Retail
Changing shopping behavior — retailers must react
Decreasing purchasing power due to inflation, growing competition due to international expansion and increasing payment fraud — it's not easy for retail right now.
In addition, customers want to be addressed more and more personally and expect retailers to meet them in difficult times and reward their loyalty through personalized discounts, for example.
Data can provide the solution. Because the customer journey in retail must be just as clearly defined as it is in eCommerce. In addition, solutions such as retail media enable new sources of income and business models — and also increase customer satisfaction.
Data as a solution to retail challenges
In the future of retail, there are two things that should not be neglected:
- The creation of new business models
- Satisfying existing customers
Due to the challenges of the current era, retailers must rethink and retain existing customers even more by improving the customer journey. Customers expect flexible and cross-channel shopping opportunities. In addition, there is an ever-increasing idea of sustainability among consumers, which means that retailers must also increasingly disclose how they work. Customer satisfaction is paramount.
At the same time, there are new business models, for example through retail media or omni-channel approaches to social commerce, which is particularly popular with Gen Z.
Retail therefore has many options — they just have to be used correctly!
Improve customer experience in retail
Customer satisfaction is the focus of retail — because if they don't get the shopping experience they want, they simply shop somewhere else. That is why it is immensely important to improve the shopping experience not only through people and on a personal, interactive level, but also by addressing customers on their devices, through apps, email or advertisements.
In order to design a modern customer journey with close customer loyalty, accurate data analysis is essential. The challenge for retailers is to bring together data from various sources in order to gain insights into customer needs, customer experience satisfaction or forecasts of future customer behavior.
Retail media as a new business model
Retail media in retail has evolved significantly in recent years and offers significant opportunities for retailers and brands. It refers to paid media placements within or in conjunction with a third-party retail ecosystem that target consumers at the point of sale. The collection of data from loyalty cards, surveys, customer feedback and apps enables companies to better understand and target their target groups. Retail media networks (RMNs) are advertising infrastructures that consist of digital channels and are offered by retail companies to third-party brands for advertising purposes. However, these networks are not standardized and require an individual interpretation of each company's data.
Demand for and investment in retail media will continue to grow due to uncertain global economic prospects. Retail media is seen as a mid and lower funnel tactic for conversion and combines larger brand budgets with media delivery, which is now directly linked to sales. Retail media offerings go beyond digital platforms with data from retailers and are becoming more of a practice than a product. RMNs enable brands and retailers to use the retailer's robust initial data to reach consumers who matter most to the brand.
For retailers, retail media is a fantastic opportunity to generate additional income while effectively using existing space and at the same time building partnerships with other companies.
The trade landscape in Germany is very diverse. There are not only large chains and multi-story stores, but also smaller stores. Many connect stationary retail with an online shop or social commerce.
Regardless of what exactly the respective business looks like: The customer experience can be significantly improved through data, whether by addressing customers at the right time, combining online and offline data, or through loyalty programs and forecasts of future customer behavior.
The Data Institute supports retailers in developing individual data strategies and developing a data-driven organization, as well as choosing the right tools for a stable data architecture.
Use data specifically and securely in retail
Retail case studies
Here you can find an insight into our case studies.
