to customers that no other brand can offer (since they won’t have the same data).
However….
If you don’t have your data unified in one single location allowing everyone in the organisation to work with the same data, you can’t fully leverage that data.
Unifying your product data and your customer data is key to providing relevant, engaging and contextual experiences, no matter where the customer is touching your brand.
Learn more about Product Content That Converts here.
Data is crucial to provide high-value experiences.
For a customer to identify themselves, engage with your brand, and continue engaging again and again, time after time, year after year, you need to decide: what’s in it for them? What kind of experiences are you willing to provide?
Personalisation, loyalty, and omnichannel customer experiences offer customers the most value, and ultimately are what will earn a customer’s repeated business over time.
The power of personalisation
Contextual, relevant, in-the-moment personalised experiences that are unique to that one individual customer across platforms or channels, based on their behavior and preferences. Unifying your product and customer data is essential. If you don’t have the tech stack, open infrastructure, or data to make that happen, 2021 is the year to remedy this.
Loyalty is a 2-way street
Loyalty is about having an engagement with a customer; not just once, but many times, across every channel, throughout the customer’s lifecycle. Discounts may work short-term, but your customers (and your business) are better served with loyalty-inspired experiences instead: VIP shopping, early access, members-only products, etc. Give the customer something meaningful in return for their business, and deliver unique value that they can only get from your brand.
It’s not omnichannel to customers – it’s simply shopping
Customers are more digitally savvy than ever and are spending more time on digital channels (browsing, researching, comparing); they have no qualms moving from one channel to the next. Brands are racing to be best at reaching the customer at the right time, in the moment, on the right channel, with personalised offers and loyalty incentives.
If your data isn’t unified into a single source, and if all touchpoints aren’t connected in the same tech ecosystem, you’ll miss the customer (and lose the race).
Start 2021 off with clear priorities, along with key strategies and actions you can implement now. This will put you in position to deliver the relevant and contextual 1:1 personalized experiences your customers demand, and the business results you must produce as a marketer, no matter the conditions.
Where to next?
Case Study: Glue Store
Check out how Glue Store connected their commerce ecosystem to take their business to new heights.
About Emarsys
Emarsys empowers digital marketing leaders and business owners with the only omnichannel customer engagement platform built to accelerate business outcomes. By rapidly aligning desired business results with proven omnichannel customer engagement strategies — crowdsourced from leading brands across your industry — our platform enables you to accelerate time to value, deliver superior one-on-one experiences and produce measurable results… fast.
This industry-specific, outcome-driven approach combined with our customer-centric personalisation, actionable AI and a fully integrated customer data platform (CDP) — make Emarsys the platform of choice for more than 2,500 companies around the world. Join thousands of leading brands who trust Emarsys to deliver the predictable, profitable outcomes that their businesses demand and the highly personalised omnichannel experiences that their customers deserve.
