Episode 20: From information overload to actionable insights: Putting customer data to work

Amie talk to Cory Whitfield, Enterprise VP at Listrak about the importance of customer data, and why some retailers are struggling to turn it into actionable insights. Recorded at Shoptalk Fall Chicago.

Transcript

Intro:

Coming up, on this episode of Retail Untangled…

Amie:

Welcome to Retail Untangled. My name is Amie Larter and this is the podcast where we speak to retail industry e xperts and find our business hacks to help you succeed. You won't find these gems anywhere else and we have some superb stories from the coal face as well as helicopter insights from retail industry leaders. This week we're bringing you insights live from Shop Talk Fall in Chicago. 

Over the past few days at Shop Talk Fall, we've had the privilege of hearing from leading retail businesses about their data strategies. Notable examples include Thread Up, had Dermalogica, McDonald's and the Wendy's Company. Today I'm joined by Corey Whitfield, Enterprise VP at ListTrack to discuss this topic in more depth.

This track's recent expansion of its partnership with Shopify is a significant development for retailers looking to optimise their customer data and foster deeper connections. Corey, given the ever evolving landscape of data strategies and the growing accessibility of data, why do many retailers still encounter challenges in translating data into actionable insights?

Corey:

Yeah, thank you. Great question. First, before I start, thank you for having me and welcome to the US. I'm probably not the first, but I want to make sure I welcome you. What a great way to kind of kick off your first year here in the States at Shop Talk. 

Amie:

Thank you. 

Corey:

Great question. I mean, we are hearing from retailers that that is the continued struggle of a data gap. They have a data gap. There is this proliferation of the available data to brands and retailers. And over the last couple of years, it just feels like we've recognised the focus to consume that data. And it was by any means necessary and any partner that was available to help kind of come in and consume that data, we latched onto as brands and retailers. It has then kind of painted a lot of brands and retailers into a corner of almost paralysis by analysis. Too much data. What am I supposed to do with it? I can't make it actionable. It's siloed with all my different vendors. It's disparate partners and you kind of have lacked this integration from one partner to the next to allow us to lean into and personalise that data into some actionable insights. 

So that's the challenge. Unfortunately, I think even though we've been talking about it for years, it just is not going to get better until we can find a way to unify the data. With Listrack, for example, what we're doing is leveraging some AI and some machine learning on the backend to unify all that data. We have some machine learning that is constantly just spinning and churning this data and making it more unified. 

So all of those different touch points, hundreds, thousands of behavioural touch points across the journey, now we're able to unify those, add some AI to stitch them together, present them up to the marketers, and really, we know how important personalisation is. All that data is there to help us personalise. So, yeah, think, you know, unifying the data, presenting it to marketers in a more actionable way allows them to be proactive and actionable with that data and bridge that data gap the best that we can. 

Amie:

Okay, and you've obviously identified opportunities for increased engagement with the list of features added within your enhanced integration with Shopify. What are the benefits of these enhanced features? I think if we go through, you know, what are they and what are the benefits? And what do you see as being the outcomes for retailers? Because we've obviously had this problem for so long. What's the solution? 

Corey:

Yeah. I mean, you talk about proliferation of data. What's good about the integration with Shopify, for example, because what they do really well and have done really well is this partner ecosystem. So now vendors, MarTech vendors like ourselves, like Listrak, were able to tap into all of that ecosystem. So now with a thorough, well-built, sophisticated integration into Shopify, which we're just honoured and privileged to be chosen as they continue to move upstream, it allows us to leverage all of those data points. 

Like for example, you had mentioned, give me an example here, it could be loyalty data from a loyalty partner. It could be e-commerce data from Shopify search data, what are they doing on site search? All of that is really critical to that back end AI machine learning that I mentioned that we're leaning into that allows us to take all those different touch points, whether or not it's from Shopify, whether or not it's from another one of their partners within the ecosystem, tie that, stitch it up to a persona, stitch it to an individual contact and then allow us to kind of go out and be so much more intentional with our marketing message. 

Amie:

And retailers are a lot closer to their consumer, which has been such a big theme of the content at Shop Talk for this. 

Corey:

Exactly. 

Amie:

Yeah. No, that's fantastic. What risks are associated with not being sort of precise and targeted with data in today's competitive environment? I think that we've, you know, Mission Possible has been the theme of Shop Talk this week. One of the biggest pieces to come from that has definitely been how you understand data and how you get that one step closer to the consumer. What's at risk if we're not? 

Corey:

It's a huge risk and I think we're still hearing brands and retailers ask us about it here . If we're not being very intentional with collecting that data and using it to be personalised, then we risk a seamless experience on site. We risk being authentic with our consumers. We risk losing market share to competitors that even might be selling our own products through marketplaces and other sites just because maybe perhaps they are being more precise and targeted. They maybe have a better rewards program. It's not good enough anymore to have just a great product. 

Amie:

This is expected now, right? You risk losing the customer. 

Corey:

Absolutely. When SEO boom came out 10 years ago, the risk was - you can't just build a great website. You have to drive people to the site and that's what SEO helped with. Now the risk is you can't just drive people to your website. That's not good enough anymore. You have to be personalised and it's from the moment we land on the site we're expected now to be engaged, authentic, personalised. It's just like you said, you're going to risk losing that customer if you can't do it.

Amie:

It makes sense. So how can companies be sure to collect accurate, reliable data that is actually useful in driving engagement? 

Corey: 

That's important and we know now it has to be that first party data. We can't rely on third party data anymore. We don't know what new future regulations and compliance is going to be put in place as we move globally, even in the States. We're finding now that we have to lean into first party data and first party data acquisition. Our CEO has a saying that, you know, he's now leaning into that first party data acquisition on steroids. It has to be that - by the time someone lands on the site, you have to be able to communicate with them personally. And you have to do it, like I said, with authenticity. 

And I think there's an opportunity to be a little bit more targeted. If you're gonna ask somebody for their first party data and you're gonna get them to consent or opt in, which is what we do when we're getting email addresses for collection and SMS and mobile numbers, you have an opportunity to be so personalised and understand where that traffic is coming from. And if they're coming from an influencer or a content creator or affiliate, why not make that acquisition tactic speak to that interest that we know they've already shown. 

And why don't we lean into that affiliate partner or that influencer that just sent them to become more aware of your brand? Something as simple as, you know, sign up for email and stay more in touch with X influencers' favourite products. We know they're going to have a much higher propensity to go ahead and consent. And you do that in a way, there are some best practices that Listrack as a partner leans into.

But it does become that like, let's lean into our first party data. Let's ask for it appropriately, just right up front with some personalised tactics and just gain that consent and gain that opt-in with authenticity. 

Amie:

Excellent. So there's obviously some big wins to be made across all channels when it comes to being more personalised and relevant. I'm keen to understand which channels retailers are achieving the biggest wins in right now when it comes to that?

Corey:

Yeah, it probably, we would have to understand how they define wins. 

Amie:

Yeap.

Corey:

If it's ROI, we know the answer is gonna be email. It's always been email. Nothing's ever gonna displace the value to the investment, the return on the investment for email. Having said that, if they consider a win more an immediate engagement and they want that like real time responsive, immediate engagement, it's gonna come from SMS and push. We know that.

We know within three minutes someone's gonna open that SMS and click. So I think if you're looking for the immediacy, the immediate real-time engagement, it's gonna be SMS. That's your biggest return. Or app push or browser push. I think maybe the generic response is gonna be if you do all those really well, if you understand who is gonna engage in SMS and you start there, that's a great way to do it.

If you don't know, then you're probably gonna lean into the less expensive channel of email. That's where having that unified data, understanding behaviour, understanding preferred channels, using some AI to understand when and where you market and what channel is gonna really pay off. So it's probably a little bit of both. You just have to understand where and when. It's no different than it's always been. Right message, right time, right channel. Now we just have to understand and market through that channel immediately, as opposed to kind of trial and error. 

Amie:

Okay, makes sense. So what do you see as the future of data-driven marketing in retail given all of these changes? 

Corey:

Where is my crystal ball? 

Amie:

Yes, please. 

Corey:

Exactly. Let me share some insights into the future. No, I think that's a great question. Like we just said, 10 years ago we were talking about right channel, right time, right message. We've been talking about data unification, personalisation for years, and I think that's where we're still going to be talking in the future. We know AI is not going to go away. We have to lean into it. We know AI, machine learning, is probably going to help us solve that problem, even in the future. What is the right message? What is the right channel? How do we know who that person is? I think we're going to have some of the  similar challenges that we have, and I think AI and machine learning are going to help us be more immediate, real-time and more personalised. 

Amie:

Corey, given your extensive engagement with retailers here at Shop Talk, are there any other emerging trends or pain points related to data that are top of mind?

Corey:

It's a good question. And I think it's identity. I think the identity resolution piece that people are still looking for is a way to understand who is on our site. And we know that your current customers are your biggest asset. But not knowing that someone who is a current customer is on an unknown device to you is challenging. So when people are asking, hey, tell me about identity resolution or what can I do to better know my traffic, it's not necessarily understanding a completely anonymous visitor that has never really shown much intent, has never subscribed, never opted in, never purchased. 

But more importantly, it's the known anonymous devices. People are still asking for ways to do that. It goes back to the previous answers of like, look, you have to understand data, you have to be able to listen, you have to integrate with those partners. But I think the known anonymous traffic kind of trick is where we're leaning into. It's like, it may not be somebody completely anonymous but it is one of my best customers that perhaps I just did not recognise on that new device. So I think that's still something that is a challenge. I mean, with Listrack, for example, we are able, because we are stitching cross-device and cross-channel email and SMS is all stitched into a unique identifier, I think that's gonna be the future is, try to get away from the siloed data and lean more into unified, one source of truth for all of those different connections and all those different behavioural listening points. 

Outro:

Thanks, Corey, for joining us on this episode of Retail Untangled. If you've enjoyed listening, feel free to like and subscribe to Retail Untangled on your favourite podcast platform.