18 questions that retail marketers are asking themselves!

The fact that the retail-marketing ecosystem has been in a constant state of flux over the past few years is as well-known one. As the landscape evolves, every retailer is faced with a few critical questions that she needs to answer as they approach about leveraging data and technology for deeper customer engagement and targeted marketing.

Not all questions will be applicable to all marketers, but let us see how many of these apply to you. Of course, let us know what you think of the answers from the perspective of your specific retail organization - we're all ears!

1. Is there a seamless way to collect customer data across our brick and mortar stores, without spending too much time, without appearing intrusive and in a quick and hassle-free manner?
2. Am I keeping pace with my consumers? - How am I engaging with them on Social Media and leveraging Facebook check-ins, etc. inside the store?
3. Can I connect my online and offline store worlds and see a Single View of the Customer, across channels? - That WILL help me deliver a truly omni-channel experience. 
4. Is it possible to see how stores are performing on important parameters like New Customer registrations, Loyalty Sales, Customer Churn?
5. Do we have a New Joinee Program? And do we run a Churn-prevention Program? What if I could have a "process" around these activities and reduce the dependency on Store Systems, Store Ops and Regional Managers to deploy them?
6. What is the "richness" of the current Customer Data? How can I capture, augment and enrich our Customer Data for more efficient targeting and higher rates of Contactability, and in the process, reduce my campaign spends/spam rates?
7. If a merchandise is not available at a particular store, do I have the necessary process and systems to drive that sale online, such as not to lose that customer/transaction?
8. With the "connected" consumer always willing to "find out and do more research" am I doing enough about cross-channel threats like Showrooming (Research Offline, Purchase Online) and Webrooming (Research Online, Purchase Offline)?
9. Is our Campaign Management process long and tedious to the point of us having to "shelve" certain campaign ideas merely because its a lot of "effort" to move data across platforms?
10. Is my Email Service Provider seamlessly integrated with data from an integrated Marketing Data Warehouse that connects all sources of Customer Data at one single place?
11. Do all my POS terminals remain perfectly synchronized with regard to my customer data, as well as with our eCommerce website?
12. Am I empowering the store associate with intelligence that is available to me at the corporate office? Wouldn't it be great if the stores had access the all customer-centric information (like notes, brand/size/colour/category preferences), so that conversations with customers were more meaningful?
13. Am I leveraging location-based technologies to tap into prospective customers and using these methodologies to drive footfalls into my stores? Is Foursquare anywhere on my roadmap?
14. How can I intercept customers? Are our store-fronts truly "new-age" - Is there a need to deploy digital signages and leveraging real-time touchpoint-enabling technologies like Beacons, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and WiFi?
15. Do we give out Promo Codes or Offers to customers and enable them to use it across our store and online worlds? Do we have a centralized coupon/offer management system?
16. If my customer data is consistent across platform, my loyalty program should be integrated too - Do we ave the same earn/burn rules across channels to ensure a consistent customer engagement experience?
17. Am I leveraging detailed line-item/SKU data to identify the most appropriate, relevant and personalized cross-sell and up-sell opportunities for customers? Is there a process around it, or is some of it being done ad-hoc occasionally?
18. How would be if we had a Referral Program that was fully integrated with our CRM and Loyalty Programs? - Would our truly engaged customers love recommending our products and services to their friends?

While most retail marketers would have pondered over at least some of these questions, deploying all of them in a structured manner is often easier said than done. The larger your retail set-up, the more considerations. Is your Marketing team well-staffed to take care of all these items, or would it help if a chunk of these could be "automated" via a platform or deployed on the same, with "managed services"?

If you are a mid-sized retailer working on some (or many)) of these initiatives, chances are that you are already working with a bunch of different vendors and service providers. How would it be if most of these services/processes were consolidated on a single platform, or at least a "fewer" number of platforms to reduce your vendor management bandwidth?

Can't wait for NRF's BIG Show 2014!

A retail show celebrating its 103rd edition by itself makes it an interesting show to attend. And when it has pretty much every who's-who in the world of retail is present, the crossroads can be interesting.

I kept a close watch on BIG Show 2013, I had written a short post last year on my TalkingTails blog about the themes that dominated conversations at NRF 2013. Among the key themes of interest were Omni-Channel Retailing, Personalization and how retailers are tackling showrooming. For details, I would recommend checking out Retail TouchPoints's coverage of NRF Big Show 2013.


According to me, the dominant themes this time will be very similar - and of course, very centred around using Technology well. The sessions along with the EXPO are things that I am getting geared up for. We've taken a booth space at Big Show 14, so I am going to be on the floor with the rest of Capillary Technologies' team. Come visit us in the Sponsor Area!

Was happy to download the BIG Show 2014 App to help navigate and keep track of everything that's going on! Let me leave you with a short video that captures the show in a nutshell:

Money2020 and Capillary Technologies at Launchpad360

Among the conferences that I have attended this year, one of them (and perhaps one that had some pretty awesome content) was the Money2020 Conference at Las Vegas this October.

The show was very well done and I liked the fact that people from industries as diverse as Retail, Banking, Telecom and Technology were there - to mingle and explore how each of their respective spaces is converging (or in some sense, inter-dependent) on the other. A confluence of commerce, if you will, in the digitally disrupted age. Which is a good thing, when compared to so many of the other "niche" or audience-focussed conferences that seem to be around everywhere. Having a "broad audience" like this one does lead to a lot of exchange of ideas.

I have actually written quite a detailed write-up about the whole Money2020 experience on my other blog - TalkingTails. So, I am going to link back to that post and leave you with a picture of Capillary's InStore product that we presented at Launchpad360, the innovation showcase event at Money2020!

I found LaunchPad 360 itself to be quite an innovation in itself. It is easy for smaller companies or start-ups like Capillary to get lost with the "biggies" talking about the BIG stuff and of course, spending a lot more for sponsorships and visibility. Launchpad360 offers literally 360 seconds of fame to innovative up-starts to come in and show a quick demo to the audience. We also had a little "Launchpad 360 kiosk" at the area just outside the main Expo hall.

Both pictures used in this post here are from the Money2020's archives.

Here are some more links for reference:

• Money2020 Website
• Facebook Page
• M2020 on Twitter

CRMC 2013 - Retail Marketing and CRM Conference, Chicago

The CRMC is probably one of the most relevant  conferences if you are a retail or consumer CRM focused company, or a vendor providing other services in the space. Being a conference with a very niche subject area (unlike broader conferences on Retail/Consumer Marketing or Digital Marketing in general), the audience is very relevant and "targeted!" ;)

CRMC 2013 was held at The Hilton, Chicago and kudos to Devon Wylie and team for having created a perfectly programmed event with true, good content. With content coming in from virtually the who's who of Retail CRM, Loyalty and Analytics, there was much to learn and take home.

I particularly liked something Brian Solis (@briansolis), of the Altimeter Group, said in his talk around Digital Anthropology. He said Gen-C or "Generation Connected" is so used to devices that they find it hard to imagine how life would be without it. His daughter for instance, thinks a regular print magazine is an "iPad that does not work!"

Among other sessions there were some very interesting sessions from dunnhumby, a leader in analytics-driven customer engagement, and Epsilon, who had some interesting nuggets of information they shared from their work for Orvis and Chicos. I attended a couple of working sessions on TIBCO Loyalty/Loyalty Lab that I found quite informative. And of course, my favourite among the Retailer Presentations was the "IKEA Family" Loyalty Program. It brought forth how the Brand and the Loyalty Program aer virtually inseparable in today's digital environment.

Overall, great show, fantastic content, interesting conversations and an audience that most retail-focused companies will like! :)

I am sure the next version of the show in 2014 is going to be bigger and better. And of course, I will remain all-ears on some good content from them!

For more information on CRMC 2014, check out:
CRMC Website: www.thecrmc.com
Twitter: @CRMCRetail

RetailTech and more at Decoded Fashion, NYC

I was incidentally at New York during the last Decoded Fashion Meetup Event, so I decided to drop-in and check it out. And was mighty impressed. Good work Liz and team!

Decoded Fashion, in their own words, "..creates events and curated discussions that accelerate innovation at the intersection of fashion and retail."

True to its name, the event had a compact, and power-packed agenda of short, quick talks by people, sharing their experiences and innovations. It was hosted at the Midtown Manhattan headquarters of the GILT Group and was attended by 100 people, which is normally the capacity for such meetups.
The roster of speakers for the evening included founders of tech-startups, creating disruptions in the Fashion-Tech area.

Here is a file picture of the event, from the DecodedFashion Meetup Archives:

One of the interesting concepts I found was that of Stylitics, which aggregates user-created data to generate insights for retailers. Basically, consumers download an app and share/tag their purchases on the platform. They are creating a digital wardrobe for themselves, but in essence what they are also doing, is proving a huge bunch of data for cross-retailer understanding on products and categories that complement each other (and coexist in) inside each of our unique wardrobes.

The other thing I distinctly remember is Optimizely was pretty much mentioned in almost every other presentation as being the "go-to" people for a whole range of things. I even remember tweeting about this from the event, and was promptly RT-ed by the folks at Optimizely!

All in all, the event was fun, engagement and informative. Pretty much what I would want from an evening like that. Will definitely attend another DecodedFashion event if I can and if the agenda looks interesting!