For February’s webinar we had the pleasure of hearing from Mark Abraham, the Practice Area Leader for Marketing and Sales North America and the Global Lead for Personalization and Digital Marketing for The Boston Consulting Group. The discussion centered on modern personalization in retail and how brands can deliver the right individual experience in the right channel at the right time.
Personalization done well can significantly benefit the retailer. Research conducted by BCG found that when the shopping experience was highly personalized customers bought more items, spent more money, and have experienced a higher net promoter score.
During the webinar, Mark gave us five key tips for building and investing in personalization. With the right plan you can make the shopping experience for consumers easy, fast, intuitive, and seamless across multiple touchpoints. Building these personalization capabilities is critical for maximizing the value of the vast amount of data acquired. These five steps can assist retailers in delivering personalization at scale.
Start with a consumer-centric design across all key channels. Identify use cases. What customer experiences are you trying to drive? Which channels will provide value? How will that drive value? How much value will you drive? Etc.
Retailers that wait weeks before running and analyzing each test campaign’s results will be left behind. Speed is critical to testing.
We may be biased, but in-store testing is the most reliable and accurate way to pilot any in-store initiative. Encourage pilot programs and experimentation to learn what works quickly.
“Experimentation is the lifeblood of personalization.” – Mark Abraham
Creating cross-functional teams, allowing for an agile approach, and rapid test and learn will help implement effective personalization by bridging disconnects between organizations, teams, online and brick-and-mortar stores, and product development.
“A 1% win every week is worth a 68% win in a year.” – Mark Abraham.
Retailers need to focus on continuous improvement and delivery.
Retailers of all sizes are figuring out how to do smart and effective personalization. Retailers must act now or risk being left behind.
“Before long, advanced personalization capabilities won’t just be a way to win the retail race–they’ll be essential for staying in it.” – Mark Abraham.
