The world of commerce has changed considerably. Where once stood your local corner shop now stands an ever-expanding sea of online merchants. More than £10 billion was spent online in the month of November 2013 showing a 20 per cent increase on last year and a 30 per cent month-on-month growth making online sales the highest ever in the UK, according to the IMRG Capgemini e-retail Sales Index.

As marketers strive to incessantly grow their customer base, the one thing they want to emulate is the personal and high-quality customer service small corner shops have traditionally always provided.

Knowing your customer

Online businesses are already beginning to understand the vast potential that data analytics can offer them. In fact, according to research by MGI and McKinsey's Business Technology Office, it is estimated that a retailer using big data to the full could increase its operating margin by more than 60 per cent. With the help of affordable cloud-based technology, coupled with elastic storage, it is now economically viable even for small and medium-sized online retailers to invest in new ways of understanding their customers.

Marketers have access to a vast pool of customer data but the information is useless unless it is analysed and interpreted to provide key intelligence on customers. They should be using data on each customer’s purchase behaviour, browsing history, website and email behaviour, contact data, and any additional offline information the customer has provided to gain a better understanding of their position in the customer lifecycle and their potential for the business.

Square Meal squares up to competitors

One company that realised the importance of this was Square Meal, the UK’s leading guide to finding and booking restaurants, bars, venues and events. The company implemented predictive technology to deliver automated campaigns that are smarter than ever before. This technology allows Square Meal to target customer in the same sophisticated manner that e-commerce giants such as Amazon and eBay currently undertake.

As a result of implementing the predictive recommendation technology, Square Meal customers are now 67 per cent more likely to click through to a restaurant from email recommendations, as well as 400 per cent more likely to convert, thus growing their brand loyalty.

Personalise the customer experience

Treating each customer as an individual has never been more important. With competitors no more than a click away, customers now expect a top-quality, personalised shopping experience from businesses.

The traditional corner shop never needed automated software to understand its customers because its limited customer base meant it could easily get to know individual customers through years of experience. But with the souring number of online shoppers that online retailers will never meet in person, it’s now more than ever to use automated technology to personalise communications for large numbers of customers. By using automated solutions, marketers can create tailored, intelligent sequence of communications for individual customers to ensure they target each customer with relevant information on a regular basis.

Improve customer loyalty

Today, the four most important questions any marketer needs to be able to answer are: who is the customer? What content fits them best? When and how can we reach the customer? The answers to these questions were achieved by corner shop owners/salespeople over a number of years, but advanced technology can provide businesses of all sizes with the same insight in a matter of seconds.

With competition in the ecommerce industry at an all-time high, it’s imperative that marketers are able to identify, predict and recommend relevant products and services to customers better than ever before. Online merchants of all sizes need to have the ability to think globally and act locally when it comes to their customer base. Not only will this help them win new and retain existing customers, but will also give them the opportunity to create unwavering customer loyalty. Gaining this competitive edge is by definition what a “corner shop corporation” aims to achieve.

 

By Steven Ledgerwood, UK managing director at emarsys

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