GEC NEWS WIREBig data is not a new terminology for the retail, only the exploitation of it has been rampant in this decade. It has been evident that retailers who leverage their big data are in better shape to come up with more customer rewarding and customer preferred products and are better positioned to understand the market dynamics. Words:
The new-gen customers, whom I would fondly like to address as the ‘TechieTricky’ customers, are not easy to satiate. The retail is no more a ‘sell and forget’ business. A mere sign board that reads ‘See you again’ is definitely not enough to bring back a customer to your doorstep. The days of one shop per corner has diminished from the face of earth long ago and now in order to connect and have a deeper understanding of the customer demands and choices—Big data is the true catalyst.
According to Mr. Ashish Dass, President -EMEA, 3iInfotech,effective analysis of large volume and variety of customer data, helps retailers gain a deeper, encompassing understanding of each customer to create a smarter shopping experience. The sources of the large data can vary from POS systems, online transactions, loyalty management programs etc. The sources of the large data can vary from POS systems, online transactions, loyalty management programs etc. “Retailers can penetrate into the customer preferences, get a deep insight of the shopping patterns and achieve precise customer segmentation. This enables them to devise highly poised and effective promotion management schemes.”says Ashish.
“Retail Time Experience Tracking system is taking Big Data to another level in the retail sector. As every other organisation in consumer space, we use data to bring efficiencies in the business to benefit both our partners and consumers.”opinesMr.Amanulla Khan, Director-MEA of Belkin. Renjan George, Managing Director of DVCOM Technology says that initiatives like customer loyalty and engagement programmes collects lot of data for retailers to impress them more on their forthcoming brands, stores, offers, etc. “We provide technology based various solutions that analyses and compiles the data helping its clientele to launch e-campaigns using CRM functionalities to establish relationship with their customers.”he adds.
At Optimus, the belief is that analytics can help guide competitive pricing, new product lines, promotions and deals, enhance product management as per seasonal retail needs, target products to customers, enable strategic content curation, and even help curate shopping experiences in-line with customer tastes and preferences. Basically, Data, that has been analyzed to arrive at key findings and insights can help guide all marketing endeavors of a retailer.“At Optimus, we are ready with a Big Data product and solution portfolio to enable retailers to optimally extract the maximum value from their data capture. Our solution helps manage data to build a holistic, 360 profile of the consumer, with analytical tools and mathematical models that help marketers to deliver tailored and seamless brand experiences to consumers, across channels – online, physical store & mobile – to eventually drive enterprise-wide profitable growth.” says MeeraKaul, CEO of Optimus. Optimus provides a platform driven innovative solution for Retail to ensure the cross-channel optimized experience for customers. The digital store platform basically provides the framework to dock all solutions into one single platform, from point of sale, to flexible buy and return anywhere functionality, baskets, appointments, endless aisles, payments etc. This ability of the solution to help deliver multi-directional content to, from and between online & physical stores, in a seamless manner, enables a continuous and uninterrupted customer experience across all channels.
In terms of creating an effective target customer marketing messages and promotions from Big data, Software AG’s CEM Solution delivers actionable information by capturing customer activity across channels to engage each individual at the right time, through the right channel with a relevant interaction.Mr. Rami Kichli, Vice President, Software AG, Gulf & Levant believes that . Big Data helps analyze customer activities in order to gain insights on trends in consumer demands, tastes and interests and enable companies to design and develop their services and customer interactions to meet the client’s desired objectives and foster satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.
Big Data plays a huge role in customizing marketing messages to target customers in a more efficient and effective manner which in turn leads to higher revenues and profit margins and a stronger competitive advantage. “This is particularly beneficial for retailers, as it allows businesses to implement a more comprehensive digital marketing strategy by coupling customer-defined preferences and past transactions (e.g., historical data) with current information such as location, weather, traffic and social media (e.g., real-time big data) and push relevant offers, creating instant promotions, and building marketing campaigns. Using a set of customizable smart tools, the CEM Solution Accelerator allows retailers to create, manage and execute smarter campaigns through any channel.”says Rami
Source: Cisco
So building brands with Big data doesn’t sound as a choice anymore, right? It is the need of the hour. For forward thinking organizations, big data is the biggest tool to taste success and progress in this immensely competitive market. The stage is set… it is time to unleash the advanced analytics on big data.
