31 May 2016 | Written by: Sajith.KK

The retail world is moving outside in, thanks to the advent of technology. With a variety of retail software and plethora of customer information, how good are you leveraging these data for business insights? A recent Forbes Insights report, “Data Elevates the Customer Experience: New Ways of Discovering and Applying Customer insights,” finds that the benefits of evolving to data-driven customer experiences (data-driven CX) are wide-ranging, including enhancing revenue generation and enabling cost reduction, as well as accelerating process efficiencies and quality improvements.

How to engage your customers?

In a brick and mortar scenario, the first impression a customer gets as they walk through the doors of the store can create engagement - with geo-fencing and beacons. Today, technology can enable this engagement as the customer walks to the mall/store by either greeting them with personal message or by providing special offers that could be of interest to them.

Remember, the channels are proliferating and retail marketplace is evolving each day. Ensure that your retail software provides you the capability to integrate and track all activities of your customer across channels including web and mobile. For instance, big data combined with analytics can track regular customers, whose spending pattern is on the decline. By doing a deep dive on certain patterns, it is now possible to understand the reason for such decline and take corrective actions before the customer decides to shop elsewhere.

Send your consumers consistent, personalized and targeted messages (SMS/email/push based app) that detail them about the choices available in the store. For frequently consumed articles, a retailer can offer subscription services that either reminds (or even reorders) based on their buying patterns.

Focus on Data Analytics

The effectiveness of customer engagement relies on your capability to recognize them personally. Ideally, you must be able to deliver him a stellar experience - similar to the one delivered by the next-door local-shopkeeper, who knows the preferences and choices of each customer walking into the shop.

Do not ignore data analytics. Leveraging big data not only enables your business process but creates an engaged customer. Use your data to study and predict the behavior pattern of your customer. Combine this with social media and other data sources to create a panoramic view of them.

In a competitive retail market, the key to success is connectivity. Today's empowered and connected customers drive the retail agenda at their finger tip thus challenging the retailer at every turn. Have you stepped up to meet the challenge? Are you providing a stellar experience?

Remember, an engaged customer becomes your brand ambassador.