Why data is the key in reatil to connect with the "new customer"

There is no doubt that the way we buy and communicate with brands and businesses is changing very fast. If we look back a few years ago, to buy a pair of sneakers, we probably would not handle more than 2-3 businesses and as many brands. We would visit their stores, we would try those models fitting with our taste and we would buy the most we liked and adapt to our budget.

Nowadays, in advance to the moment of purchase and mainly through digital media, we´ll have received ads from dozens of brands, many of which we did not even know. We´ll have probably consulted a few brand´s webpages regularity to be aware of news. We will look for the latest trends in sneakers, check prices and promotions of the models that we like, analyze the cost and shipping time as well as the return policy, and decide in which ecommerce we acquire the chosen pair or what physical store we will visit to try and acquire the model selected in advance on the mobile screen.

The challenge of brands and retailers remains the same as thirty years ago: connecting with the right person, with the right message and at the most appropriate time. Today it becomes more complex due to the variety of existing communication and interaction channels. We are in a new time.

A new time where the main information channels for consumers are digital media and, in particular, more and more, mobile phones. Brands and businesses not being there, will finally, not being. A new time where customers require immediacy, again as a result of technology, and where there are so many choice options, that brands find more and more difficult to remain a reference in customer´s mind.

The challenge of brands and retailers remains the same as thirty years ago: connecting with the right person, with the right message and at the most appropriate time.

To remain in customer´s mind and be always a priority option in the purchasing decision demands to connect emotionally. Customers seek, increasingly, businesses and brands who make them to live a unique and differential experience. Pleasing and surprising requires knowing what the customer is looking for to succeed with value proposals. To go a step forward and reach customers´ heart is about exceeding their expectations. None of these is possible without knowing the customer.

To know the customer doesn´t consist of identifying that the customer profile of a business are   are women between 25 and 45 years old with high acquisitive level medium-high. It consists of having certain and detailed data customers´ purchasing habits to extract patterns of behavior based on:

• • purchase channels
  • age
  • sex
  • place of residence
  • articles or categories of items consumed
  • days and hours of purchase
  • repetitivity
  • purchase volumes
  • and / or combinations of all these variables.

In short, to define profiles or customer segments with common characteristics. As the database is fed with a digital loyalty system that identifies the customer in each transaction, a greater knowledge of customers is reached, information that will be very useful.

Segmentation is the starting point to surprise with hyper-personalized proposals.

Let's imagine a fashion business. What else could it do for their customers through a loyalty platform that includes user behavior analysis? It could, for example:

• Filter, within the group of customers with a medium-high purchase level, those who have purchased each of the 8 models of trousers available in collection and send each customer of the group an promotion applicable on 3 shirt models that perfectly combine with every model of the chosen trousers.

• Send to the customers of a certain town that celebrates its local party, a discount coupon, applicable for purchases over a certain amount, in order those population can adquire new clothes in that business.

• Send, exclusively to customers who normally buy coats during sales, a specific promotion applicable on coats, with a certain discount lower than the sales discount but attractive enough to encourage them to acquire the clothes and ensure that they don´t lose it.

If it were a perfume & cosmetics business, it could, again as example:

• Divide customers by the perfume brand they usually acquire and surprise them with a promotion in their mobile phones announcing new perfumes or additional complements of their preferred brand, encouraging them to try them with a discount or gift.

• Launch a promotional action aimed to the group of customers who usually buy makeup products of a certain brand, consisting of an exclusive product, as long as they accumulate a consumption greater than a certain amount in a temporary period.

Segmentation is the starting point to surprise with hyper-personalized proposals.

Rewards do not need to be always in the form of discounts or promotions. To manage customer information and to have a direct communication mode with users, through a good digital loyalty platform, allows also other type of actions, as for example:

• Organize a visit to the facilities of the brand to show the design or the production process and bring together 25 of the most loyal customers with 15 less loyal customers but with the potential to become good customers. All of them will live a great experience, the emotional bond with the business will be strengthen and they will act as ambassadors for the brand.

• Send an invitation to customers of a certain geographical area, aged between 18 and 30 years, to an event in a store for an exclusive presentation of a new collection or product line.

The previous examples show how easy is to connect with the right customer, with the right message and at the right time, by using a loyalty platform that provides information about customers´ behavior and a direct communication with them.

A digital loyalty platform has become a key tool to reach the highest goal of every brand: to make customers feel part of a privileged group. It is not a utopia, it is commercial intelligence.

To start this new and exciting path depends only on you. If you decide to do it, you are not alone, we are here to assist you whatever you may need.

José Manuel Maseda

Sales & Marketing Manager

www.wappingweb.com