Fear Of Losing Customers Will Drive Retailers' Investment In Tech

One of the biggest challenges that retailers will face in 2014 is the fear of losing their customers, as well as winning new ones, in a very competitive business environment. To address these challenges more and more companies will make aggressive investments in technology to gather intelligence about the buying trends and experiences of their customers. The most exciting area of growth is expected to be the use of data analytics as companies try to understand real time consumer buying patterns and behaviours. In the wake of recent store closures, what will highlight the drivers of customer loyalty are processes like Real Time Data Analytics and Single View of Customer. This will enable retailers to provide a tailored shopping experience to ensure customer retention, says ITC Infotech, a global IT services and solutions company.

With the holiday season in full swing, organisations are all too aware that this is a vital period of retail activity. It becomes imperative for companies to have vital information regarding vast blind spots about where their target customers are purchasing, whether their experiences are negative, and which segment of their customer base is in the ‘casualty zone’. These valuable pieces of information may well prove to be the difference between a prosperous festive period and becoming the latest in a string of high street casualties. In an age of increased mobile activity, spawned by the proliferation of social media, news of a negative shopping experience can become viral almost immediately and have serious consequences. A ‘customer-centric’ strategy has, therefore, never been more critical.

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In the current uncertainty in the economic scenario and with companies struggling to convince consumers to purchase their goods or services, Customer Experience Management (CX), the new frontier in Customer Relationship Management, has become a key component in the retailer’s arsenal. Retaining and selling to existing customers is far easier than attracting new ones therefore deep, targeted customer engagement has now become a necessity. Appreciating that the contemporary business landscape is characterised by hyper competition for a finite customer base, ITC Infotech provides unmatched expertise and unparalleled end-to-end services in the area of CX.

Hardeep Singh Garewal, President of European Operations at ITC Infotech said, “Large swathes of retailers’ customers are unknown to them, in some cases, up to 85%. In many cases, companies have little knowledge of customer purchasing decisions. Customer Experience Management helps to provide a strategic framework that retailers can use to gain business insights from multichannel data. These insights enable companies to drive profits and customer satisfaction. Retailers need to be equipped to handle an abundance of data from overlapping sources such as mobile, social, in-store and e-commerce sites and then leverage this data for enhancing their customer’s shopping experience.”

CX provides retailers with a clear roadmap that closely links technology, strategy and capabilities. This entails engaging a technology partner with deep domain expertise of the retail landscape. The technology partner should also possess technical skills that can leverage existing technology or deploy new tools, involving cutting edge analytics to meet business goals. This is where ITC Infotech excels and would be the perfect choice for retailers. ITC Infotech’s Customer Insights solution provides companies with practically instant analytical data that allows them to respond quickly to trends and user behaviour. Companies can now track orders, analyse website navigation, view shopping chart usage and gather knowledge of other kinds of online or digital activity - all in real time.

Customer insights are the key to growth for companies around the world. Hardeep says that through “an effective Customer Management Process, ITC can help retailers generate customer insights and use this information for pinpointing successful campaign strategies.” Hardeep continued, “Retailers need to access with speed what their customers are doing across a portfolio of platforms. To stay current, retail businesses need an integrated approach combining physical stores, mobile devices, and desktop computers, to create a seamless customer experience in a multichannel environment.”

ITC Infotech has helped retailers transform their Customer Management Process by helping them establish a Single View of Customer, known as SVoC, whereby all the data known by an organisation about their customers can be collected and stored in one secure place. Consumers expect all interactions (irrespective of which channel they use) to reflect a consistent understanding of their history and preferences. Hardeep concluded, “As much as they enjoy being able to access their favourite brands through multiple channels, customers want a consistent experience on their mobile, online and in-store. If the purchase experience is not seamless across channels, retailers will lose revenue, brand value and loyal customers to hungry competitors. They have to implement integrated processes to maintain a positive customer experience while dealing with the task of improving operational efficiency, and ITC Infotech has the experience and expertise to accomplish these goals.” Speed and real time data analytics are going to be hugely valuable for companies as they try to understand their customers.