Follow the Elite Retail Performers: Using Data Platforms to Drive Your Retail Results

Consumer Experience in the Retail Renaissance is an important global survey and analysis that encompasses over 550 branded leaders in retail. An understanding of this research and its significance is essential to your brand success, and can be used to create your own model of operations.

It may seem counterintuitive to a lot of what you may be reading, but an analysis of what the elite brands are achieving via their strategies shows that it is indeed a time of retail renaissance. And this renaissance can transform a brand, but only if you are able to connect the consumer experience to what the data is telling you, and align this information throughout every aspect of your brand and your business offerings.

"If AI is the Rocket Ship, Data is the Rocket Fuel"

Data gives the insights into how you must look to create consumer experiences that will be powerful and drive business results. To achieve this, brands must look to empower themselves by utilizing and building blocks of data. Using this data can guide the brand
to create the consumer experiences that will stand out and build its success. Proper use of this data will create the foundational elements that will support and guide each aspect of your business going forward.

Determining how your brand will assemble the data into a dynamic and cross-functional, actionable platform will be the first step toward knowing the value that must be generated for your customer base.

Use the Elite performer's Roadmap as your guide

Is it possible to follow the "roadmap to success" that is being followed by the elite high- performing brands and achieve the same level of success? Yes, and now more than ever before. Because this data is available to you if you set your platforms up properly.

How can we implement data dynamically into our day-to-day business strategy and activities?

Look at what the elite performers are doing with the 3 phases of action below. By definition, the elite performers included in the study are identified as those brands which have increased their revenue by more than 10% during the past fiscal year, and high performers have increased their revenue by 1%-10% in the past fiscal year. Underperformers are classified as those whose revenue did not change or decreased during the same period.

Phases of Action for Your Future Elite Brand to Undertake

Elite Performers have created value by taking these steps :

Phase 1 - Embed Data into Organizational Principles

Using data from your enterprise activities will only impact your business if your organization understands and implements the consumer data you gather on that platform. Create a powerful consumer experience strategy within your organization across all channels and functions by creating a plan to develop, maintain and embed the data you collect in the principles that define your organization.

Phase 2 - Turn Data into Intelligence

As you collect data continuously you must also create a plan to use it continuously. This is why following the strategies of the elite performing brands will have such a huge impact on your business. Using AI to begin to develop "hyper-segmented personalization" will give you the option to respond in an immediate way to developing consumer shifts and

patterns you will be observing. It will help you to find the best customers and expand into new markets as your business grows.

Phase 3 - Adopt a Unified Consumer Engagement Platform

Creating a data management platform and utilizing it properly will allow you to transform the insights you have gathered into engaging your consumers, moving them from unknown shoppers at the opening to your funnel to engaged consumers throughout the entire funnel you have created.

It’s important to bring a human touch to all this data. But many businesses are overwhelmed, and don’t know where to begin. Marketing and Sales teams are often working with only fragmented pieces of the entire picture, and that data is held in their own tools and systems which are separate from the bigger picture. Whether you are a start-up that is just beginning to experience increasingly rapid growth, or a larger company that has a huge amount of incoming data to utilize, it could all be wasted if you don’t begin to create a deeper layer of personalization.

This is why now is the best time to set your platforms up and optimize your business results. Look to these industry leaders for guidance, and begin to win your customer base at the very top of your sales funnel, moving them through and gaining market share, by creating a win- win proposition using the data you gather and analyze. It's the optimal way forward to make your impact and continue to build your brand for years to come!