The fact that retail is no longer just about product is not a secret, that it is all about engagement is not a surprise, that customers expect a unified experience is natural; but how retailers should pivot and aggregate all this data into one view remains a mystery and keeps many small and mid sized operators up at night.  This has created a pressure on businesses to revisit their online strategies even those whose primary focus is their local market.

“It’s like watching an accident in slow motion, you know you got to do something but the question is what and how and for how much”

There are many sources of data to consider but let’s focus on a few simple yet meaningful places to start with. Before we get started, let’s talk a little bit about tracking or customer preferences; while no doubt most consumers do not want their every activity tracked and stored, they do not mind doing so if they can receive something of benefit and the data is stored securely. Think about how willingly we allow the cell providers to track our every movement so long as they know exactly where we are when we need directions.

To begin aggregating this data you need to start with a reliable CRM software. Ideally this is will be built into your POS application as that will solve the instore piece of it, assuming that it has the functionality of a CRM software.

In Store POS Activity

In Store POS sales activity is the easiest and simplest to do; does your POS provide robust segmentation so you can classify your products into departments and categories, as well as flexibility in creating item attributes (in apparel for example size, color, style, season, brand) and does it provide you with flexibility in creating customer groupings across all channels, so you can group customers based on initial channel of the relationship or other groupings. Remember that there has to be some benefit for a customer to provide you this detail and loyalty programs are the most common, however perhaps more effective has been club pricing (like in grocery stores) or access to premium experiences (like with airlines or hotels). As you design this pick the one that works best for you.  

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Other benefits can be more lenient refund policy to know customers or  a more restrictive return policy to anonymous transactions.

Getting your store online with insight to up to date product availability will provide you with a trove of data;  encouraging customer to quickly register and login to get special pricing also rewards and encourages  customers for sharing their data with you.

Online Sales

Customer expect to connect with their favorite retailers on their terms; when they are available and from the devices of their choice. As a result retailers are experiencing a lot of pressure to deploy online stores; unfortunately too many do this as a reactionary move and not part of a strategic move.  

It is commonplace for customers to go to sites and get real time access to products and their availabilities from any device. Just think about the increase in “some product” stores near me searches in Google. Does your store appear with images that accurately represent the product and the quantities; as inventory is added or depleted from your POS system is your online store reflecting it.  Does your Retail CRM  aggregate customer and transactional data  no matter where it happens? Does it make it available to online and offline stores easily.

Sounds complicated but it’s not, in fact any POS, Cart and CRM solution that you are using should be able to do this as a matter of fact, without much work on your end.

Forecasting and Purchasing

It’s true that most small and mid-sized operators are not doing future planning beyond the next order; however your retail CRM should be able to generate reports based on classification and attributes to not just determine what to buy buy for whom to buy it for.

In retailcloud for example our Grow and Pro users can filter product to 3 classifications and 5 attributes to determine with a fair amount of accuracy who is likely to buy new product; or to include a discount modeling to see who is likely to buy overstocked product. Your retail crm should help you minimize your investment in inventory at a product level which should free up investment in complementary inventory to increase units per transactions. Having a CRM that just stores the data is pointless, how can you utilize the crm to create personalized offers to customers, and to plan stock levels to meet your customer needs.

Retail CRM is a must have for retailers today, it does more than just give you a historical perspective of your transactional data; it should establish the relationships between the variables that affect sales and revenue; such as product mix, availability, trends etc.

Ideally it should provide tools to drive revenue growth, such as identifying tailored upsell opportunities or other methods to increase units per transaction, while helping identifying ideal product mix using overstocked and understocked algorithms.  

Most crucially it should serve you all the information in a clear easy to digest and use manner , so all your operators have to do is act.

Building successful business is on every business owners mind. Increasing market share and customer loyalty is a retailer’s primary goal. The more customer’s satisfaction the more their customer loyalty, the more customers shop in their store and the more likely increase of sales and profits. Consumers, however, have different choices as to what they purchase and to whom they purchase it from. They may choose either catalog, retail store or the internet.

Customer satisfaction is used to measure how products and services provided by the retailer meet or surpass customer’s expectation. It is an important aspect of your business because it provides you with a metric that you can use to improve your business hence improving your profits and business growth. These are the four top reasons why customer satisfaction is so important for your business.

It’s a leading indicator for customer loyalty

Customer’s satisfaction will determine if a customer will make a purchase in the future or not. A satisfied customer can be your potential advocates who can preach to other people about your company, products, and services. You can safely expect them to make back with their friends and make repeat purchases at the same time introducing their friends.

Customer Satisfaction is a Point of differentiation

Business is a competitive marketplace where you compete for customers. Customer satisfaction should be your key differentiator. Companies who provide amazing customer experiences create a conducive environment where customer satisfaction is high and advocacy is plenty.

Increase customer lifetime value

Customer satisfaction plays a huge role on how much revenue your customer will contribute to your business. Successful businesses understand the importance of customer satisfaction, they understand that if you increase your customer satisfaction rate, you increase your marketing dollar returns. Satisfied customers contribute to more revenue than a somewhat satisfied customer.

Improves customer loyalty

It costs you more time to acquire new customers than retaining the already existing customers. Acquiring customers cost a lot of money. Your company spends thousands in marketing to get customer attention, nurturing them and leading them into sales. You save a lot more on customer retention. Customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty.

Customer satisfaction plays a huge role in the success of your business. Not only does it increase revenue or used as a differentiation key point, but it’s a leading indicator to identify an unhappy customer and measure your other customer loyalty. Customer loyalty has significant implications for retailers and small businesses.