We all know that since approximately four or five years ago, we have been experiencing great progress related to Big Data that is affecting our industry and particularly affecting Retail.
These changes are mainly impacted by technological advances in constant innovation, which made human adaptation thereto a real handicap. On the other hand, retailers that are being able to adapt are those that are discovering in Big Data a good opportunity to improve their interaction processes with customers.
A clear example of a big retailer that is using Big Data to improve its processes is Inditex with its RFID tags, which permit to locate goods in real time mode, including controlling inventories and sizes with efficiency.
The incredible aspect of this use is to be able to make effective recommendations to customers about which goods there is more demand for, and also with its weather forecast tool, which is included in software, they can control the manufacturing inventory depending on the weather and, accordingly, adjust production.
There is another example, of a Spanish company, GeoBlink, that helps retailers to choose locations for their future stores using Big Data.
With this scenario, retailers that cannot make immediate investments to use tools such as RFID from Inditex or Big Data tool for locations of Spanish company GeoBlink, needs to be much more ingenious and use CRM strategies to continue being competitive. Among these strategies, we can mention the ones we consider more effective.
1. To create an omnichannel database
The contact with this customer should always be effective in any platform or sales channel. Nowadays, with omnichannel, the customers can purchase from different devices and different sales channels, and the retailer should fill all purchase needs in real time.
2. Integrate Social Media into the CRM strategy
Initially, this point seems basic, but it is not so obvious if effective results are expected. We know that Social Media are a very powerful tool to know the consumer’s behavior and by using analytical tools, we can obtain valuable data about our customer.
3. Customization
According to the study “Empowering The Data-Driven Customer Strategy”, only 7% of companies are able of interacting with customers in real time, on an omnichannel and customized way, in both physical and online channels. From the remaining ones, 24% had started to interact in real time with customers, but only via the online channel.
Taking advantage of the fact that nowadays brands and their customer have greatly improved their relationship thanks to this Hyperconnection and a wide variety of tools focused on customization and recommendations or products, we can use all this to generate an omnichannel interaction satisfactory for the customer.
4. Gamification
Nowadays it is a widely accepted concept because it helps to build customer’s loyalty, generating engagement. By means of challenges, competitions and draws, we can easily create a database and expand our customer portfolio or potentialize our brand.
Retailers that that effectively take advantage of all these strategies to know their customer better will have a more accurate overview when, in a second phase, opt for using Big Data, generating assortment optimization strategies, inventory analyses, etc. because the use of Big Data in retail gave rise to Agile Retail.
