“We live in a digital world; our lives are digital, our conversations are digital,” highlighted Ankur Gupta, Senior Director of Big Data at Sears Holdings Corporation.
The 2015 edition of Future Retail Summit opened this morning with Mr Gupta delivering the international keynote, The integrated retailer: seamlessly connecting the digital and physical shopping experience.
Now in its fourth year, the 2015 Future Retail Summit is the forum where the industry meets to do business, and runs 6 – 7 October at The Address, Dubai Mall, Dubai, UAE.
“We began our digital journey because we wanted to become a dynamic retailer,” commented Mr Gupta. “To this end we needed to make sure that both channels – online and in-store – talk to each other.”
“It is a journey that evolves over time, and as a digitally engaged retailer we are making headway,” observed Mr Gupta. “We started this journey knowing we’re making an investment for the long term, and we are now seeing benefits in customer engagement, customer retention, and revenue.”
Mr Gupta provided an example of the insights Sears gained when they looked at the data collected as a result of their in-store wifi offering. The data gave valuable insight into customer behaviour online. For example, in addition to comparing prices with competitors, many customers were using in-store wifi to connect to YouTube or Netflix. This makes sense if you consider that the average customer is a mother, often with an unwilling husband or children in tow. Knowing how and why customers used the wifi offering created a marketing opportunity for Sears.
David Launay, Senior Sales & Marketing Engineer at Silverpop, an IBM shared this insightful formula: Behaviour + Profile data + Realtime rules = Perfect Experience
David Launay, Senior Sales & Marketing Engineer at Silverpop, an IBM Company, reiterated the importance of providing customers with relevant information, customised for a local experience, and connection to the brand. “It is all about understanding your customers. We need to connect the online and offline behaviour, and have a single view of the customer,” he said.
Mr Launay stressed that the focus must be on what the customer needs, not just what the retailer wants to sell. He shared insight into the trend that it is no longer ‘B2B’ or ‘B2C’, but rather ‘C2B’ – customer-to-business.
Zsuzsanna Bonyhádi, Regional Marketing Manager MEAT at GE Lighting revealed how Intelligent Lighting can transform retail experience. She discussed how this may be achieved through customisation (for example personalised promotions), navigation (for example location-based services) and education (for example access to product information in real-time).