Retail executives talk about one-to-one marketing, including making the customer experience personalized by tracking behavior across every activity online – via smartphones, in the car and everywhere else they might shop.
With all the big data available on each consumer, it should be straightforward for retailers to provide their customers with compelling, relevant offers.
So why are consumers – including me – still getting offers that miss the mark? The messages retailers claim are “just for you” often don’t resonate, and irrelevant banner advertisements pop up on consumers’ phones only to block them from reading what they’re actually interested in. How does this occur, given the big data brilliance that’s applied to predict every aspect of our buying behavior?
Perhaps retailers can learn from the “selfie” phenomenon, where consumers essentially generate their own public relations and brand awareness without help from the experts. Shoppers would feel better if they had more say in deflecting a shooting gallery of ads that claim to “target” them directly.
This also offers the potential for consumers to be more loyal to their favorite stores if retailers gave them more say in their shopping journey by crafting a strong personalization strategy.
The era of small data (like individual customers’ personal preferences and lists), as opposed to big data (everyone’s data), will arrive sooner rather than later
Using small data, companies can spend equal time listening to what customers want instead of simply predicting what customers want. This would eliminate the need for intrusive retail strategies, including the use of facial recognition and tracking technology that follows a customer’s path through the aisles, pushing out offers on products customers may not want.
In order to connect with the selfie generation and earn its respect and loyalty, marketers must work with their tech colleagues to enhance the customer experience and consider the following:
- Connect to a standard preference portal. If retailers can tell customers what they want, when they want it and how much it will cost, they will be more likely to convert sales.
- Let target audiences tell brands what ads don’t work and provide an “unlike” button.
- Serve up loyalty offers without sign-in. There are more than 2 million smartphone apps out there, but consumers only use a handful of them regularly.
- Tailor offers to purchases, not demographics. As the MIT saying goes, “You are what you buy, not who you are.”
- Match shopping lists and offers to an up-to-date planogram with on-hand inventory.
Small data is poised to be a win for retailers and customers alike. Customers will be more satisfied with a personalized shopping experience, which will lead to more sales and loyalty for retailers.
