Consumer data is growing in volume and complexity, making the ability to draw the right insights from contextual data more critical than ever to improve retail customer experiences.

There’s long been a tension between the art and science of engaging customers. In the increasingly digital era of commercial enterprise, it’s never been more important to achieve a true 360-degree customer view. While the final messaging needs the creative touch to attract and retain customers, every step in the process ahead of that moment needs a deeper investment in transformative technology to know what to offer them and when to offer it.

The eCommerce revolution

Over the past three years, there’s been a revolution in public engagement with digital retail channels. According to the Australia Post 2022 eCommerce report, over 1.3M Australians purchased online for the first time in 2020, sparking a significant shift toward digital channels. Today, 9.2M Australian households shop online – that’s 85% of all households.

Australians spent $62.3 billion online purchasing physical goods in 2021, 19.3% of the total retail spend for the year. It was a 23.4% rise in spending over 2020, and the total growth in the number of online purchases since 2019 is more than 73%. While the economic conditions of 2022 have seen some regression year-over-year, there is no going back to a pre-pandemic competitive environment.

Global competition

Competing in a global online market is a difficult prospect, but shoppers today are constantly comparing prices and services through digital devices, even while standing in retail stores. But once you win a customer, there are greater opportunities than ever before to convert their spending into loyalty through the effective use of digital tools to keep them coming back with the right offers.

Complex sales processes need to be relegated to history. Instead, smart investment is required in modern customer intelligence platforms (CIP) that can apply contextual AI to deliver meaningful customer experiences in real time. The old adage of “the right offer at the right time” has never been truer than it is in 2022.

Predictive agility

There is ongoing uncertainty impacting consumer confidence and what they are looking for from online retailers. In 2021, Google saw the need for retailers to increase agility to meet dynamic demands – 15% of search queries every day are for terms Google itself has never seen before.

Apple App Tracking Transparency policy changes have also impacted user tracking through social apps, reducing the ability to pitch products online to unknown customers based on past behaviour. With reduced direct data through ad platforms, it only increases the need for an improved understanding of our existing customers.

Investing in a CIP gives you more than a unified view of the customer. Your CIP will also apply contextual AI to convert raw data into relationship discovery. This goes beyond the CDPs and CRMs where customer views were blurred by traditional analytical models, which generalised customer behaviour for the sake of complexity reduction.

Everything is personal

Now, with the tools available to treat every single customer or visitor as their own segment, we can maximise context and relevance to meet the demands of a public that expects unique offers and highly personalised service. Market leaders across banking, telecommunications and retail are all leading the way with this trend.

Through this level of customer insight, the ability to leverage every interaction with a customer into actionable events offers concrete value. From here, it becomes a question of applying the right AI models to your business data to achieve the right outcomes for your specific business. Working with the right software partner is essential to know you will be supported as you supervise, monitor and iterate the training of your systems to continue to refine and grow conversions and basket sizes for the digital side of your retail business.