Category: CRM Experts

​​Customer Reviews are critical. They mix discovery, analyses and action. They require a methodological approach to simplify it and deliver practical and actionable recommendations. 

As we regularly do Category Reviews or Brand Reviews, it has become also necessary to perform regular Customer Reviews. Such Customer Reviews can be automated with Ulys CRM. The key objectives of the Customer Reviews are to: 

Understand Customer Behavior: Insights gained from understanding customer behavior (such as specific segments’ preferences or spending patterns) inform the need for targeted actions. This is where you determine which segments require intervention or which product categories need promotion. 

Improve Retention and Engagement: The actionable strategies you develop (e.g., promotions to increase basket sizes or campaigns to highlight neglected products) are directly aimed at improving customer retention and engagement. This objective focuses on implementing changes to enhance customer loyalty. 

Identify the actions required: Translating insights into actions involves tailoring offers, targeting offers refining reward structures, and improving messaging based on the insights you’ve gathered. 

The Customer Review evolves in a multi-format and sales channels environment, across several Customers segment and delivers recommendations that involve both Marketing and Category Management teams. A structured and methodological approach, which we are sharing below, helps simplify its complexity and deliver practical and actionable recommendations. 

The Customer Review structure can follow a 4 steps transversal approach across Customer Segments, Sales Channels (formats) and Categories with action in Mind. 

Let’s now review each step and how to find actionable insights that will strengthen your Customer retention, engagement and sales!

1. Customer Segments Analysis 

The objectives of the Customer Segments analyses are to understand which segments need attention in which sales channel or format. 

It is a good idea to start the Customer Segment Analysis by reviewing the performance of different customer segments. Look at metrics such as purchase frequency, average basket size, and overall engagement. 

This analysis can lead to identifying Behavioral Insights and Trends. For segments that show issues or opportunities, we will dive deeper into their interactions with different product categories. This might involve analyzing category-specific purchase patterns, preferences, and trends. 

The next step should bring us to understand how Retention works.  Based on your findings, you can create tailored strategies for each segment. For example, if a segment is underperforming in a certain format or channel, you might implement targeted promotions or special offers to boost engagement with that category on the most impactful segment.¹ 

The next component to analyse should be the Acquisition. Not only do we want to identify the growth of loyal shoppers, but we also want to measure the evolution of the acquisition costs, as well as understanding what strategies work well and which ones don’t. 

Engagement must also be measured. The way engagement is measured depends on each company and can be as simple as it can be complex². Online channels have their own metrics that can be automatically accessed through Google or Microsoft tools. Other metrics like repeat purchase, Customer Lifetime Value, Churn or campaigns transformation rate as well Customer Satisfaction Surveys or Net Promoter Scores can be considered. 

The matrix below summarizes how this Customer Segment Review can be simply doner 

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(evol: evolution vs. last month │Trend: trend over the last 6 months) 

The prioritization of the action will be based on the sales weight of each channel and, inside a channel, the sales weight of each KPI. 

The type of action that can be decided will usually be targeted campaigns based on the KPI to be primarily activated in the selected sales channel for the selected customer segment group³

2. Category Analyses from A Shopper Perspective 

The Customer analysis for your Strategic Categories explains what is not on par with your plans and delivers recommendations that are specific to selected customer segments in specific categories. 

The Category analysis will mix 3 dimensions: Categories⁴, sales channel and shopper behaviors. In addition to the Shopper behavior Metrics used in the Customer Segment Analysis, for each category, the Sales Contribution and Sales growth, Penetration and Share of Wallet will be added to have a better understanding of the behaviors within the category. 

The analysis matrix is described below: 

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To prioritize the actions, it is recommended to setup 

• a simple Overall Category Scoring Index to select the most important categories to work on 

• a simple Lever Priority Index to select the right KPI to focus on for the selected categories 

• A simple visualization aid so Teams can quickly decide which category to activate and which lever to stimulate. 

The type of action that can be decided will usually be targeted campaigns based on the KPI to be primarily activated in the selected sales channel for the selected category and Shopper behavior.

3. Combining Customer Segments & Categories Perspectives for Actions 

Combining manually the 2 perspectives and prioritizing the right categories (the one with the biggest impact on sales) and the right customer behavior lever (the one that will have the biggest influence on sales) can be a daunting task. 

To make this simple and lead to a quick focus on action, the heatmap concept is very useful. This heat map is built with the Overall Category Scoring Index, the Level Priority Index and an Impact Score Index. The Impact Score Index estimates the sales increase impact for each lever.  

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What the Marketing team must now work on is a heatmap as shown on the left. 

4. Mapping the right Action with the right Symptom 

There are obviously no absolute rules for this mapping. In the table below, we have tried to provide meaningful examples 

Metric	Definition	Dimension	Analysis Focus	Action	Examples5
Shopper Frequency	Number of visits of a customer over a specific period	Channels Formats Customer Segments	Trends in customers engagement Cross channels & formats comparison Cross Segments comparison	Increase shopping frequency Address specific declining formats, channels or segments	% discount or Points when shop certain number of times over a period Stamp Cards
Basket $	Average amount spent by customers per visit	Channels Formats Customer Segments	Assess High Value customers across Segments Identify categories where the spending decrease most	Optimize products and pricing Target promotions on concerned segments	% discount or rewards over a certain amount of spending Next best offers to enlarge shoppers’ choice
Nbr. Items per basket	Average number of items purchased by transaction	Channels Formats Customer Segments	Assess cross-selling and up-selling Identify categories where the spending decrease most	Increase promotion bundling Review Assortment to encourage higher purchase volumes	Buy X get Y promotions Target  Next best offers to enlarge shoppers’ choice
Penetration	Percentage of customers purchasing from a category	Channels Formats Customer Segment	Identify what has changed in the concerned categories6	Drive Traffic to the category	Special discount on the category New Items information
Share of Wallet	Proportion of Customer spent allocated to a category	Channels Formats Customer Segment	Analyze the evolution of each categories weight as per shoppers’ preferences by segment Prioritize high share categories in resources allocations	Increase share of wallet by increasing categories’ value proposition	% discount or rewards over a certain amount of spending Products bundling or cross-selling Personalized recommendations
Category / Brand Frequency	Number times customers purchase from a specific category over a period	Channels Formats Customer Segment	Identify categories that drives shopping frequency Track promotions performances	Boost repeat purchase with targeted category promotions Expand successful categories to other format or channels	% discount or rewards over a certain number of repeat purchases Rewards next purchase in the category
Retention	Ratio of customer that repeat purchase over time	Channels Formats Customer Segment	Assess loyalty and engagement over time  Identify factors affecting retention	Enhance loyalty program based on retention insights	Tiered Loyalty Anniversary rewards Behavior based rewards (referrals, Exclusive offers

5. Selecting the Right Products 

When you setup a promotion, targeted or not, personalized or not, you are basically targeting 1 of these 3 objectives: 

1. Increase Purchase Frequency: Encourage existing customers to buy more of a product they’ve already purchased. This could involve offering a quantity discount or bundling it with complementary products. 

2. Expand Product Range Within Category: Promote related or complementary products within the same category. For instance, if a customer frequently buys coffee beans, you might suggest a coffee grinder or a new flavor. 

3. Cross-Sell to New Categories: Introduce products from different categories that the customer might be interested in based on their purchasing history or preferences. For example, if a customer often buys running shoes, you could suggest sports nutrition supplements. 

To increase the purchase Frequency, usual selection key will be, within the customer segment: 

• Increase Purchase Frequency: Top selling item, Top Promoted Items, Top penetration items or Top products with a selected mechanics 

• Expand Product Range Within Category: same item selection key but for the sub-categories or brand that the cross-selling analyses recommend. An advanced approach can use a next best offer algorithm within the category 

• Cross-Sell to New Categories: same item selection key but for the sub-categories or brand that the cross-selling analyses recommend. An advanced approach can use a next best offer algorithm a group of categories 

By Following this approach, you can develop and product automatic Customer Reviews with practical data-driven recommendations and follow their performances once executed. 

Contact us to turn your Customer Data into actionable insights that drive retention and basket size.

contact@hyper-trade.com

​In today’s competitive retail landscape, understanding and nurturing customer relationships is paramount. Given the current economic conditions, it is timely for most retailers to explore the adoption of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. 

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can be your secret weapon for driving growth, enhancing customer loyalty, and outperforming competitors. However, selecting and implementing the right CRM can be overwhelming.  

This guide will walk you through the essential steps to CRM success, from defining your goals to reaping the rewards. 

Understanding Your Business Needs 

• Identify your pain points: Are you struggling with customer retention, sales efficiency, or data management? 

• Define clear objectives: What do you hope to achieve with a CRM? Increased sales, improved customer service, or deeper customer insights? Which Metrics will you choose to measure success? 

• Assess your current systems: Evaluate your existing technology infrastructure to ensure seamless CRM integration. One focus Point is the POS: what type of promotion mechanics its it able to manage. 

Data Assessment: The Foundation for Success 

• Understanding your data landscape: Evaluate the quality, consistency, and completeness of your existing customer and products data. 

• Identify your Customer Data Capture: evaluate the quality of the Customer Data you capture, and how you can improve it if required. 

• Identifying data gaps: Pinpoint missing information that could hinder CRM effectiveness. 

• Data cleansing and standardization: Discuss the importance of accurate and uniform data for optimal CRM performance. 

• Data governance: Establish processes for data management and maintenance, as well as complete compliance with existing laws and regulations. 

Building a Successful CRM Team 

• Defining CRM team roles and responsibilities: Outlining the key positions (e.g., CRM manager, data analyst, CRM administrator) and their duties, as well as who will they report to 

• Define the CRM team’s budget: the CRM can be a source of costs (including margin investments) as well as a revenue center (data sharing, sponsored campaigns, etc.). Defining the budget and validation processes is therefore important 

• Cross-functional collaboration: Emphasizing the importance of teamwork and communication with other departments (sales, marketing, customer service, IT). 

• Skills and expertise: Highlighting the necessary skills for CRM team members (e.g., data analysis, customer relationship management, technology proficiency). 

• Training and development: Investing in ongoing training to keep the team up to date with CRM trends and best practices. 

Selecting the Right CRM 

• Key features to consider: Look for a CRM that aligns with your business size, industry, and specific needs. 

• Scalability and flexibility: Choose a solution that can grow with your business. 

• Integration capabilities: Ensure compatibility with your existing systems (POS, e-commerce, etc.). 

• Cost-benefit analysis: Weigh the initial investment against long-term returns. 

Implementation and Adoption 

• Data cleansing and standardization: Ensure data accuracy and consistency for optimal CRM performance. 

• User training and adoption: Empower your team with the knowledge and skills to utilize the CRM effectively. 

• Phasing: It is recommended to define a gradual and step-by-step ramp-up, with clear success criteria for moving from one stage to the next. 

• Change management: Address resistance to change and foster a CRM-centric culture. 

Maximizing Your CRM Investment 

• Leverage customer data: Utilize insights to personalize customer experiences and tailor marketing campaigns. 

• Automate processes: Streamline tasks and improve efficiency. 

• Engage collaboratively with Suppliers: crate personalized and targeted campaigns, and share valuable customer insights. 

• Measure and optimize: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess CRM effectiveness. 

• Continuous improvement: Regularly evaluate and refine your CRM strategy. 

CRM main business Objectives 

Top 5 Mistakes Retailers make with CRM 

1. Neglecting Data Quality 

• Inaccurate, incomplete, or duplicated customer data hampers the CRM’s effectiveness. 

• Poor data quality leads to incorrect customer segmentation, ineffective marketing campaigns, and subpar customer experiences. 

2. Failing to Define Clear Objectives 

• Without clear goals, it’s difficult to measure success or justify the CRM investment. 

• Retailers often implement CRM without a defined strategy, leading to underutilization of the system. 

3. Insufficient User Adoption and Training 

• Employees resistant to change or unfamiliar with the CRM’s capabilities hinder its effectiveness. 

• Lack of training results in missed opportunities and a negative impact on customer interactions. 

4. Overlooking Customer Segmentation 

• Not dividing customers into meaningful segments based on demographics, behavior, or preferences. 

• Inaccurate segmentation leads to irrelevant marketing campaigns and a diminished customer experience 

5. Lack of Regular Review and Improvement 

• Not consistently evaluating the CRM’s performance and identifying areas for enhancement. 

• Missed opportunities to optimize the CRM and adapt to changing business needs. 

Implementing a CRM system is a strategic decision that can yield significant benefits for your retail business. By following this guide and partnering with experienced CRM experts like Hypertrade, you can unlock the full potential of customer relationships and drive sustainable growth. 

With our solution ULYS, Hypertrade is committed to helping retailers achieve CRM success. Our team of experts can provide tailored solutions, implementation phasing and business support, and ongoing guidance.

Unlock the full potential of your customer data. Contact us for a free CRM assessment 

You might also like: 

Retail CRM and Customer Journeys 

CRM Campaign Automation 

Top 10 Retail CRM Benefits 

In today’s competitive retail landscape, customer experience is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity. A recent research by Statista (APAC Importance of Personalized Customer Experience by Country)  say that le likelihood of quitting a Brand due to a poor customer experience vary between 51% and 90%. This experience, encompassing every touchpoint a customer has with your retail brand, is best understood as a journey – the customer’s journey. 

Crafting a seamless and personalized customer journey is crucial for building brand loyalty and driving sales. Enter Retail CRM, a powerful tool that empowers retailers and brands to understand their customers, personalize their experience, and ultimately create the ultimate customer journey. Hypertrade Software Solutions offers a state-of-the-art Retail CRM solution specifically designed to achieve this goal. 

Segmentation as a starting point: Tailoring the Journey for Different Customer Groups 

Not all customers are created equal. The first level of understanding about customers is how to segment them. The segmentation can be strategic (i.e. the same segmentation will be used throughout the year to measure the evolution of each segment and the possible movement of individual shoppers from one segment to another one) or tactical (specific segments are built to understand the behaviors of specific customers groups throughout selected periods of time or sales channels. 
Best practices recommend to: 

• use a combination of both segmentation types. 
• ensure that each segmentation incorporates shopping behavior metrics (basket size, category penetration, frequency…) 

Flexibility in your customer segmentation will enable marketers to understand and differentiate customer groups with their differences in preferences and behaviors, and therefore tailor the journeys for each group. 

Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software empowers you to create customer segments based on various criteria. Imagine segmenting customers who frequently buy running shoes. You can then craft targeted email campaigns showcasing new running shoe arrivals, exclusive discounts on running apparel, or training tips relevant to runners. This level of segmentation ensures your marketing efforts resonate with each customer group, leading to higher engagement and conversions. 

Understanding Your Customers: The Power of Personalization 

At the heart of the customer journey lies customer behavior. What products do they browse or buy? What motivates their purchases? How do they interact with your commercial offer across different channels? Retail CRM excels at gathering and analyzing this valuable data. 

This data empowers retailers to personalize the customer journey. Imagine sending targeted ad based on a customer’s recent non-purchase behavior or offering personalized product recommendations on your website based on cross-merchandising or Next Best Offer algorithm. And solutions like LAGO are able to bring this Personalisation to a website or an app home page.  

The benefits of personalization are undeniable. In addition to the impact on sales, it also boosts loyalty. Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software facilitates such personalization through features like customer segment profiles, comprehensive purchase tracking, and seamless integration with loyalty programs. 

Building the Blocks: Tactical Strategies for Each Stage 

A well-defined customer journey can be traditionally broken down into four key stages: 

1. Awareness: This is where potential customers first discover your brand. 

2. Consideration: Customers learn more about your products and consider making a purchase. 

3. Purchase: The conversion takes place – the customer makes the purchase. 

4. Post-purchase: Retain loyal customers and encourage advocacy. 

At Hypertrade, we like articulating the journey around Loyal Customers Life Cycle, as for example: 

1. Onboarding: your customer just joined your loyalty program 

2. First Purchases: you customers are testing and experimenting their first purchases, online or offline. 

3. Life Cycles: from social events to commercial operations and targeted campaigns, your customers are benefiting from specific offers – either transactional or informational 

4. Lapsing: some customers are decreasing both their shopping frequency and spending, and its time to know why so corrective actions can be deployed 

Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software offers a treasure trove of functionalities – that can be all automated – to enhance each stage: 

• Onboarding: create automation to welcome the newcomers, gratify their first transactions and progressively share the benefits your Loyalty Program offers. 
• First Purchases: Follow up the purchase activities and start understanding newcomers browsing and shopping preferences. Stimuli can be offered in case of a low activity. 
• Life Cycles: With a growing purchase history, shopping patterns and preferences are becoming clearer. You can nurture customer relationships with personalized post-purchase emails requesting feedback, offering exclusive discounts for repeat purchases, and rewarding loyalty program members. 
• Lapsing: You can save your customer relationships by automatically identifying lapsing customers and maintain the relationship with, here again, a variety of informational or transactional personalized contents. 

Alignment with Promotion Plans: A Unified Customer Experience 

A seamless customer journey requires alignment between your Retail CRM efforts and your overall promotion plan. Each retailer has its own communication and promotion plan, that will include a variety of events like seasonal sales, flash deals, or loyalty program point multipliers. Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software integrates with your marketing automation tools, allowing you to design targeted email campaigns and social media posts promoting these initiatives. 

Imagine a simple scenario where you’re running a back-to-school promotion offering discounts on backpacks and notebooks. Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software can identify customers who have purchased these items in the past. You can then craft targeted email campaigns promoting the back-to-school sale, showcasing relevant products, and highlighting the exclusive discounts available. This ensures a unified customer experience where promotions are communicated effectively and resonate with the most relevant customer segments. 

Vendor Management & Personalized Campaigns 

Retailers’ loyalty programs collect valuable data on customer behavior, including what they buy and how often they get things shipped. Suppliers are eager to sponsor targeted and personalized ad campaigns using this shipping data.  

This allows them to reach the right customers with the right message at the right time, significantly boosting the chances of a sale and driving up demand for their products. 

Some of these campaigns can be integrated into each supplier’s yearling trading agreement as well as be used for tactical sales and market share boost. 
 

Automating the Journey: Streamlining Customer Interactions

In today’s fast-paced world, automation plays a crucial role in streamlining customer interactions. Each of these customer touch points, each event, each change of behavior can be defined as a trigger for a specific campaign, for a specific customer segment, with a specific personalized offer. 

Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software goes beyond manual outreach, offering a suite of automated features like, for example 

• Abandoned Cart Reminders: Customers often abandon carts due to distractions. Hypertrade’s CRM can automatically send gentle reminders, prompting them to complete their purchase. 
• Personalized Welcome Emails: Make a lasting first impression! Hypertrade’s CRM allows you to set up automated welcome emails for new customers, offering a personalized greeting and introducing them to your brand story. 

• Birthday and Anniversary Offers: Personalized birthday or anniversary emails with special offers showcase that you care. Hypertrade’s CRM automates this process, fostering customer loyalty. 
• Triggered Email Campaigns: Take personalization a step further with automated email campaigns based on purchase history or browsing behavior. Imagine sending emails showcasing complementary products to a customer’s recent purchase – Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software makes it effortless. 

By leveraging the power of automation, Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software enable retailers to achieve 3 major business benefits: 

• Increase efficiency and cost savings. 
• Improve consistency and scalability. 
• Continuous increase of Customer understanding. 

Discover Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software, a retail CRM solution developed by Hypertrade.

Contact us to learn how we can help you improve your omnichannel Customer Journeys 

• Africa & Middle East : Katie Trinh 
• South East Asia : Peerapol Prakaisak 
• Philippines : Annika Dadivas 

In today’s dynamic market landscape, consumer loyalty is a precious commodity. Faced with an abundance of choices and ever-evolving preferences, customers are increasingly prone to “brand switching”, presentings a significant challenge for businesses, resulting in lost revenue, hindered growth, and increased marketing costs.

However, brands needn’t be passive observers in the face of this shifting loyalty landscape. By leveraging data-driven insights and implementing strategic initiatives, businesses can effectively combat brand switching and foster long-term customer relationships.

This article explores various strategies brands can utilize to understand and minimize brand switching, drawing on capabilities of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software like Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software.

Harnessing the Power of POS Data

Traditional methods of understanding customer behavior often rely on surveys and focus groups, which can be time-consuming, subjective, and offer limited data points. In contrast, Point-of-Sale (POS) data provides a treasure trove of objective, real-time information on customer purchasing habits. By analyzing past purchase histories, brands can identify:  

• Customers who haven’t bought from them recently or  
• Customer who left and started purchasing competing products.  
• Proactive engagement actions, enabling brands to reaching out to these at risk customers, at the right time, with personalized offers and incentives to entice them back.  

Solutions like Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software can analyze and interpret this data to identify patterns and trends in brand switching behavior.

Targeted Campaigns Based on Behavior

One-size-fits-all marketing campaigns are no longer effective in today’s diverse and segmented market. Understanding the “why” behind brand switching is crucial to crafting targeted campaigns that resonate with specific customer segments.

By analyzing POS data alongside customer demographics, purchase history, and product preferences, Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software can uncover underlying factors influencing customer behavior. .

For example, particular customer segment may switch brands due to concerns about  

• Product Quality  
• Price Changes
• Competitor Promotional Offers

Armed with such insights, brands can tailor their messaging and offers to address specific concerns traditional customer surveys may not uncover and encourage greater loyalty.

Beyond Panels: Data-Driven Insights for Understanding Switching Behavior

While customer panels provide valuable information, they are often challenged in granularity of insights due to sample size limitations. By leveraging data analytics from POS systems, Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software can offer a more in depth comprehensive and unbiased perspective on brand switching behavior, down to SKU level.

This data-driven approach allows brands to identify patterns and trends that may be missed through traditional methods, such as:

• Seasonal fluctuations: Certain times of the year or specific events may trigger an increase in brand switching. Identifying these patterns allows brands to anticipate and proactively address potential customer churn during these periods.  For example, in Western markets premiumisation occurs in many categories at Christmas, as shoppers trade up to celebrate the special occasion with loved ones.  This is especially true in Soft Drinks.
• Product category impact: Analyzing switching behavior across different product categories can reveal specific areas where brands might be losing ground to competitors. This insight can be instrumental in product development and improvement strategies.
• Regional variations: Customer demographics and preferences can vary significantly across different regions. Utilizing POS data allows brands to tailor their strategies and messaging to cater to the specific needs and preferences of their regional customer base.

Quantifying the Cost of Churn

Understanding the financial impact of brand switching is crucial for effective resource allocation. Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software can help brands calculate the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – the total revenue a customer is expected to generate over their relationship with the brand. This, coupled with the analysis of switching patterns, allows brands to quantify the cost of winning or losing customers to via brand switching.

With a clear understanding of the financial implications, brands can allocate resources efficiently, prioritizing strategic initiatives and marketing campaigns that offer the highest potential return on investment (ROI) in terms of customer retention.

Beyond the Mentioned Strategies

The fight against brand switching requires a holistic approach that extends beyond the strategies mentioned above. Here are some additional considerations:

• Building Emotional Connection: Foster deeper customer relationships by building an emotional connection with your brand. This can be achieved through personalized communication, exceptional customer service, and a commitment to social responsibility.
• Investing in Customer Experience: Prioritize creating a seamless and positive customer experience across all touchpoints, from online interaction to physical stores.
• Continuous Improvement: Regularly gather feedback from customers and employees to identify areas for improvement and adapt your strategies accordingly.
• Data Security and Privacy: Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations and implement robust security measures to protect customer information.

Conclusion

In conclusion, brand switching presents a significant challenge for businesses in today’s competitive market. However, by leveraging data-driven insights from solutions like Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software, brands can gain a deeper understanding of customer behavior, identify the triggers for brand switching, and implement targeted strategies to foster loyalty and mitigate customer churn.

Constant customer behaviors changes can make it quite challenging for marketers to constantly adapt their commercial offering. Still, thanks to technology and solutions like Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software Automated Campaigns, Identifying, understanding and acting automatically upon these changes in each customer’s purchasing behavior is crucial for businesses for 5 main reasons:

Personalization

Customers today expect personalized experiences. When you track and analyze their purchasing behavior, you can tailor your marketing messages, product recommendations, and promotions to their specific preferences and needs. This personalization can significantly improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Customer Retention

Recognizing changes in purchasing behavior can help you identify signs of customer churn or dissatisfaction early on. For instance, if a once-frequent customer starts making fewer purchases, or drops in her shopping frequency, it may indicate a problem or dissatisfaction that needs to be addressed promptly. Reacting to such changes can help you retain valuable customers.

Upselling and Cross-selling

Understanding customer behavior can also help you identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. If you notice a customer consistently buying a particular product or a category, you can suggest complementary or higher-value items, increasing the average transaction value.

Inventory Management

Analyzing purchasing behavior can help with inventory management. You can better predict demand (see Ariane’s Machine Learning Forecast Engine) , reduce stock outs, and avoid overstocking by having a clearer understanding of what customers are likely to purchase in the future.

Marketing Efficiency

By tracking changes in behavior, you can allocate marketing resources more efficiently. Instead of sending generic messages to all customers, you can focus your efforts on those who are more likely to respond positively to your promotions or offers.

Here’s how to react to changes in customer purchasing behavior effectively:

Data & Retail CRM

Invest in data analytics tools like Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software and expertise to collect, clean, and analyze customer data effectively. This includes purchase history, demographic information, and any other relevant data.

Segmentation

Segment your customer base based on common behavior patterns. This allows you to create tailored marketing strategies and messaging for each segment.

Real-time Monitoring

Set up real-time monitoring systems to detect changes in behavior promptly. This can include automated alerts for significant deviations from the norm.

Customer Engagement

Reach out to customers who exhibit unusual behavior. For instance, if a customer who usually buys monthly suddenly stops purchasing, send them a personalized email or offer to inquire about their needs or address any issues they might have.

A/B Testing

Experiment with different marketing strategies to see how they impact customer behavior. A/B testing can help you refine your approaches and determine what works best.

Feedback Mechanisms

Provide easy ways for customers to provide feedback. This can be through surveys, reviews, or direct communication channels. Use this feedback to make improvements and address concerns.

Continuous Learning

Keep learning from your customers’ behavior and adapt your strategies accordingly. Customer preferences and market dynamics can change, so staying agile and responsive is crucial.

Automation

Utilize marketing automation tools to send personalized messages and offers at scale. These tools can help you react to changes in behavior in a timely and efficient manner.

In summary, identifying and reacting to changes in customer purchasing behavior is essential for building and maintaining strong customer relationships, increasing sales, and staying competitive in today’s market. It requires a combination of data analysis, segmentation, proactive communication, and continuous improvement efforts.

About Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software and Automated Campaigns

• Create any customer segmentation based on your own criteria.

• Select the campaign mechanics of your choice.

• Track customer behavior on any changes

• Define your own campaign frequency.

• Track & monitor the performance of each campaign.

• Automatically export your campaign to your POS, ERP and CDP

• Control your spending per campaign.

‍In an increasingly competitive modern retail landscape, Retailers and Manufacturers are actively seeking ways to gain an edge by comprehending shoppers’ behaviors and the reasoning behind their choices.

Among the myriad of tools and strategies available for acquiring such valuable insights, shopper’s basket analysis stands out as an essential component. This analytical technique sheds light on shopper behavior by uncovering patterns of frequently co-purchased items and identifying the triggers that prompt shoppers to make their initial purchases.

By diving into shopper’s basket analysis, Retailers and Manufacturers can gain a deeper understanding of their customers, enabling them to make informed decisions to enhance their customer shopping experience and drive sales.

Challenges

Our client was facing a significant challenge when it comes to understanding their customer’s behaviors, optimizing their commercial offers, and improving Customer satisfaction. This led to a decline in sales revenue and profitability, as well as unsatisfactory outcomes in customer assortment surveys.

Challenge 1: Limited Customers insights.

Shopper’s basket analysis provides valuable insights into purchase behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns. Without this analysis, the Marketing team was lacking the understanding necessary to segment their customer base effectively and tailor their marketing strategies accordingly. It resulted in generic or irrelevant marketing campaigns, reducing customer engagement, and lowering conversion rates.

Challenge 2: Ineffective Targeted Campaigns.

Shoppers basket analysis is the foundation of personalized product recommendations. By understanding the associations between products, Retailers, and Manufacturers can provide relevant and targeted recommendations to customers, enhancing their shopping experience. Without this analysis, product recommendations may lack accuracy and effectiveness, potentially leading to lower customer satisfaction and reduced sales.

Challenge 3: Inefficient product location

To determine the optimal product location is to identify associations between products frequently purchased together not to miss cross-selling or upselling opportunities, leading to lower sales and customer satisfaction.

Actions

To address this challenge, our Client’s Team decided to proceed step by step and focus on Categories that were experiencing performance challenges. Their goal was to understand the root causes of these challenges and determine corrective actions to solve them.

Step 1: Identify Decreasing Spending Category

Among their top categories within each division, our Client’s Team selected categories with the most significant decrease in sales. They then conducted a deep dive analysis to uncover the root cause for this decline.

Step 2: Basket Decision Tree

Their next step involved using a Basket Decision Tree to gain insights into the decrease in spending within the Confectionary category, for example.

By examining the data, the team identified two possible causes: a lower number of baskets or a decrease in spending per basket.

Interestingly, they observed that the number of baskets was actually increasing while the overall spending value was decreasing.

At this stage, 3 potential scenarios were possible:

1. Shoppers were purchasing products from a lower price tier.
2. Shoppers were buying fewer number of SKUs.
3. Shoppers were purchasing lesser quantities.

After careful consideration, the Client’s Team concluded that customers were buying fewer number of SKUs than they previously did. Consequently, they made the decision to focus on their Top-Spending Customers to address this issue.

Step 3: Customer Segmentation

Customer segmentation provides valuable insights into customer behavior, specifically in terms of recency, frequency, and spending within different segments.  

This information allows for the implementation of dynamic commercial strategies. In response to the spending challenge our Client was facing, their team decided to focus on their Top Spenders, who make up 55% of their customer base.

Step 4: Optimize Commercial Offer

Now that our client’s team had identified their target audience, the next step for them is to determine how to increase the number of SKUs in Customers’ baskets.

One of the many ways is by identifying the products that are frequently purchased together by Customers, using this information they can leverage Cross-Selling strategies.  

Based on the analysis of POS data, our Client’s Team discovered that Biscuits are complementary products to Confectionery. With this insight, they created displays and promotions that highlight these complementary products, Biscuits next to the Confectionery shelves.  

Step 5: Targeted Campaigns

Regardless of the implementation in stores, effective communication with Customers is essential for success. Without proper communication, the desired outcomes may be impacted.  

In the early stages, our Client’s Team identified their top spending customers. Utilizing this customer list, the Client’s Marketing Team can launch targeted campaigns specifically designed to attract these shoppers to the confectionary category. They can offer special discounts that apply to all items in the complementary category (Biscuits), encouraging these customers to make additional purchases.

Results

After 6 Months  

• Sales Growth increased by 17.2%
• Average spending for selected category increased by 10.8 %.

What does this show?

Understanding customers’ behaviors and preferences through Shopper basket analysis helps Retailers gain a deeper understanding of their customers.  

By leveraging the insights gained, Retailers can optimize their commercial offerings, effectively segment their customer base, tailor their marketing strategies, and enhance the overall customer experience. This ultimately leads to an increase in the average number of items per basket, resulting in higher sales and profitability, and driving growth in a highly competitive Retail landscape.

On our side, we were of course happy to see that our Tools and Expertise are helping create the right value for our clients and helping optimize Shopper’s experience and delighting more Shoppers every day.

ABOUT US

We are a Tech driven Category & Shopper Management Platform

We help retail players who know data & people are their next opportunity for growth.

We make data mining a breeze & build powerful tools teams love, that help them understand shoppers and support their category decisions.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a strategic approach to managing customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes, including marketing, sales, and customer service. CRM can help retailers to better understand and meet the needs of their customers, and ultimately drive increased sales and profitability. Here are five steps for implementing CRM at a retail organization for a company that has already selected its Retail CRM system.

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Step 1: Define Business Goals and Objectives

Though it seems obvious, this first step is by far the most difficult one. It is about defining the business goals and objectives that the CRM team will support. This might include increasing sales, improving customer retention, and optimizing marketing and sales efforts. By defining clear goals and objectives, retailers can better understand the specific needs and challenges that the CRM Team will need to address.

To achieve the business goals and objectives, it will also be the opportunity to define the CRM team:

• Role & Responsibilities
• Assessment metrics
• Decisions Scope
• Authority Level

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Step 2: Gather Customers Data

The level of data gathered depends on the technology advance the company is ready to implement. In a first phase, we recommend gathering sales record and basics customer data. In a second phase, when the company is ready to extend its CRM systems to a Customer Data Platform level (CDP), social media interactions, Customer Service and Surveys data can also be added1. The information will help gain insights into consumer behavior and preferences and use this information to tailor their marketing and sales efforts to meet the needs of their target customers.

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Step 3: Become Legally Compliant

In addition to collecting and using consenting Customers data, it is legally critical to setup a Data Controller and define data access rules (who can access the data and for what purpose), storage rules (where are the data store and what are the data security systems in place) as well as data breach procedures (what needs to be done in case of a hack or data breach)

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Step 4: Build the CRM Team’s Budget

The CRM team’s expenses include the following:

• Recruitment, salaries & benefits
• Customers Acquisition costs
• 1 By law, consents from customers must be obtained to collect, store and use their data. Most countries are using the GPRD model.
• Solutions to continuously improve Shopper Engagement – rds.hyper-trade.com/ 2 | P a g e
• Customers Retention Costs
• Planned Campaign Costs
• Unplanned Campaign Cost (to accelerate spending or frequency)
• Systems Costs (CRM systems, Big Data Engine, CDP…)
• Social Media Costs
• Communication Costs (including in store)

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Step 5: Position the CRM Team in the organization

Depending on each company’s available resources and maturity level, several options are possible

Option 1: CRM Team reports to Marketing

This is the most frequent case. It requires the Marketing Senior Leadership to be familiar with CRM, agile with data and metrics and possess a reasonable level of strategic thinking.

Option 2: CRM Team reports to Merchandise

This is an alternative solution when the Marketing Leadership is not ready yet. In this solution, one has to be aware that Merchandise de facto becomes Judge and Jury on its decisions concerning Customers strategies, the biggest trap being to transform CRM in a predominantly monetizing vehicle.

Option 3: CRM Team reports to CEO

While CEOs are already busy with so many other topics to drive, this is, in our opinion, the most reliable and efficient alternative in the case where no suitable Marketing Leadership is to be found. It guarantees the neutrality of Customers Strategies, protects from to much suppliers influence and supports operations and supply chain fully.

Option 4: CRM Team reports to an external party

This solution can only be temporary until a suitable Marketing Leadership can be found. This option also guarantees neutrality, execution and efficiency.

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Step 6: Build the Team

At its starting point, the CRM Team needs at least 1 manager and 2 executives.

CRM Manager Profile: 6 essentials skills

Strong analytical skills: A retail CRM manager should have strong analytical skills and be able to analyze customer data and market trends to identify opportunities for improvement and inform CRM strategies.

Leadership skills: A retail CRM manager should be a strong leader who can motivate and manage a team of employees and work effectively with other stakeholders, such as marketing, merchandise, operations and supply-chains teams.

Strategic thinking: A retail CRM manager should have strong strategic thinking skills and be able to develop and implement long-term CRM plans that align with the business goals and objectives of the organization.

Communication skills: A retail CRM manager should have excellent communication skills and be able to clearly articulate CRM strategies and recommendations to other stakeholders, as well as effectively listen to and incorporate feedback from employees and customers.

Technical skills: A retail CRM manager should have a good understanding of CRM technologies and be able to effectively use CRM systems to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes.

Customer-focused mindset: A retail CRM manager should have a customer-focused mindset and be able to anticipate and meet the needs of customers to drive increased satisfaction and loyalty.

CRM Executive

The CRM executive should have excellent analytical skills and communication skills

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Step 7: Establish the Team in the Organization

Establishing the Team in the organization is achieved by performing the following tasks:

• Define the routines & reporting tasks of the CRM Team as well as its decisions scope
• Introduce the role & responsibilities of the CRM team to other Business Units and the benefits they will gain
• Explain to other teams what actions are needed when receiving CRM’s data and insights
• Build the official communication channels between the CRM Teams and other units
• Officialize the CRM Team’s budget with Finance Team
• Decide which Teams can access to what insights with what type of decisions scope
• Solidify all CRM related interactions with Suppliers (Marketing, CRM and Merchandise: who does what? how do they inform each other? what are the business rules to be respected?

Depending on the CRM goals and business objectives (see Step 1) and each company’s specific organisational structure, some tasks can be added or deleted

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Step 8: Train the CRM Team

Continuous training on the selected Retail CRM system should be in place, to ensure the Teams is aware of what can be done, what cannot be done and what are the walk arounds.

A clear communication between the CRM Team and the Retail CRM system service provider will also enable the provider to give better guidance.

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Step 9: Train the Other Teams

To avoid useless emails and accelerate agility, all divisions concerned by the CRM Team data and customers insights should have a protected and defined access to the retail CRM system. These teams must be trained both on the tool itself, and on how to read data and be able to connect data reading and actions.

The training should be articulated around the agreed shared data and decision-making rules and responsibilities.

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Step 10: Include CRM Insights in the Executive Committee

By setting up a CRM full fledge team, the company asserts its willingness to put Customers at the centre of its business. From strategic, operational and performance perspectives, CRM should be participating in the Excom meetings not only to share performances, but also to provide their strategic and tactical recommendations.

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What solutions will you probably have to find

Inserting a new cog in any mechanism often carries it share of challenges. The challenges described below happen the most frequently

Conflict of Interest with Merchandise

The conflict will arise first on the Assortment:

• Merchandise Team often make written or non-written agreements with Suppliers
• Merchandise teams will have difficulties in accepting the data-driven recommendations
• Merchandise will have difficulties in executing the actions recommended by the CRM Team

Conflicts will also arise on Promotion:

• Merchandise will defend their promotion items choices based on written or non-written agreements with Suppliers
• Merchandise teams will have difficulties in negotiating the promotions suggested by the CRM Team
• Merchandise will argue on the CRM Campaign fees negotiated with Suppliers
• Merchandise and CRM Team might have different views on the number of campaigns and the maximum number of times a (consenting) customer can receive a campaign by month
• Merchandise and CRM might have different views on promotion sales forecast, especially if the promotion business model limits the quantity sold

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The solution: layout all the concerned business rules in advanced and review them regularly for adjustment when necessary. Additionally, the setup of a CRM Team is a good opportunity to review existing Vendor Management Policies, or establish them if they don’t exist yet.

Conflict of Interest with Operations

• For the most popular items display guidelines, it is not rare that Operations asserts a better local knowledge and understanding of its catchment area’s customer knowledge
• For the Loyal Customers sales contribution, stores with a low contribution will often complain about a lack of marketing budget (store decoration and signage)

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The solution: for Housewife basket, jointly decide of the scope to be integrated for the calculation and agree on a planned performance review. For the sales contribution, the in-store communication budget should be decided in the CRM Team’s budget (see step 4)

Conflict of Interest with Supply Chain

Direct conflict with supply chain is rare. They mostly occur when the promotion or campaign ordered quantities are very different from the sales forecast. If Merchandise is the Business Unit that validates quantities, then the conflict will be with them.

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The solution: layout all the concerned business rules in advanced and review them regularly for adjustment when necessary.

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Conflict of Interest with Finance

Conflicts with the Finance Department arise mostly in 2 areas:

• Budget: the spending is over budget
• Margin: CRM operations do not generate the margin target

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The solution: For Budget, CRM should be subject to the same established budget management rules as other Business Units. These rules should include the exceptional situations when Senior Leadership requests for additional campaigns to boost basket and traffic.

For the margin issue, the solution goes to a higher organisational concern: who is responsible for gross margin. The established rules should apply to CRM events.

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Conflict of Interest with Marketing

Conflicts with the Marketing Department arise mostly in 2 areas:

• Communication Plan: depending on the business and sales situation, the CRM Team will, often, create campaigns or events that are not planned
• When joined marketing operations are created, CRM and Marketing might disagree on the suppliers’ budget and its allocation

‍The solution: The solution: layout all the concerned business rules in advanced and review them regularly for adjustment when necessary.

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Retail CRM System Mapping: an Example Overview

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Learn More about Retail CRM

• How to setup a CRM Team at a retailer
• Retail CRM Top 10 business Benefits
• Retail CRM Glossary
• CRM Persona & Personalization
• How CRM impacts the entire Customer Experience
• Why Post Campaign analyses are more important than campaign results
• 4 ways to Maximize Campaign Results

Contact us to get the White Papers you are interested! I want to learn more about Retail CRM

Retail CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a technology that retailers use to understand, segment, and engage Customers throughout their lifecycle, with the goal of growing Loyalty, ultimately leading to increased sales and customer retention.

Retail CRM systems typically include a suite of tools to help retailers track and manage customer interactions across multiple channels, including in-store, online. These tools can include features such as customer data management, marketing automation, analytics, and reporting. Advanced Retail CRM are connected to a Customer Data Platform (CDP) and will also integrate other interactions with customer such as email and SMS, as well as customer service and support and social media profiles

The main objective of a Retail CRM system is to optimize the relationship with customers, which includes increase retention and reduce churn, increase Loyalty, increase sales and profitability.

To achieve these objectives, a retail CRM system helps teams in 4 areas:

1. Understand Customers
2. Engage Customers with personalized offers.
3. Segment Customers
4. Help all teams collaborate around Customers.

1. Understand Customers

One of the key benefits of retail CRM is its ability to provide retailers with a comprehensive view of their customers. The view depends on how much data can (legally and with customers’ consent) be collected about customers. It can include simple information like demographic, personal information, purchase history, or purchasing patterns like frequency, or interaction history…

Example 1 of simple Customer Insights

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Example 2 of simple Customer Insights (age group and purchase profile of a customer)

A more advanced level of understanding is to create new information form the insights already collected from customers. It can start at understanding existing cross-purchases (from where the next best purchases can be statistically deducted) up to persona. i.e. fictional profiles that represent groups of similar people in a target audience. Persona can help figure out how to reach people on a more personal level, while delivering the right messages, offers, and products at the right time. Let’s check out four steps you can take to use personas in your marketing.

This information can be used to personalize interactions with customers, such as sending targeted marketing messages or making personalized product recommendations. Retailers can also use this data to identify and segment their customer base, allowing them to tailor their marketing and sales efforts to different groups of customers.

The global understanding of Customers can be translated in the performance of the loyalty program. The more we can understand customers, the more we can tailor commercial offerings to them, the more loyal customers contribute in terms of basket, transactions, sales, and margin.

Example of a Loyal Customer profitability overview

2. Segment Customers

Still using the information available about Customers, retailer can then easily segment customers depending on a combination of demographics, personal and purchasing patterns.

Retailers can use these segments for at least 3 types of actions:

• Improve their assortment
• Personalize promotion
• Identify which customers segments are important and how they involve, including the movements of individual customers from 1 segment to another, highlighting purchasing and consumption trends.

Some customers segmentations are well known and have become a standard. For example, the Cohort Analysis ( a cohort is a group of individual with the same characteristics. Cohort analyses will typically be used to understand where the big spenders and the most frequent shoppers are.

Example of a Shopping Frequency Cohort Segmentation

Another industry standard is the RFM (Recency Frequency Monetary), that tells where the customers are who are at risk of leaving and the VIP ones that need to be cocooned.

Example of a RFM Segmentation

The Never Buy is also an interesting segmentation, identifying customers who never buy specific products, or Switch segmentation, to identify customers who switched from 1 brand or 1 item to another.

Whatever the segmentation models, one critical point is to ensure that each segment can be measured in terms of:

• Sales value and contribution
• Margin value and contribution Number of customers and contribution

3. Engage Customers with personalized offers

Building on the product personalization that can be done, retail CRM systems can also be used to manage and automate marketing campaigns. A retail CRM tool must be able to create and manage campaigns and ensure that the products and promotion mechanics in that campaign match the selected customer segment directly (products and categories customers already buy) or indirectly (through cross merchandising of next best purchase).

Example of an automatic product suggestions based on Customers profiles.

Example of promotion products finalization with margin and automatically calculated sales forecasts.

As campaigns are an important part of the Retail CRM activities, the ability to precisely monitor the performances of any specific campaigns at any moment is essential for Retail CRM.

The management of Customer Churn is also an important function of customer engagement that can be automated by a Retail CRM tool through an Alert Management system, which results can be monitored though campaign analytics.

By analyzing each campaign’s results, marketers can progressively sharpen their product selection, and built increasingly effective campaigns with their suppliers.

Example of Campaign Performances Analytics

4. Engage All Teams around Customers

In the past, Retail CRM was often confined to the marketing team. Today, it is much clearer how several items in a retail organization can benefit from CRM insights.

Example of CRM insights that can benefit teams across the retail organization (Merchandise Team)

Example of CRM insights that can benefit teams across the retail organization (Marketing & Operations)

Discover how Ulys Customer Intelligence SaaS Software can help your Retail CRM Team

You might also be interested in

• How Retail CRM can help improve Assortment
• How to Setup a Retail CRM system
• Retail CRM Top 10 Benefits
• Retail CRM Management Essentials

From an increase of customers acquisition costs over 60% in the last five years (source: Digital Information World) to communication clutters to general inflation and customers’ annoyance of being so often contacted for offers that do not relate to them, several factors are making it necessary for retail marketers to rethink their Customers Engagement Strategies.

In these new engagement strategies, the relevance of the communication to Customers (or Personalization) and ROI plays a critical role. This is where Retail CRM comes into action.

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1. Improved Customer Loyalty

Customer Loyalty defines the behaviors of customers who come back often and progressively grow their spending, either in the same categories or across new categories they never purchased before.

By providing a personalized and efficient customer experience, retail CRM software can help retailers build customer loyalty and increase repeat business. It can also identify areas for improvement, which once realized, can further enhance customer loyalty.

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2. Cost efficiency

Because Retail CRM systems shares data and insight among Teams, it can streamline category management and promotion processes, reducing the amount of time and resources needed to improve commercial offerings’ relevance. Retail CRM systems can also help businesses automate certain tasks, such as sending personalized emails or generating reports, which can further increase efficiency.

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3. Sales Growth

By providing retail Teams with a comprehensive view of customer interactions and preferences, retail CRM systems can help identify.

• Next best purchase opportunities
• Categories with declining spending
• Categories with declining penetration
• Campaigns’ performance tracking

Merchandising and Marketing Teams are therefore empowered to focus on the most important opportunities.

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4. Reduced Customer Churn

By monitoring, for each carded customers, the frequency, recency and value of transactions, Retail CRM can help retailers identify at-risk customers and take proactive steps to retain them, such as offering special promotions or personalized customer service. The reduction of customer churn not only reduces the cost of acquiring new customers, and also increase the lifetime value of their customer base.

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5. Advanced Customer Segmentation

Retail CRM systems allow businesses to segment their customers based on various characteristics, such as demographics, purchase history, and customer behavior. Fixed segmentations allow to monitor the movements of customers across segments while dynamic segmentation allow to create ad hoc segmentation. This allows retailers to tailor their marketing efforts and create targeted campaigns that are more likely to be successful. Advanced segmentation also enables teams to identify customers at risks (lapsing) and reduce churn, as well as VIP Customers, who must be cherished and cocooned

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6. Increase Campaigns ROI

Building on advanced segmentation, it is possible Retail CRM systems to propose commercial offers that are more relevant to the targeted customer group. Not only is the number of targeted customers smaller, but higher conversion rates and sales derive from this targeting. By targeting marketing efforts to specific customer segments, businesses can more effectively reach and engage their audience, leading to increased ROI and sales.

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7. Better Relationships with Customers

By definition, a Retail CRM software tracks customers interactions and preferences. These tracking data – in online or physical stores – can then help improve CX and build stronger relationships. In return, these actions lead to increased customer loyalty and repeat business.  The personalization of offers also contribute to the strengthening of the relationship.

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8. Enhanced Customer Service

Still building on the tracking of customer interactions and preferences, Retail CRM empowers team to provide more personalized and efficient customer service. By getting a quick and accurate access to Customers’ history, Teams can provide a faster service in addressing inquiries or complains. Just think about the management of a return or customer calling to review its latest purchases. The impact on Customer Satisfaction can be quite significant.

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9. Better & Faster Decisions

A Retail CRM software has access to a wealth of data on customer preferences and behavior. These data can then be used in Range, Distribution, Promotion and Supply Chain processes with great accuracy, access in minutes. As a Retail CRM systems can be used by different business units, the identification of  trends and patterns in customer data can be used to optimize business operations and improve the customer experience.

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10. Improved Data Security

Retail CRM solutions often include robust security features to protect customer data (which can help businesses avoid data breaches and maintain customer trust) as well as protect customers from unwanted solicitations and offer (GPRD compliance). By securely storing and managing customer data, retailers can demonstrate their commitment to protecting customer privacy and build customer trust.

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Read More About Retail CRM

• CRM Essentials for Retailers: How to setup a CRM organisation in your retail Business
• Business Case: Learn how a medium-sized retailer built and uses Customers’ Persona
• CRM Glossary for Retailers: Get familiar with the Retail CRM Jargon
• How CRM can impact your whole CX: What are the real pillars of customers retention
• Compare and Choose your Retail CRM system: Practical Guide

A customer relationship management (CRM) team can help improve a retailer’s Commercial Offers by using customer data and insights to inform product selection and placement decisions, promotions, pricing, products availability, and Customer Engagement through personalized campaigns. Here are several ways that a retail CRM team can implement to help improve commercial offerings.

Data Analysis: a necessary stepIn addition to the regular data analyses routinely performed by the Merchandise Team and the Customer Surveys and Social Media interactions monitored by the Marketing Team, the CRM Team can gain insights into consumer behavior and preferences. This information can be used to identify trends and patterns in customer demand, and to tailor the product assortment to meet the needs of the target market.

The CRM Team will setup routine and planned analyses that will be shared with the Merchandising Team. For example: basket components, categories penetration, categories spending, Housewife basket

1. Identify gaps in the product assortment

By analyzing customer data, the CRM team can identify gaps in the product assortment and recommend changes to the product mix to better meet the needs of customers. For example, if customer data shows that a particular product segment is underperforming, the CRM team might recommend reviewing the products or brands in the assortment to identify what is missing (unit of needs, price level, brand, pack type, quality…) or what is not needed to increase sales and meet customer demand.

Functions: Category Penetration, Category Spending, Basket Value

2. Optimize product placement

The CRM team can also use customer data to optimize product placement within the store or the website. By analyzing data on customer traffic patterns and cross-merchandising sales data, the CRM team can determine the most effective locations within the store to display and promote products and make recommendations for changes as needed.

Function: Cross Merchandising

3. Improve promotion effectiveness

The CRM team can identify opportunities for promotions that are likely to be successful with the target market. For example, the CRM team might identify a specific product category or brand that is underperforming and recommend a promotion to drive sales in this area. The CRM Team can also use customer data to optimize promotion strategies to maximize the impact of promotions. By analyzing data on customer demand, competitor promotions, and other factors, the CRM team can recommend changes to promotion strategies to improve their effectiveness. Finally, it is important for the CRM team to regularly monitor and adjust promotion strategies and their performance to ensure that they are meeting the needs of customers and achieving the desired results. This involves tracking performance metrics and adjusting promotion strategies as needed.

Functions: Promotion Performance, Promotion history, Suggested Categories, Suggested products, Campaign Analytics

4. Increase Products Availability

By using promotion and campaigns forecasts, the CRM Team is able to anticipate distribution and sales volume. This information is critical to help Merchandisers, Suppliers and Supply Chain anticipate the required quantities and supporting merchandise flows.

Function: Promotion Forecasts

5. Improve Marketing Strategies

The CRM team can provide insights and recommendations to the marketing and sales teams based on customer data and trends. This can help the marketing and sales teams to create more targeted and effective promotions and marketing campaigns, even adjust the promotion and communication plan which can drive sales and improve the overall effectiveness of the product assortment.

Function: Promotion Performances and Campaign Analytics

6. Support Products Rotations at Store Level

In addition to providing recommendations on store layout and products placement, the CRM Team can provide regular information on 3 critical information:

• The most popular items (Housewife basket), which stores will use to ensure optimized display, availability and pricing. This is a simple and efficient sales driver
• Loyal Customers sales contribution, which stores can use to increase their efforts on recruiting and servicing loyal customers with the objective of increasing customer loyalty.
• Provide recommendations to Merchandise teams on stores’ specific assortment needs, based on each store Customers behaviors and shopping trends (basket size, basket contents, frequency)

Function: Stores Loyalty Share of Sales, Basket Decision Tree, Shopping Trends

Example of Constituencies & Communication Flow for a retail CRM Team

Overall, a retail CRM team can help improve assortment by using customer data and insights to inform product selection and placement decisions, optimize product placement within the store, and collaborate with suppliers to ensure access to high-quality products. By using customer data to inform their decisions, the CRM team can help to improve the overall effectiveness of the product assortment and drive increased sales and profitability.

You might also be interested in:

💡Retail CRM
💡CRM Persona and Personalization
💡How CRM Customer Experience impact the whole CX Experience
💡How Retail Tech is changing Category Captainship
💡CRM Glossary For Retailers

Contact us to get the White Papers you are interested!  I want to learn more about Retail CRM