Every retail executive knows that the retail landscape is evolving at a rate so fast that it’s nearly impossible to keep up.
This has created an environment where retailers’ top priority is to determine how to fit into the worlds of bricks and clicks while simultaneously finding the perfect balance for their brand and their customers.
As a result, many retailers have either fallen behind, are taking daring steps to resuscitate in-store shopping, or are downsizing to accommodate shoppers who want to touch and feel merchandise in-store and then order online.
And despite the fact that every executive has an interest in growth, innovation and sustained success, all too often key decisions are based on guesswork – following the latest trends, copying the competition or implementing a solution that isn’t aligned with company objectives and customer behavior.
The retailers that will emerge from the retail revolution successfully will be the ones that move past the so called “average” customer and the latest trends. Because in this new world, there are no one-size-fits-all strategies – everything must be personalized to who your customers are.
Yet most retailers simply don’t know enough about their customers to have a truly effective retail real estate and marketing strategy.
Therefore, to win and retain customers, it’s imperative to ask the tough questions: what’s really best for my customers? Which strategic direction best aligns with my customers’ desires?
Chances are the answers to those questions and more appear in your transaction data.
By combining your transaction data with detailed household-level customer analytics, you can chart your path toward lasting connections with your customers and consequent growth.
Are you taking these four critical steps to build loyal customer relationships in this new retail landscape?
- Define a Consistent Customer Profile To create a true customer profile that allows you to understand who your customers are as consumers, you must eliminate the silos in your organization. Open the files and share customer information across all departments to eliminate duplicative customer records that prevent the effective use of customer data.
- Give Customers a Consistent Shopping Experience Omni-channel retailing is the now and the future. This means that all your channels must be integrated because no matter how customers choose to interact with you, their experience should be seamless and convenient – day or night.
- Target Messages Develop a segmentation strategy. Not all customers are the same, so taking a shotgun approach to marketing wastes time and resources. By combining household-level data with your transaction data, you’ll find buying patterns to help develop customer segments, which will consequently help you create individualized messages to target the customers who are most likely to purchase.
- Measure Campaign Effectiveness ROI is your school of higher learning. Knowing what works, learning from it and applying those findings to your business going forward are absolute requirements. By analyzing past performance you can identify which targeted groups of customers need to be included and excluded from each subsequent campaign.
It all comes down to this extremely important point: customer data and insight are essential when shaping retail strategies, setting business goals, optimizing marketing activity, refining e-commerce strategies and implementing solutions that are aligned with company objectives and customer behavior.
To learn more about the four critical steps you need to take to put your customer at the center of your growth strategy, download Buxton’s latest report: The Four Data-Driven Steps to Customer Loyalty.