Oracle Retail vice president, Jeff Warren explores how marketers can leverage retail data analytics to build contextual intelligence about customers, improve customer loyalty, and identify new retail insights.
It is no longer relevant to say that good data transforms business. Across industries, data insight now informs decision-making by default in leading businesses, perhaps nowhere more so than in retail. As the current situation has caused even more retail activity to move online, consumers are creating more data points with every click, and wise retailers are taking notice. In the near term, we can expect these insights to be supercharged, with companies drawing on a kaleidoscope of new data that will ultimately hone accuracy and facilitate better actions.
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By building out owned data with anonymized, diverse third-party information, brands will soon gain new context and a deeper understanding of both existing and potential audiences – whether they’re online, via voice or mobile, or anywhere else. Data gathering and data deployment are now ubiquitous. Here are four key ways that contextual intelligence can improve your business:
1. Better Assortment Planning
Sometimes the easiest part of selecting your assortment is knowing what your valued regular customers want. But it’s also critical for you to understand what piques interest among browsers and first-time buyers. Contextual intelligence is all about learning from the broader crowd and loading your virtual shelves with product lines that draw in new shoppers and keep your loyal following coming back for more.
2. More Targeted Promotions
More consumers know how to shop smart out of necessity during the recent pandemic. In a competitive environment, targeted promotions can make or break your brand, and too often, ads and offers miss their mark because they lack information about the would-be customer. Even when they’re on target, promotions may fall flat because they aren’t exclusive enough. Nearly half of shoppers say it’s important to get offers or discounts, which are better than what anyone else can get based on their loyalty, according to Oracle Retail Annual Consumer ResearchOpens a new window . Third-party, contextual insight adds complexity, allowing you to customize and adapt your deals to increase the strike rate of your campaigns.
3. Precise Personalization
This dynamic, data-driven approach isn’t just about deals and discounts. We know from testing that consumers appreciate a shopping environment that speaks directly to their ever-changing needs. Contextual customer intelligence can facilitate next-level personalization, whereby you’ll use multi-source data to anticipate those wishes. In today’s retail environment, knowing more about particular consumer tastes and preferences – right down to colors, flavors, budgets, and biases – will be critical to your profitability.
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4. Fostering Customer Loyalty
Whatever tools you use to entice new customers, loyal customers are your most valuable ones. Brands are challenged to reset that customer loyalty in the New Next. Tomorrow, you could be using data in-context to unlock a whole new understanding of your existing customer base. Moreover, you’ll use modern tools like machine learning to cultivate and propagate loyalty. Data is no substitute for experience and intuition when it comes to keeping customers happy, but it’s unrivaled in signaling precisely which marketing tactics are yielding business success. In short, learning more means you are able to do more.
Data is by no means a panacea, but in marketing and retail, it’s a precious resource when it comes to understanding audiences on a more granular level – something marketers have always strived to do. Over the next few years, success will be contingent on how businesses build first-class analytics into their models. Those who draw on comprehensive, contextual intelligence will inevitably lead the pack.