The single greatest change in retailing today
is happening not with retailers, but with consumers.
They are increasingly connected, accessing information
from multiple sources and interacting with retailers in myriad ways.
In 2010, there were over 5 billion mobile phone subscriptions.
Today, nearly 2 billion people are online
with this number continuing to grow at an astounding rate.
Tech-savvy consumers all over the world have quickly learned
to use these tools to research products, prices and availability
and tap into broad social networks of consumers
who share ratings, views, shopping experiences and other information.
Many shoppers today use two or more technologies
to shop and make purchases.
This could mean getting a personalized offer sent to one's mobile phone and
accessing the retailer's website to make a purchase.
Or, maybe discovering a new product on television, researching it over time
and completing the transaction a few days later by sending a text.
Shopping is no longer confined to the physical walls of a store.
Consumers are shopping on their own terms.
Watch the videoClearly, retailers must become smarter too.
This means enabling consumers to shop seamlessly
and easily across touch points and brands.
It means making sure customer interactions are timely and relevant
– always delivering on a brand promise
to consistently meet customers' expectations.
And it means connecting with customers on an emotional level.
In other words, an open dialogue between customer and retailer
is at the heart of designing a smarter shopping experience.
By tapping into the power of sophisticated analytics,
retailers can collaborate with customers more effectively,
understand customer preferences,
personalize offers and deliver a seamless shopping experience.
Watch the videoSay you're a major online gift retailer.
When a loyal customer's child is about to have a birthday,
you are able to offer personalized product recommendations
– for instance, balloons and a game to go along with that teddy bear.
In essence, you can create an overall "gift experience"
based on profile, preferences, and past purchase behavior
allowing you to have a relevant one-on-one dialogue with your customer.
In order to deliver timely and relevant experiences,
retailers must know who their customers are and what they want.
Thanks to the proliferation of technology on our smarter planet,
there is no lack of consumer data.
Retailers can measure not only the declared preferences
of customers but their revealed preferences
as demonstrated in their actual behavior.
Watch the videoBuilding this customer insight into the fabric
of how the business operates allows retailers to generate
a single view of each unique customer
and what he or she really values.
When retailers unlock new insights about their customers,
they can transform from product-centric
to truly customer-focused enterprises.
For example: Say you're a beauty and cosmetics company.
By developing a loyalty program
that monitors individual sales data in real time,
you can offer promotions at checkout based on individual buying patterns.
And by better understanding your customers,
you can not only meet their needs – you can predict what they want next.
By gathering consumer data and tapping into powerful analytics,
retailers can make better decisions about how to attract
and keep today's smarter consumers.
Watch the video